Question: As we read/discuss All My Sons, consider how many of the characters make choices on how to act depending on whether it benefits their family or society. In your blog post this week, discuss how characters in the play decide what is more important (needs of family or needs of society). Please cite examples from the play to support your answer (1 paragraph). In your second paragraph, discuss your personal opinions on the matter. When is it appropriate to put the needs of your family before society (and vice versa)?
The need for family is unbelievable. Family has always been an important institution throughout history. But while family may be something that you need to keep intact, making sacrifices to the good of society is not a fair way to keep your family together. In fact, it usually tears families apart. Arthur Miller shows us, in his play All My Sons, through potential and actual consequences that needs of family cannot be an excuse for overlooking the rules of society.
One’s actions have consequences that have been set by society, and there is no reason to overlook those rules, not even family. In All My Sons, Sue Bayliss is the wife of a doctor, Jim Bayliss, and they are neighbors to the Keller family. When Ann breaks the news to Sue that she and Chris are engaged, Sue is glad but she has a personal request of the new couple. Sue wants Ann and Chris to move away. She told Ann,
“I’m very serious. My husband is very unhappy with Chris around…My husband has a family, dear. Every time he has a session with Chris he feels as though he’s compromising by not gibing up everything for research…He’s driving my husband crazy…and I’m at the end of my rope on it!” (44-45).
Sue is upset that Jim wants to help society instead of focus on his family. She disregards the fact that Jim could discover something important and save lives, to focus solely on the fact that her children need a father; one who can support them and not spend too much time working. While the consequences of Jim’s potential consequences are great they do not compare to the decision that Joe Keller made when he allowed the cracked heads to be shipped out and then blamed it all on his partner, Steve Deever. Joe told his son, Chris, “For you, a business for you!” (70). Joe’s focus on family is so extreme that he was unwilling to stand up to the consequences that he deserved simply because he committed the crime to help his family. Sue and Joe have a common bond in their love for their family, but they are willing to allow society to suffer in order to keep their family intact. So they decided to overlook the rules of society simply because their family would have been harmed.
The sentence above bugs me. If you commit a crime your family will be harmed, emotionally and physically, no matter what you do. This idea that Joe and Sue have could eventually escalate into the thought that you can do whatever you want and ignore the consequences all because you “did it for your family”. For heavens sake, Joe Keller, MAN UP!! You allowed faulty parts to be shipped from your store, you “didn’t think that they would be installed”, you essentially provided the instruments for the death of 21 young men who were serving their country in the war. Whatever you say, you screwed up. So admit it and deal with the consequences that society has. Go to jail. Do the right thing; unless you’re not man enough to take the blame, of which you accused Steve. I believe that Joe is using his family as his excuse for the mistakes that he made. I also, even though it sounds horrible, believe that Joe Keller’s suicide was a copout on his part. He couldn’t face what he had done. He couldn’t look anyone in the face and tell him or her that he had made a mistake and that he would take the consequences, so he shot himself. Now, I agree that it is sad that Joe killed himself, but it comes as a larger problem to me that he did so because he couldn’t handle the pressure society had put on him. When someone relies on his family, or uses them as an excuse, to get themselves through every hard spot in life is the sign of a weak individual. I believe flat out that society’s rules cannot be overlooked for the needs of the family.
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3 comments:
You bring up some good points about the needs of family vs. society. I like how one of your quotes is from Sue Bayliss. While she isn't a major character in the play, you've still managed to show how she too demonstrates the different views on the importance of different needs.
I am glad that you used Sue and Joe rather than using Joe and Chris like everyone else I have seen. I like the point you made about Sue wanting family to be Joe's priority rather than him going out and discovering new cures and such. Good Job Chris.
Your post made me think about Joe Keller's weaknesses. He couldn't take the responsibility he had to society to not send out the parts. He also couldn't take the pressure from Chris and his family, so he killed himself. I thought about Joe Keller a lot more and I discovered some more about his character.
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