The play All My Sons by Arthur Miller shows two very different views on the same ethical question based on their experiences and situation. Joe Keller was born with very little, forced to struggle to make a name for himself. He spent 40 years building up the business he has now and it has become almost everything he has. That coupled with the fact that he does not want his son to have to go through what he went through gives him the motivation to do whatever he has to do to save the business. As he tells his son Chris "You lay forty years into a business and they knock you out in five minutes, what could I do, let them take forty years, let them take my life away?" (69). This desperation he feels to keep his business running motivates him to make the decision to ship the cracked cylinders, even though he knew that they could be dangerous. He puts his family before society. Chris on the other hand has had a very easy life, never having to work for anything. His experience in the war also instills in him empathy for those you do not know. He can not see beyond the fact that his father's actions resulted in the death of 21 men. As he explains to his father "I was dying everyday and you were killing my boys and you did it for me? What the hell do think I was thinking of the Goddam business?" (70). He values society over family. He is unable to see the business side of the issue, making what his father did into an awful crime. These differences form a brutal conflict which results in the death of Joe.
Even though I don't support his actions, I think it is unfair to judge Joe by his decisions until you understand his background and motivation. What he thinks is right could be very different from what his son or the rest of society thinks is right. Different experiences change people in different ways and can affect who they place first, society or family. I personally believe that in the majority of cases it is better to place society above family. Every person has their own family, their own story and their own right to live. Yet occasions arise when family does come first. It depends on the situation you are placed in and what your options are. Therefore I believe that it is impossible to say for sure that either family or society should come first.
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3 comments:
I don't think it's unfair to judge Joe at all. His background and motivation don't matter in relation to the impact his decision made on the lives of the war pilots. He says that what he did was for Chris and the company, but in the long run, I think it would have been a much better favor for Chris if Joe left it alone. Chris should learn what to do when he ends up on his own and doesn't have much of a path to follow. Joe needs to let go of his family and look at the bigger picture.
I think it is wrong to judge Joe so cruelly because we don't know what we would have done in the situation. We only know what we want to do. I do disagree with you Andrea that the majority of the cases one would value society over family, I believe it is the opposite. Only someones life is more important than family in my opinion, so if someones life was at stake I would hope to choose society, but in all other cases I'm pretty sure I would choose family.
I 'd have to say that whether Joe deserved to be judged is relative. There's him and his family, and then there's everyone else. From Joe's perspective, he was doing there right thing. From the perspective of outsiders, it would be a terrible thing. You can look at a lot of acts this way. There are always two sides of any conflict. Even people in society who would do the same thing in Joe's situation can be judgemental and cruel. Afterall, people often don't care 'why' someone does something. They only care that they did.
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