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All My Sons Critical Lens

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All My Sons Critical Lens
All My Sons 3/18/13
Critical Lens - Benjamin Aereli

Benjamin Aereli once said that “Circumstances are beyond the control of the man, but his conduct is in his power.” I agree with this quote. This quote means that unexpected things happen, things that one does not have any control over. One does have control over how they handle a situation. Many examples of this idea can be found in literature. The play All My Sons by Arthur Miller illustrates this idea several times. Two characters that best support this quote are Joe Keller and his son Chris Keller. Both of these characters are put in situations that they had no control over, but make decisions based on what they believe is right. Arthur Miller uses the literary elements irony and foreshadowing to show that one does have control over how they handle a situation.

Arthur Miller’s All My Sons supports this quote. Arthur Miller uses the lierary element irony to support this quote. For example, Chris Keller ironically falls in love with his late brother’s girlfriend. He is faced with a moral dilemma. Chris has to choose to either follow his heart and date her or listen to his family and ignore his feelings. Chris had no control over who he fell in love with, but he did have control over the descision he made. He chose to follow his heart. Joe Keller is also faced with a moral dilemma. Joe owned a company that makes parts that went into American planes for World War 2. Joe’s company made faulty parts and Joe had to choose to send the parts into the war or not to send the parts and lose a lot of money. He chose to send the parts. This is ironic because his son was a pilot in WWII and because he wasn’t the one who got in trouble for sending the parts. In conclusion Arthur Miller uses irony to support the quote. In the play All My Sons, Arthur Miller also uses the literary element foreshadowing to support the quote by Benjamin Aereli. For example, foreshadowing is used when Joe Keller said to

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