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

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Joe want to offer George?

2. Which of the following is not a career that Joe Keller says was an option as a child?

3. How many P-40s are supposed to have crashed as a result of Joe Keller's factory?

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

5. What action has Ann's mother recently decided against?

Short Essay Questions

1. Explain the significance of the title of the play as a thematic element?

2. What is Kate's concern about Ann?

3. In this section of Act 1, what deal do Joe and Chris strike regarding Chris's staying with the family business?

4. How does Joe feel about Ann's visiting the family?

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

6. What statement destroys the good will building between George and Joe?

7. Why does George believe that Chris already knows Joe is guilty?

8. What is George's attitude toward the setting?

9. What is Chris doing at the beginning of the act, and how does Kate feel about it?

10. Why is Ann upset with Chris after her conversation with Sue?

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

Ann Deever is a surrogate in many respects for the audience in the play. She is familiar with the Keller family but not with the web of delusion and lies that has held their household together since the factory scandal and Larry's death. Write an essay about Ann's relationship with several characters and how it reflects the audience's reaction to the Keller family.

Part 1) Ann is in love with Chris Keller for his idealism and yearning for a life that stands for more than making money. She fears that his presence in a house with his parents is driving him to despair. How does her love for Chris reflect our attitude towards him? How does their relationship reflect our relationship to Miller's message?

Part 2) From her arrival at the house, Ann is in conflict with Kate Keller about Larry. How does this conflict amplify the truly destructive delusion that tears the Kellers apart daily?

Part 3) Examine Ann's ambivalent relationship with Joe. How does her affection that changes to pitied revulsion change our attitude toward Joe as a character?

Essay Topic 3

Choose one of the following topics to write an essay:

1.) Do you consider Joe Keller to be a selfish man? Did he actually feel pressure from his wife to make money, or was this just an imagined pressure? Does his lifestyle reflect a corrupt values system?

2.) Jim Bayliss discusses a year that he abruptly left his family to do medical research in New Orleans. What this a selfish choice or an altruistic one? Was Sue Bayliss' demand that he return selfish?

3.) Compare and contrast the world views of Sue Bayliss, Kate Keller, and Ann Deever. Are any of them unreasonably focused on money?

(see the answer keys)

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