All My Sons

Greetings! Happy Monday! We hope you are doing well.
These are not easy times with so many parts of our lives turned upside down.
We hope you were able to do something that brought you happiness this weekend!

For today you will be finishing All My Sons. You can read it, watch the play here (Act II starts at 52:45), or watch the play while following along in the book.

When you are finished, here are some questions to consider in your notes or a journal response:

Consider Chris Keller’s world view versus his father’s: One is guided by a sense of responsibility to the greater community, the other by a sense of responsibility to family. Is one of these moral compasses inherently right or wrong?

1. Is Joe Keller basically a decent member of society? Do you accept Chris’s idea that his father is “no worse than most men”? Or is what Joe did actually evil?
2. What do you think about the revelation of Larry’s suicide at the end of the play? What does it mean to the different characters? How does it impact the overall story?
3. In what ways does the experience of war impact this play? Knowing what you about the war and the homefront, were you expecting Joe to explain his actions in other ways?

Next, you'll write three short talks to wrap up your look at the play. Here are the topics:

1. Keller's moral choices
2. Larry's letter
3. One character's perspective of the whole story: Chris, Annie, or Kate

Lastly, on Wednesday we will start with a short zoom call to talk about the end of the play and the short talks project you'll do that day. Be sure to watch your email on Tuesday for the link and the password (we have to send a password now for zoom calls)

We miss you! Stay safe!