Ministry of Education English Inspection

Beni Suef Directorate Scholastic year (2022-2023)

Official Language Schools Administration Secondary Stage

2nd Term Sec.2 All my sons (By: Arthur Miller)

Comment on thefollowing quotations
"1--As long as I know him, twenty five years, the man never learned how to
take the blame.”
Joe Keller said that to George in the backyard of the Kellers’ garden when George
had remarked that Joe deceived his father, Steve, and hinted that he had totally
ruined Steve’s soul. Joe Keller wanted to convince George that his father was a
man who always blamed others for the mistakes he had made. Joe then
mentioned two situations in which Steve didn’t accept to take the blame. First,
when he left the heater burning for two days without water that the whole factory
would blowup. Steve blamed it all on the mechanic that Joe had to fire the
mechanic to save his face. The second time was when he gave some money to
Frank to invest in the oil stock. The stock went down and the money was lost. So
Steve cursed Frank of being a swindler, though it wasn’t frank’s mistake. Joe
Keller was trying to convince George that his father sent the cracked heads and
wanted to throw the blame on Keller

2-"He’s driving my husband crazy with that phony idealism of him…it”

Sue said these words to Ann in the backyard of the Keller’s garden when Sue was
expressing her unrest about Chris. Sue asked Ann to do her a favour that is to
take Chris and live away when they get married, because Chris has a bad
influence on her husband, Jim. Chris is driving him crazy with his idealism. Chris
makes Jim feel he’s always compromising his principals and always feel guilty.
Sue believes that Chris’s idealism is false and only a pretence (phony idealism).
Chris practices this idealism because he is rich as he has all his father’s money of
which he can take as much as he needed, but Jim isn’t so rich, moreover he has a
family to support. Sue also added Chris wanted all people to be ideal while he
himself belonged to a family, which was suspected. Sue tells Ann that the whole
neighbourhood knew that Keller was the real reason for the death of 21 pilots but
he got out of jail because of his cleverness.
3-'Nothing bigger than that… I’ll put a bullet in my head.”
Joe Keller said that to Kate after the argument between Chris and his father after
Chris had learnt that his father was responsible for the death of the twenty one
pilots and after he had left the house. Kate told Joe to explain to Chris and say he
was ready to go to prison. But Keller was angered at this and said that he thought
he had a family, and emphasized that he was the father and should be forgiven
before asking for forgiveness, and that he did it all for them. But Kate told him that
Chris is an idealist, and his trust in honesty was bigger than a family to him. “There
is something bigger than a family to him” Keller wasn’t convinced and stated that
family relationship should be considered the greatest in the world, and must be
considered the same to Chris, if not he would commit suicide. “I’m his father and
he is my son and if there’s something bigger than that, I’ll put a bullet to my head.”
He prefers death to being unforgiven by Chris

4-'I’m practical now. You made me practical.” “

Chris said these words to his mother, Kate, in the backyard of the Keller’s garden
when he came back home deciding to leave to Cleveland after his father’s crime
was uncovered. He had gone out brainstormed unable to think what to do to his
father. Yet he decided not to denounce him, because, as he said, he became like
everybody; he became practical, and decided to act passively to troubles. The
Kellers made him practical; they made him yellow and coward. But still he couldn’t
live in such atmosphere where he feels like losing all his ideal thoughts that he had
been calling for, and decides to leave them forever.
He couldn’t denounce his father, because he know he wasn’t the only criminal
living free out of jail. Also Keller was 61 years old and no benefit would be gained
out of jailing him. This shows that Chris had started to think practically and partially
lose idealism.

5-'But I think to him they were all my sons.”

Joe Keller said that after Chris had realized how Larry died at reading the letter
loudly and determinedly to Keller, he told Keller that he belonged to jail and should
go willingly or else he should admit that he killed his son, because that the way he
died, “… unless you knew that, you threw away your son, because that’s the way
he died." At that, Keller recognized his guilt vividly and he decided to go willingly to
jail, accompanied by Chris. Yet Keller was wholly destroyed, as it was clear that
Larry committed suicide because of him. He even realized that jail isn’t a best
expiation for his guilt and committed suicide. He did it when he felt that the twenty-
one pilots were really all his sons and he should have a common sense and be
responsible for it
.6-Don’t take it on yourself. Forget now. …Live
Kate said that to Chris in the backyard of the Kellers’ garden when Joe Keller
committed suicide. These words formed a closing line of the tragedy, giving little
hope of leading a better life afterwards. Kate was trying to relieve Chris making
him not think that he was the cause of his father’s suicidal action, or else Chris
would never forgive himself; he might do the same as Keller. Chris is the only
value remaining to her, she should keep it or else she’d lose everything,
everything.
Kate had caused the tragedy to develop, and now she’s trying to keep up Chris
after his father’s suicide and being certain about Larry’s death. She wanted him to
forget the whole matter and turn a new leaf.

