All My Sons

Joe Keller is an American businessman who lives in a small town. On a Sunday morning in August 1946, he reads the want ads in the newspaper in his backyard. Dr. Jim Bayliss and Frank Lubey live nearby. They visit Joe and make small talk. They discuss movies, tobacco, and advertisements. The previous night, an important apple tree in Joe’s yard was blown down by the wind. The tree was planted to honor the memory of Joe’s son Larry, who went missing three years earlier during World War II. Joe’s wife Kate still believes that Larry may be alive. She has asked Frank to assemble a horoscope based on November 25, the day when Larry went missing. She wants to determine whether this was “a favorable day for Larry” (85). She refuses to give up the possibility that Larry may be alive.

Joe and Kate have another son, Chris, who has invited a young woman named Ann Deever to stay at the Keller home. Years earlier, Ann was Larry’s girlfriend. She and her family lived in the house now owned by Jim, but moved to a different house around the time of Larry’s disappearance. The previous evening, Chris collected Ann from the station. She is currently asleep in Larry’s old bedroom. Jim’s wife Sue arrives to tell her husband that a patient has telephoned for him. Frank’s wife Lydia arrives to tell her husband that their toaster has a problem. As the neighbors depart, Joe speculates that Ann may get married soon as she “can’t mourn a boy forever” (88). Chris enters the yard and takes the books section of the newspaper from his father. A local boy named Bert also appears, talking to Joe about a game they play together in which he is a police officer and Joe—his pretend boss—issues him orders. Bert says that his friend Tommy has said a “dirty word” but he refuses to say the word himself, then leaves.

Chris speaks to his father. He explains how he watched his mother walking around the yard during the high winds the previous evening. She was still walking around during the storm at 4 am, whereupon the tree fell and she “ran back into the house and cried in the kitchen” (91). Both Joe and Chris recognize that Kate will not accept Larry’s death; they both believe that Larry is “not coming back” (92). Chris and Joe accept that they have both played a role in Kate’s delusion by not challenging her. Joe also blames newspapers, which print stories about the rare cases in which missing people turn up many years later, thereby stirring up false hope in those who are still waiting for their loved ones to return. In Chris’s opinion, they should confront Kate with the truth. Joe disagrees, pointing out that they have no evidence that Larry is dead. There is “no body and there’s no grave” (92), he reminds Chris. The conversation moves on. Chris tells his father that he wants to marry Ann. Joe is not sure this is a good idea, as Kate still believes that Ann is waiting for Larry to return. Chris is certain, however. He is prepared to leave the town where the Kellers live and to give up his share in the factory that his father owns and which he will one day inherit. Even though Ann was once Larry’s girlfriend, Chris wants to build a life with her. Chris admits that he is growing weary of always being a principled, idealistic person. Constantly trying to please other people is exhausting him, he explains, and makes him feel like a “sucker” (94). Joe does not believe that Chris would leave the town. Chris tells his father that if he wants him to stay, he must support the marriage and confront Kate with the truth about Larry’s death.

Kate enters the backyard to ask Joe to return to her a sack of potatoes that he has confused with the garbage. She mentions that she is suffering from a “funny pain on the top of [her] head” (96). Kate comforts herself with the belief that Ann agrees with her that Larry will return one day. She praises Ann for remaining faithful to Larry. She describes a vision she experienced, in which she saw Larry in an airplane flying above the Keller house. In the vision, Larry called out for his mother. Moments later, she says, the tree fell and the wind “was like the roaring of [Larry’s plane’s] engine” (97). Kate believes that they planted the tree too soon, as Larry will return. As he suggests that the family distract themselves with a “fun” (97) evening, Chris goes to fetch his mother some medicine. In private, Kate shares with her husband that she suspects that Chris is in love with Ann. She also tells Joe that she may “kill [herself]” (98) if Larry does not come back. As Kate implores her husband to believe that Larry will return, Bert returns. His presence annoys Kate, who demands that her husband stop his pretend “jail business” (99) with the boy.

Ann is awake. Led by Chris, she enters the yard and introduces herself to Jim, who now lives in the same house where she once lived with her family. Ann has slept in Larry’s old bedroom, surrounded by his clothes. Kate inquires about Ann’s love life, and Ann admits that she has stopped waiting for Larry to return. This infuriates Kate, who insists that she would somehow know “deep, deep in [her] heart” (103) if her son were dead. She leaves to make some tea.

Frank enters, happy to see Ann again. He asks Ann about her father, Steve, who is in prison. Ann says that she has severed ties with her father, though her mother is waiting for him to be released. When Frank leaves, Ann asks the Kellers about the case that led to her father’s imprisonment. She wants to know whether the neighbors still talk about it. Ann remembers how people accused her family of being “murderers” (105). Steve and Joe are former business partners. They each owned half of a factory that produced airplane engines during World War II. A scandal erupted when the factory produced broken engines and knowingly sent them to the Air Force, resulting in the deaths of 21 American pilots. Steve and Joe were both accused of the crime but only Steve was convicted, since Joe had been out of the office on the day the defective engines were shipped. After being acquitted, Joe went back to his family and reopened the factory. Ann, who is unaware of Joe’s culpability, speculates that Larry may have been killed by one of the broken engines. Joe rejects this idea as Kate, appalled, returns to the house. Joe explains to Ann that he does not believe her father is a murderer. He also says that Larry never flew the types of planes that were fitted with the broken engines. The night he and Steve spent in jail, he explains, was the night when he first heard that Larry had disappeared. Steve spent “half the night” (108) weeping, Joe says. The conversation moves quickly along, as the characters discuss their plans for the evening. Joe offers to book a table at a local restaurant.

After Joe returns into the house, Chris and Ann are alone in the yard. Chris proposes to Ann, and she agrees to marry him. They kiss, revealing that they have been in correspondence during the years since Larry’s disappearance. Delighted in their new relationship, Chris promises to make Ann “so happy” (109). This is the first time that they have expressed their love for one another explicitly, but Ann senses Chris’s complicated feelings. Chris shares a memory of the war, in which he led a band of soldiers on a fateful mission. He watched many of the men die and he still feels guilty about their deaths. The painful memory is just another reason why he feels so conflicted about his family’s role in the war. Ann receives a telephone call from George, her brother. George has been to visit their father in a prison in New York. He now needs to see Ann and announces that he will be there soon. While Ann speaks on the phone, Joe shares his fear that the authorities may seek to “open up the case again, for the nuisance value, to hurt [the family]” (112). He explains to Chris his desire to build a new house out of stone, a symbol of the family’s need to make a fresh start. He also plans for Chris to inherit the family business, planning to change the name to reflect this change in ownership. Joe wonders whether his son is “ashamed” (113) of the way the family has made money. Chris takes Ann for a drive. Kate tells her husband to be “smart” (114) when George arrives, which makes Joe angry. He storms out of the yard, slamming the screen door behind him.