Good Of Society As Chris Believes example essay topic

One of the central themes of All My Sons is the disillusionment of the young, and this theme can be traced through the character Chris, who comes to be disenchanted with his family, society and himself by realizing that none of these is as moral as he once believed. When he finally finds out through questioning his father that his father is, in fact, guilty of knowingly shipping out the cracked cylinder heads, he says to his father "What the hell are you? You " re not even an animal, no animal kills his own, what are you? What must I do to you?

I ought to tear the tongue out of your mouth, what must I do?" This is the point where Chris becomes disillusioned with his family. His father is guilty of doing the crime, and his mother is guilty of hiding the information. Chris now believes that his father is worse than an animal and is disgusted that he has lived with his parents since the crime happened without being aware of it. He sees his parents now as evil people rather than role models, and feels that if even his parents are capable of such a thing, then society as a whole must be the same or worse, because he tells his father that he once believed him to be better than most men.

He says "That's the principle; the only one we live by - it just happened to kill a few people this time, that's all. The world's that way, how can I take it out on him?" He now believes that everyone in society is only looking out for his or her own best interest, without caring what happens to anyone else, and this disgusts him. He is disgusted with himself, as well, because he realizes that he has been blind all this time. He says to Ann "I'm yellow. I was made yellow in this house because I suspected my father and did nothing about it". He once believed that his parents were good people, who could never have done such horrible things, but now he thinks himself a fool for ever thinking this.

He ignored his suspicions because he felt he was just being silly, but now knows that he has misjudged his own family, and believes he has misjudged the entire world, as well as himself. For once he has learned the truth, at first he cannot bring himself to do anything about it. As his reason, he says, "I could jail him! I could jail him, if I were human any more. But I'm like everybody else now.

I'm practical now". He eventually does decide that he will take his father to prison, but he has become disillusioned by himself, because of the fact that he hesitated to do so. He felt that he had been acting as a bad person himself, for not doing what he felt was the right thing for society. He learned that he had wishes in himself other than to do what was ultimately right, because he could not turn in his father, simply because he was his son, and he wished to keep his family together. Chris once believed that everyone should do what is best for society, but realizes that it is not reality, even for himself, and that most people do things simply for their own good.

Therefore All My Sons focuses around the central idea of the disillusionment of the young through Chris' discovery that neither his father, the rest of society, nor himself act wholly for the good of society, as Chris believes is right, but out of their own self-interest.