Character Analysis in All My Sons

 

Joe Keller

The Keller family patriarch, Joe is a self-made businessman who started out as a semi-skilled laborer and worked his way up in the business world to become a successful manufacturer. He owns a factory, where he employs his surviving son, Chris. Initially, Joe seems like a very genial, good- natured man, almost like a surrogate grandfather to the neighborhood kids. He is very outgoing with his neighbors, he is not well educated or as articulate as those around him. His business means a great deal to him, almost as much as his family.

Unfortunately, During the war, he ordered his partner, Steve Deever, to cover cracks in some airplane engine parts, disguise the welds, and send them on to be used in fighter planes, causing the death of Twenty one pilots. Although convicted, Joe put the blame on Steve and got out of prison. When the truth is revealed about Larry’ s death, Joe is at first unwilling to face the responsibility.

Finally realizing the consequences of his actions he commits suicide.

Kate Keller

Kate is Joe’s wife and the mother of Chris. Although her older son, Larry, was reported missing in action during World War II, she hopes that he has survived and will eventually return home. she knows the truth about Joe: he ordered his partner Steve to cover the cracks in the cylinder heads that eventually resulted in the death of several American fighter pilots.

She is finally forced to face Larry’s death when confronted with the letter that he sent to Ann Deever announcing his impending suicide.

Kate is very sympathetic in nature. She is kind and motherly, but the truth of her husband’s guilt tortures her. As the pressure mounts, she develops physical symptoms of her inner agony. At the end, after Joe shoots himself, she tells Chris to live his life.

 

Chris Keller

Chris, thirty-two years old, is Joe and Kate Keller’s surviving son. He is in love with Ann Deever, the former girlfriend of his deceased brother, Larry. He invites Ann to visit the Keller home so that he might propose to her.

A veteran of World War II, Chris now works for his father, Joe. Since being exonerated and released from prison, Joe has built a very successful company. Chris believes that his father is innocent, as he feels was proved at the pardon hearing before Joe’s release. An idealist, he has a very strong sense of justice and responsibility, and he bears a residual guilt for surviving the war when many of his friends died. Although his love for his father blinds him to the truth, when Joe’ s guilt is finally revealed, he believes that he has no choice but to see to it that his father is returned to prison.

 

Ann Deever

Ann is the attractive daughter of Steve Deever, Joe’ s former partner. She is visiting the Kellers for the first time since her boyfriend, Larry Keller, was reported missing in action. She has been invited by Chris; they are in love, much to the consternation of Kate, Chris’s mother.

Ann believes that her father is too guilty and has refused to visit him in jail. She is perhaps blinded by her love for Chris, whom she plans to marry. However, she carries what is in fact a suicide letter that Larry wrote to her before his final mission. Deeply shamed by his father’s conviction, Larry disclosed his inability to live with the fact of his father’s crime. When Kate continues to refuse to believe that Larry is dead and tries to prevent her marriage to Chris, Ann is forced to show her the letter. With the Larry’s final thoughts revealed, Chris is forced to face his father’s guilt.

 

George Deever

George is Steve Deever’s son and brother to Ann Deever. He is a lawyer and a threat to Joe Keller, who fears that he might try to reopen the case. After visiting his father in jail, he confronts Joe. George is convinced that Joe destroyed his father and was the real instigator of the crime. When he discovers that Ann is in love with Chris, he tries to persuade her to leave with him.

 

Dr. Jim Bayliss

Jim Bayliss is a close friend of Chris Keller. He and his wife Sue bought the house formerly owned by Steve Deever and his family; this makes him a neighbor of the Kellers. Although Jim suspects that Joe is as guilty as his former partner is, he likes the Keller family. He even tries to protect Joe from a confrontation with George Deever.

Sue Bayliss

Sue Bayliss, Jim’s wife, reveals that the town knows the truth about Joe Keller, and, unlike her husband, she basically dislikes the family. However, her animus is largely directed against Chris, not Joe. She believes that he knows his father is guilty and has profited from the situation.