All My Sons - Kate

Malicious Manipulative Kate

All My Sons is a play about the trials and tribulations of the normal everyday suburbia. The play brings out the reality that not everything is perfect. Holes are created by the fight between good and evil. In this play the evil is the act of lying, and the good is the innocence of ignorance. The play starts with an everyday business man given the age-old fight of man versus himself. He had to decide whether or not to ship defective parts. On the one side if he did not, he would lose his business and his life as he knew it. On the other hand, he could send parts that could kill innocent others. Evil came out of him and he lied and shipped the defective parts. Later on twenty one soldiers died from this, and his business was put on the spot. He lied yet again and had his partner take the blame to spend years in prison. Joe was found not guilty by the court of law and only a few knew of the real happenings. One of those few was his wife, Kate. She was one of the good, innocent few until she began to lie to everyone, keeping in her husbands secret. Problems arose when her one son never returned from war. She did not want to assume he was dead; she was only lying to herself. Over time, Kate started to change; she never acknowledged the truth and kept trying to live her own little lie. A sinister outlook started to set in. Certain danger was imminent as Kate's presence leached into the people of the formerly peaceful suburban town. Kate is sinister by her controlling behavior of those around her. She kept the thought of the late Larry in people's minds while ruining a close father son relationship.

Kate is the only person in the play that never lets go of the thought of Larry. She brings an essence of sadness of the death of her one son. Chris tries to tell Kate, "I've let him go. I've let him go a long [time ago]." It has been a couple of years since the death of her son, and she has yet to put it behind her. It is tougher on others because of her unrelenting thought of Larry. Chris and Ann were in love before they even knew it. They made a plan of getting married but the thought of telling Kate keeps their decision at bay. The plan was for Ann and Larry to get married after his return. Kate insists the proposed marriage will occur. Chris will also never get approval from his mother, thus making his marriage obsolete. Kate also greatly affects her husband Joe. She keeps Joe thinking about the twenty one soldiers that he killed because of his defective parts. Joe tries to forgive himself for the terrible mistake he caused years back. Kate reminds Joe that her son Larry could have been one of those soldiers in the sky. Joe tries to assure himself that Larry was never on one of the planes flown with the damaged engines he made, but Kate keeps pounding the suggestion into his head. The thought of killing his own son tore apart Joe's mental stability. Through Kate's unyielding remembrance of her long lost son, she started to greatly affect those around her.

Two people closest to Kate are her son and husband. The biggest problem between Joe and Chris is Kate. Chris became blinded by what others told him because he was never told about the truth. If you lie enough, you begin to believe yourself. Chris was lying to himself for years, but he never knew it. Kate kept the secret of Joe and the business to herself, and the few that knew. Because she never told Chris, he believed whole heartily that Joes partner was the cause of all the chaos. The moment when Chris found out about the truth was his major turning point in his life. For years he fought for his dad,