All My Sons
Activity
Act One
1. Miller states in his introduction to All of my sons that he wants this play "to be
as untheatrical as possible." HIs intention is to make his play lifelike. What is
realistic about the setting of the play?
The setting it relatable to where African Americans would live in the late 1940s.
Takes place in late 1947.
2. What information does Miller give the reader or director about Joe Keller?
Miller tells us that Joe is a self-made businessman who is about 60 years old.
3. What is Joe Keller discussing with his neighbors as the play opens?
They discuss the weather and the wanted ad in the newspaper. They discuss the
tree that was planted in memory of Larry it fell down in his birth month.
4. What did Joe say that he only read the ads in the newspaper?
To “see what people want.”
This is an important point Joe makes, one that will come back later in the play: Joe
is concerned, foremost, with what the family “wants” and needs, and it is this
desire to provide materially for the family that causes Joe to authorize the
production of the faulty plane parts.
5. What does Frank mean by “favourable day”?
Frank remembers Larry’s birthday, and Frank reveals that he is assembling a
horoscope for Larry to determine Larry’s “favorable days.” Larry went missing on
November 25, and Frank tells Joe that, if the 25th is one of Larry’s favorable days,
this would indicate, via the horoscope, that Larry is still alive.
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6. Why was Frank (Joe’s neighbor) working on a horoscope?
Frank was working on a horoscope for Larry, according to Kate's demand to do so.
He wanted to prove that November 25th was Larry's favourable day. (A favourable
day for a person is a fortunate day, according to his stars). If he proved so, it would
be practically impossible for Larry to have died on his favourable day.
7. Explain the significance of Larry's tree falling?
The family planted a tree to memorialize Larry, in the backyard, although Kate
never gave up hope that Larry might return alive. In the beginning of the play, the
tree is found shorn in half by the wind, in August, the same month Larry was born.
Kate views this as a sign that the Kellers have forgotten Larry and abandoned the
thought of his return. In this way, the tree serves a complex symbolic purpose: it is
planted to symbolize Larry’s life, but in fact it underscores, to Kate, the idea that
many believe Larry to be already dead and gone.
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