Question

All My Sons by Arthur Miller: A short essay(one page or more) describing the conflict between Joe and Chris Keller, and each of their personalties and the differences between them.

Answer 1

According to George Bernard Shaw, "there is no conflict, no drama". Conflict is also the main theme reflected in short story of Arthur Miller " All My Sons". The two main characters of the short story are Joe and Chris Keller. They are father and son. Chris is the youngest son of the merchant Joe. Their conflict moulds the main plot of the story.

Joe is a business man and his business partner is Steve. But Joe is very clever and for his cleverly Steve is in prison. He is a successful businessman during second world war. But his such treachery makes him villain. There is love relationship between Chris and Ann. But their rationsdip is hampered for such attitude of Joe. It makes him antagonist to his father.

Joe and Chris belong to different worlds. They bear separate characteristics. They have no similarity. Chris is idealist where Joe is selfish and cruel. Joe is businesslike and to his money is most important matter. He tries to make Chris understand the need of money. Chris also knows this but to him money is not more important than life.

Chris is disillusioned for his father. Chris is really a good person. In spite of being a son of a villainous father Chris maintains goodness. His mother also supports him and tells that his father is responsible for the death of Larry. Chris also believes this. His disrespect to his father increases and he thinks that his father is morally responsible for the death of Larry. It is not that he does not love his father. He loves his father. He only wants to change the attitude of his father to others.