All My Sons

Joe Keller and Herbert Deever, partners in a machine shop during the war, turned out defective airplane parts, causing the deaths of many men. Deever was sent to prison while Keller escaped punishment and went on to make a lot of money. In a work of tremendous power, a love affair between Keller's son, Chris, and Ann Deever, Herbert's daughter, the bitterness of George Keller, who returns from the war to find his father in prison and his father's partner free, and the reaction of a son to his father's guilt escalate toward a climax of electrifying intensity.

Winner of the Drama Critics' Award for Best New Play in 1947, All My Sons established Arthur Miller as a leading voice in the American theater. All My Sons introduced, themes that thread through Miller's work as a whole: the relationships between fathers and sons and the conflict between business and personal ethics.

This Student Edition of All My Sons is perfect for students of literature and drama and offers an unrivalled guide to Miller's play. It features an extensive introduction by Toby Zinman which includes: a chronology of Miller's life and times; a summary of the plot and commentary on the characters, themes, language, context and production history of the play. Together with over twenty questions for further study and detailed notes on words and phrases from the text, this is the definitive edition of the play. As Miller's first successful play on Broadway, All My Sons launched his career and established Miller as America's social critic. A devastating indictment of war-profiteering, the play exposes the awful price paid by self-interest and greed fostered by capitalism. Set in 1947 in the Keller family's home in the mid-west, a shattered apple tree stands as a reminder of the pilot-son, lost during the war. Joe Keller has evaded justice for his part in the deaths of pilots caused by faulty engine parts manufactured in his factory, but the family is unable to put the past behind them.