A small boy from the neighborhood, Bert plays a longstanding game with Joe, attempting to “lock up” criminals in a jail Joe pretends is in the Keller family’s basement. But Kate comes out to yell at Bert, telling him that there is no prison in the house, and that Joe has “nothing to hide” there. This instance of foreshadowing indicates that, in fact, Joe does have something to hide—his involvement in the manufacturing fiasco that killed 21 pilots.
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Bert Character Timeline in All My Sons
The timeline below shows where the character Bert appears in All My Sons. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Act 1
...and asks for the book section of the newspaper. A boy from the neighborhood named Bert enters to speak with Joe; Joe is playing a long-term game with Bert, where Bert...
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...believe, that Annie, too, is waiting for Larry to return. As the two are talking, Bert comes back to report to Joe on his sweep of the neighborhood, and asks again...
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