Questions/Answers
1- Kate’s slip of tongue changed everything.” Explain“
Kate made a slip of tongue by mentioning the fact that her husband had never
been sick for fifteen years, she said, “He hasn’t been laid up in fifteen years.”
Keller then tried to correct her angrily reminding her of the day of sending the
cracked cylinder heads to the army. George noticed the lie that Joe Keller made
when he said that he was ill when the cracked heads were being sent and couldn’t
go to the factory. Although George’s suspicions about Joe Keller were removed
and he decided to spend the night nicely with the Kellers, now he started accusing
Keller again of deceiving his father and that he was the real criminal. He asked
Ann to come with him as he wouldn’t let her marry the son of the man who
destroyed their life. Kate was pleased to keep her away from Chris and packed her
bag, the matter which infuriated Chris and made him decide to go ahead with the
marriage. This would lead also Chris’s discovery that his father was the real
criminal later.

2- Evaluate Ann's character in light of her behavior in Act III of All My Sons?
Ann is alone. In her own words, she says she has "turned away" from her father.
While he is in prison, she refuses to visit or to write. She has no family of her own
and so is tied to Chris
We learn in this act that Ann is capable of forgiveness, to some degree, when she
reveals Larry’s letter which is a suicide letter that Larry wrote to her before his
final mission.
Knowing that Larry blamed is father and that, as a result, Keller is responsible for
Larry's death, Ann is still capable of forgiving Keller or at least speaking with him.
She will not speak with her father, but she needs some family
Ann is not driven to hate or revenge. Rather she is seeking healing and feels that
she can find it with Chris and, therefore, accepts Keller and looks for acceptance
from him. Her isolation leads her to this.

3- What are the tragic elements in the play All My Sons? Particularly in Act 3.
All My Sons by Arthur Miller has a few tragic elements that are displayed in the
third act if we define tragedy as being the downfall of something good. First, the
relationship between Ann and Chris comes to an end once Ann reveals the letter
that she received from Larry and Joe admits to having ordered Herbert to ship the
faulty machine parts. Their love had been a genuine one--a relationship that
struggled to survive in the face of opposition from their families. Next, Chris's
realization that he is now "practical" is tragic because he has lost the hope that
men look out for the well being of others before that of themselves. He feels guilty
that he has survived the war and that his own father has played a role in killing
many. Third, Larry's suicide is tragic because Larry recognizes that the lives of the
soldiers are meaningless to those in charge. He sends Ann the letter to let her
know that he is sacrificing his life as a statement against the nature of war. Finally,
Joe's suicide is tragic because it is all he can do in the face of having admitted his
past wrongs.

4- With what hope does the play end?

The play ends with Joe committing suicide and the other characters in action
around that terrible event. The hope is that perhaps Kate and Chris will develop a
real, based on truth, relationship. There is also hope that Chris, who according to
Jim, had given up his idealism, may have a hope of retrieving some of that and not
become a bitter, angry man
It's hard to imagine there being hope for Chris and Ann's relationship, but you
could make a case for it gaining strength from the truth being finally out. Perhaps
if Chris is able to help Steve once he is released from prison that would leave
some hope for healing between the Deever and Keller families

5- What excuse did Keller give for his crime?

Keller tried to find himself excuses for his crime saying that if he had refused to
send the cylinder heads to the army, he would be out of business as the army
would tear the contract which meant that he would lose all he had been building for
years. Keller said that he was too old to have another chance to start business
again. He also gave another excuse saying that he thought that the mechanics
would discover the cracks before fitting them into the planes, and that they would
send them back when he would have enough time to make other good ones
instead. He said that he did that all for Chris and Kate, the matter which wasn’t
accepted at all by Chris as he found all that not an excuse to commit such a crime
of causing the death of the twenty one pilots.

6-What did Kate ask Keller to do when Chris would come back?
She told him to explain to Chris and say he was ready to go to prison to expiate for
his crime, and Chris would never let him go to jail if he knew that his father felt
guilty. But Keller was angered at this and said that he thought he had a family, and
emphasized that he was the father and should be forgiven before he asked for
forgiveness, and that he had done it all for them. But Kate tells him that Chris was
an idealist, and his trust in honesty was bigger than a family to him.

7- ”Write a note on the importance of Larry’s letter to the plot of “All My Sons
Arthur Miller kept Larry’s letter as a proof to his death to keep us all attentive and
waiting all through the play. He also succeeded to make us suspicious of the
reality of his death. Also Larry’s letter was a point to revive Chris’s idealism and let
Keller feel how guilty he was and decide to receive punishment, or rather death.
Without Larry’s letter Chris would leave home, yet bare of idealism or even feeling
of self-worth. It really pushed actions rapidly to that tragic end when Keller knew
that Larry had killed himself to expiate for his father’s crime and to tell him that the
21 pilots were all his sons.

8- Is Kate a wise mother? Why?

She was controlled by human feelings more than reason, but she was considered
to be the wisest character in the play. Sometimes she treats Keller with disgust
and other times with anxiety about him. She was aware of his problem and how it
should be solved. She was sure that Keller was not a comfortable one, she
understood him and protected him. She had accepted the whole of him; not only
the good parts. Yet, she had a flaw in her character which was losing control over
herself when she got in trouble. She unintentionally made that slip of tongue which
turned the whole matter upside down.