castigation of glibly accepted american values in arthur miller's “ all my sons “

Abstract— the play takes its title from the last words of joe keller before he takes his own life. referring to his son larry s statement that he was ending his life to make amends for the death of the twenty-one pilots, joe says that to larry they were 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 is an ordinary and fairly decent individual. husband, devoted father and generous neighbor. but he suffers, like most of the people around him, from a confusion of values. his personal tragedy springs directly from his fidelity to values that are inherent in the american way of life but are antagonistic to the welfare of mankind.