Themes

• Frank’s survivors’ guilt is due to him always being slightly too old meaning he did not have to go to war, contrasts to George whose time in war allowed Frank to profit off the war by being able to marry Lydia – Frank is dumb but lucky
• Morality of Commerce and The American Dream
• Survivors Guilt
• Intergenerational Conflict
• The Power of the Past
• The Devastating Effects of WWII
• Social Responsibility, Relatedness and Interconnectedness
• Social Class
• Hubris vs Humility
• The Moral Courage of the Informer
• Miller's definition of the modern tragic protagonist is 'the underlying struggle that is that of the individual attempting to gain his 'rightful position in society.'
• All My Sons is about the loss and boom of WWII for America.
• Morality of Commerce and the American Dream 


  Joe Keller lacks morals due to his dependance and love of commerce (the business)

  Therefore, allowing him to believe he has achieved the American Dream.
• Morality of commerce and the American Dream

  In an attempt to gain his 'rightful' position in society, Keller loses his moral.
• Morality of commerce and the American dream

  The boom of america meant that there was less morality, due to america becoming commerce focused.
• Gender Roles

  Mother overly adheres to her role as wife and mother to support Kellers' societal position.

  Keller overly adheres to his role as father, breadwinner for the family
• Social Class

  Miller represents the difficulty to maintain social class in the rapidly changing economy of America.
• Social Class

  Joe has fought to become a business owner, and the sacrifice of the 21 pilots was key to the maintainence of this position.

  Miller critiques the immorality and lack of social responsibility of the higher class.
• Social Class

  Kellers social class defines his rightful position in society, and he fights to keep it.

  Miller uses Keller to represent the wider american society who too, are fighting to maintain their 'rightful position in society.'

  Generic convention of the tragic protagonist.
• Intergenerational conflict

  WWII conscription meant that age groups were split up, forming different life experiences for the older and younger generation.
• Intergenerational conflict

  1929 wall street crash: older generation have experienced a severe low economy + loss of money, meaning they have formed a deeper attachment to the business + money and a fear of losing it again.
• Intergenerational conflict

  The younger generation were more likely to be sent to the battlefield, and being in the war enviroment built a collective identity among the soldiers: forming a deeper sense of social responsibility (chris.)
• Intergenerational conflict

  Mothers lost sons.

  Wives lost husband.

  Increased importance on family vs increased importance of living life since it could be taken at any moment.
• The power of the past

  The past acts as an underlying threat to Kellers position in society and Kates nuclear family dynamic.
• Secrecy and denial

  There is a strong sense of denial of criminal activity to maintain place in society / american dream.
• Secrecy and denial

  The american public have had to deny the horrors of the war to thrive with the money made from it.
• Secrecy and denial 


  Miller represents Keller as thriving in his denial, whilst Kate suffers.
• Hubris vs Humility

  Hubris = excessive pride

  Humility = humble, an acceptance of position
• Hubris vs Humility

  Miller writes a lack of humility in the play, criticing the lack of humility in American Society.
• Hubris vs Humility

  Millers critic of America is that capatalism makes everyone hubristic, individualist and selfish.
• The Moral Courage of the Informer 


  Nemesis = George and Ann

  Whilst george begins with a moral courage, he loses it against the manipulation of the Keller family: showing the power of the past.
• The Moral Courage of the Informer

  Anns moral courage = reveals the coup de theatre (letter), showing a great deal of bravery that the entire neighbourhood lack, and sacrificing the well-being of the family to gain chris as a husband.
• The Moral Courage of the Informer

  Chris = shows no moral courage in relation to the crime of Keller, he in denial of the reality that he has lived in the comfort of the Keller wealth, and how it was achieved.
• Survivors Guilt

  Miller experiences his own sense of survivors guilt: he did not fight in WWII due to a knee injury.
• Survivors Guilt

  AMS argues that all of america is experiencing survivors guilt, but they deny it.

  Miller wants to bring light to the survivors guilt to better America.
• Survivors Guilt

  Chris’s heightened emotion (sweating) is linked to his survivor’s guilt – the hagiography of the dead makes the alive fight further to be perceived / as great as the dead – to justify their survival.
• JIM: 'in the battalion he was known as Mother McKeller'

  Survivors guilt.

  Links Chris's survivors guilt back to the felt failure by mothers after the immense death in the war.

  Whilst Kate lost one son, Chris lost hundreds.
• Survivors Guilt

  Chris loves Ann, but struggles to engage in the relationship because he has associated Ann as 'larrys girl.'

  He has the ghost of the dead overshadowing him.
• Survivors Guilt.

  the eponymous line ‘all my sons’ applied to everyone; shared responsibility / grief felt throughout America
• Survivors Guilt


  Kate’s guilt is associated with the loss of her child, her primary role in the play is ‘Mother’, the death of a child creates the idea that she has failed in her role – and explains why she plays up the role of the grieving mother.