View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Chris offer to his mother several times in Act 1?

2. Why is Lydia coming over to the Kellers' house?

3. Joe Keller says a doctor could make a million dollars if he could bring a boy into the world without what body part?

4. What was Chris' nickname in the war?

5. What mechanical part did Joe Keller and Steve Deever's factory make?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why is Joe asleep at the beginning of Act 2?

2. Why does Kate have to believe that Larry is still alive?

3. What promise does Joe make Chris regarding Ann and why?

4. What story does Kate tell to demonstrate her intuitive connection with Larry?

5. How do Joe and Chris view the world differently?

6. Explain Joe Keller's logic for Steve Deever's "mistake" at the factory.

7. What favor does Ann ask of Kate and why?

8. Why does Joe take his own life?

9. What is Joe's reasoning that Larry was not one of the pilots killed because of his factory's mistake?

10. What is the significance of the fallen tree in the Kellers' yard?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Characters in All My Sons make frequent reference to the supernatural in the play, as if there were an otherworldly hand guiding their daily actions. Write an essay in the following three parts:

Part 1) Examine how the destruction of Larry's tree - and the dream that surrounds its destruction - affects Kate Keller's world. What significance does she assign to it?

Part 2) What is Frank Lubey's world view, and how is it the result of the life he has lived to this point in his life?

Part 3) What does Jim Bayliss have to say about the nature of fate and the stars in the third act? How is it a refutation of the ideas of both Frank Lubey and Kate Keller?

Essay Topic 2

Compare and contrast the characters of Steve Deever and Joe Keller. The two are often compared and analyzed by Joe and others. Which is the more dominant in the relationship and how does each's attitude toward the other affect the plot?

Essay Topic 3

Choose one of the following to write an essay about:

1.) What does fighting in the war teach Chris Keller about the world? How is this lesson destroyed by what he experiences when he returns to the States, and why does he feel guilty as a result? What is Miller saying about the perversion of values in America?

2.) Compare Joe Keller's assessment of the war-producers in the United States in Act 3 to Chris Keller's description of the men he fought with in the war. How do these descriptions reflect opposing values systems.

3.) Compare Kate Keller and Ann Deever's situations following the war. How are they both held prisoners by the war?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 998 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample