CHRIS KELLER

• 'CHRIS: i kissed you...

  ANN: like larrys brother. do it like you chris.' pg35


  Survivors guilt - living in the shadow of the hagiography of the dead

  Ellipsis = detachment, attempting to understand feelings.

  Reformulation?

  Syntactic parallelism / imperative ‘like Larry’s brother. Do it like you Chris’ positions Ann as the dominant figure in their relationship, due to the overwhelming survivors guilt felt by Chris he is weakened at the face of Ann, who he continues to see as ‘Larrys girl’.
• pg35

  Anecdotal speech

  Sees them as his children, the compassionate act of giving, sheer devotion, sacrificing his comfort for the liken of Chris.

  Double ellipsis = he doesn't have the language to express his trauma, so deep and beyond words
• 'they didn't die; they killed themselves for eachother.' pg35


  Die = empty and pointless, without meaning

  To chris, their deaths were more than dying, they were a sacrifice.

  Like Jesus, they gave up their lives for the betterment of eachother, and America. Chris imagines his soldiers are sacrificing themselves for the purification of the world.

  Sacrifice is a choice, they made it so they = good, chris = bad.
• 'otherwise what you have is really loot, and theres blood on it.' pg36


  Sacrifice leaves a pressure on the surviving to live up to the hagiography of the dead, otherwise they have criminality.

  Miller addresses the criminality (lexical field of criminality) of the war profiteering, corrupt. Stresses the immorality of it.

  Guilt felt living off the money soldiers died for

  Stealing the 'loot' from the bodies of the dead
• A critic of the American economic boom that would be impossible without the shedding of blood from the 400,000 men who died in the war, who sacrificed themselves for America.
• 'i like to keep abreast of my ignorance.' pg12


  Low frequency = educated speech, unlike Keller.

  Sophisticated register

  Sense of humility,
• 'i have to pull back because other people will suffer. My whole bloody life, time after time after time.' pg16


  pre modifier 'bloody' emphasises his tiredness and fed up

  fed up of pleasing, doing things for others.
• pg17

  American Dream = to 'get out', the suburban neighbourhood is like a prison, rather than something to aspire to.

  Criminality of the Keller's.

  New York = idealism, inspiration, new, young

  His AD contrasts Keller, the root of their conflict.
• 'Ann, i love you. i love you a great deal [finally] i love you.' pg34


  Love and relationships = release of love.

  Keeping it secret to please his mother, to not steal from the dead.

  Done behind his mothers back, could the relationship be a rebellion rather than true love?
• 'a little more selfish and they'd've been here today.' pg35


  Survivors guilt - calling the livng selfish for not giving their lives to save america.
• 'A kind of... responsibility. Man for man.' pg35


  Hedged by ellipsis, nervous.

  Social responsibility was the norm in the war, his comradeship.

  Anti-capitalist viewpoint shamed = ellipsis

  Abstract noun contrasts to concrete nouns.
• 'but if chris wants people to put on the hair shift let him take off his broadcloth. he's driving my husband crazy with that phony idealism of his.' pg45


  Hairshirt = pain Broadcloth = smart

  Behaving like a saint, but needs to ditch the business man job he currently has - listen to own self.
• 'nobody's afraid of him here. cut that out!' pg51


  denial of fathers guilt - he is involved in it if father is

  generational guilt

  loyalty

  increased aggression as the tension rises
• 'are you through now?...what're you going to do, George?... rot?' pg54-55


  At the face of threat from the Deevers, Chris adopts his fathers frequent use of interrogatives as a defence mechanism - fear of truth rising.

  Chris is all talk and no do.
• 'the voice of god!... what the hell has that got to do with it?' pg56


  mocking tone

  religious / biblical language

  nemesis = george

  stichomithia = tension
• 'you killed them, you murdered them.' pg69


  stative declarative, he has known all along but now it is confirmed he is raging.

  syntactic parralelism: profound anguish and outrage over the betrayal, emotional intensity is high

  moral judgement
• 'then explain it to me. what did you do? explain it to me or i'll tear you to pieces!.' pg69


  zoomorphism

  maternal rag - metaphorically / semantically keller has killed the sons of chris, so he becomes a lion

  desensitised by war experience

  anaphora - desperation
• 'i was dying everyday and you were killing my boys and you did it for me?' pg70


  continuous tense - 'dying' and 'killing' = ongoing process

  chris is still dying, the pain is ongoing

  ‘dying every day’ every time one of his boys died, he died.

  Keller is still making money, still killing them

  Never-ending

  possessive use of 'my' is extremely sad - highlights the youth + the family his soldiers became - each others light in the darkness (darkness caused by kellers actions)

  chris effected directly by fathers actions
• 'i could jail him! i could jail him, if i were human anymore. but im like everybody else now. im practical now. you made me practical.' pg80


  short assertive sentances convey sense of urgency and conviction - directness

  repitition = inner turmoil - it underscores his internal conflict between his desire for justice and his sense of resignation

  emotive language, personal pronouns

  practical = human, business orientated, conforming, what it means to be human.
• 'this is the land of the great big dogs, you dont love a man here, you eat him! thats the principle, the only one we live by - it just happened to kill a few people this time, thats all... this is a zoo, a zoo!.' pg81


  explosive anger let loose.

  metaphoric comparisons = conveys the brutal and cutthroat nature of society and the selfish nature of capatalism

  zoo = chaos, disorder and lack of control

  inversion - canabalism, miller making a comment on the lack of humanity in post war american society.

  zoomorphic language / 'land' = alien, monsterous
• 'theres a universe of people outside and you're responsible to it.' 


  social responsibility.

  espansive scope of human society, and the Keller family is only a small part of it, yet they reflect the behaviour of all of america.

  complex web of relationships that exist beyond the confines (poplar trees) of the Keller family: the world Keller has shut himself of too.

  themes of moral responsibility, interconnectedness, and the complex dynamics of human society.
• pg40

  Stage direction suggest Chris is insistent on wiping the memory of Larry so he can move forward with Ann in their engagement.

  Once again Miller draws audience attention to the tree: the symbol of grief that is positioned in an unavoidable position: america cannot avoid their grief.

  Past permeating the present (Ibsen) - 'chickens coming home to roost' (Miller)
• pg70

  dehumanization - his father is a monster

  the question 'what are you?' whilst Chris is full of questions his mind is already made up - he will never forgive his father for what he has done.

  it goes beyond the cruelty of the animal world: his father truly is the 'beast' he defends himself against being.
• pg70

  Chris is ashamed of the selfish + money hungry behaviour of Keller.

  all Keller wanted to do was protect his business + reputation
• Is he a coward? He attacks his father savagely when Joe's guilt is revealed, calling him lower than an animal. But after a night of thinking about it, Chris still can't bring his father to justice, he fears his mother and cannot be honest with Ann.
• Guilt-evading language: "I was made yellow" and "you made me practical." Far from a paragon of moral responsibility, like a little boy blaming a broken teacup on the wind.
• Chris's idealism stems from an unordinary situation, and his tragedy is rooted in the fact he has not realized this - and he will never get along with Keller because of this.
• Even though he adopts a high moral tone and energetically indicts his father for his criminal irresponsibility, Chris knows that his words ring hollow because he has long suspected his father’s guilt but deliberately avoided confronting the truth— again for purely selfish motives