Thursday, November 14, 2013

Discuss the father son relationship to the title of the play, "All my Sons."

The relationship between Joe and Chris certainly evolves over the course of the play.  At the beginning, Chris still holds the fairly immature position of seeing his father on a pedestal.  He believes his father to be virtuous, hard-working, and loving of all (family, neighbors, co-workers).  I say immaturely because as children move into young adulthood, they are usually more able to see their parents as three-dimensional people, but Chris has avoided this step.  You could argue that he consciously makes this choice to avoid the truth, but it would seem to be more of subconscious decision.  As more and more information is revealed about the truth of the shipment of parts and Larry's death, Chris is forced to see the reality of his father.  He is hugely disappointed in his father's failings, and he is not moved by his father's justifications that he did for the family.  Joe cannot face his son's disapproval; the relationship is not sturdy enough to survive the ugly realities of Joe's actions.  

In terms of the title of the play, Chris cannot make clear to his father that it's not about just Joe, Larry and Chris.  Joe should have considered all of the soldiers killed his sons; then he would never have made the choice to ship the parts for his family's sake. 

No comments:

Post a Comment

What is the main function of the fool in "King Lear"? What is the secondly function?

The fool as a character is confusing, but part of this is the difference between the 1600s and today, as well as the difference in place. If...