historical / social context

• WWII brought America out of the great depression: putting millions back to work
• There was a great loss of morality due to the economic boom
• AMS is concerned with the mindset of the American family man and women: those whose role in society was to provide, financially and maternally for their family
• AMS = an attempt to determine what the AMERICAN DREAM truly meant in an age of rising economy.
• More Americans considered themselves as part of the middle class.
• The sources of growth

  Automobile industry - number sold quadrupled between 1945 and 1955.

  Housing boom - affordable mortgages

  Growing major corporations

  Workers found lives changing as industrial America changed
• Negative impacts of war

  Separated families and lovers - lLarry and ann.

  Death of soldier - immense mourning

  The apple tree in the play - symbolic code of the loss the family / america
• Entrepreneurs taking advantage of the increased demand for weapnos and parts.
• Based on a true story Miller read in the paper of a young girl who turned her father in for selling faulty parts, Miller said he admired her moral courage.
• Wartime prosperity
• Early 60s = businessmen enjoyed the fruits of their labour,.
• Female roles = during the war women took on a more active role in the american industry: which made many men feel emasculated upon returning
• WWII meant 1950s America was full of guilt, grief, trauma, wealth and consumerism
• Women gained some independance when they had to work due to men being in the war: there was a conflict when men returned home.

  Shown through the differences in Ann and Kate.