“World trapped in its own bad faith” The Message of Arthur Miller’s “ALL My Sons”

The play takes its title from the last words of Joe Keller before he takes his own life. Referring to his son Larry'sstatement that he was ending his life to make amends for the death of the twenty-one pilots, Joe says that to Larry "theywere all sons: and I guess they were."What happens to Keller, and what the dramatist wants to happen to all of us, is a transformation of values. Joe isan ordinary and fairly decent individual. husband, devoted father and generous neighbor. But he suffers, like most ofthe people around him, from a confusion of values. His personal tragedy springs directly from his fidelity to values thatare inherent in the American way of life but are antagonistic to the welfare of mankind.

Keywords:

self-complacency , dexterity , guilt , escapism , confusion of values