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Never seen in the play, Larry Keller committed suicide in war, following news that his father and Steve manufactured faulty parts and killed American soldiers. Only Annie (Larry’s former girlfriend) knew of Larry’s suicide, and when she reveals it Joe comes to believe that he has killed his son, and therefore kills himself at the close of the play. Larry is memorialized by the Kellers in the form of a tree in the backyard, which is shorn by the wind.
Larry Keller Quotes in All My Sons
The All My Sons quotes below are all either spoken by Larry Keller or refer to Larry Keller. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Act 1 Quotes
Well, a favorable day for a person is a fortunate day, according to his stars. In other words it would be practically impossible for him to have died on his favorable day.
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Frank is an openly superstitious character. He has spent his time since the war living in suburbia, working a job, and reading astrological charts for information on Larry Keller's disappearance. From the beginning, then, Miller's play is concerned with the line between rational understanding, belief, and superstition. Most of the other characters are not as explicitly superstitious as Frank, but they nevertheless each have, in their way, their own non-rational understandings of how events played out during and after the Second World War.Despite this, the other characters, with the exception of Kate Keller, seem not to pay too much serious Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesci
See? We should have never planted that tree. I said so in the first place; it was too soon to plan a tree for him.
Too soon!
We rushed into it . . . .
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This is an even more explicit reference, on Kate's part, to the idea that Larry might still in fact be alive. Chris understands that this really cannot be the case. Furthermore, Chris knows that Kate and Joe's unwillingness to accept Larry's death is a way for the family both to deal with the trauma of the war and to refuse to move beyond it.Chris, however, does want to leave the war behind. He does not want to remain in Larry's shadow, and he does not want to be compared to his brother anymore. Larry is no longer alive, and so Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perfere
It’s wrong to pity a man like that [Steve]. Father or no father, there’s only one way to look at him. He knowingly shipped out parts that would crash an airplane. And how do you know Larry wasn’t one of them?
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Ann states without guilt that if her father, Steve, knowingly was involved in the shipping of faulty parts for airplanes during the war, then he should be punished. Ann believes that the guilt for the airmen's deaths should fall on the heads of those who were negligent in manufacturing the parts. She does not seem to imply that Joe was one of these people—she places the blame squarely on her father's shoulders, despite their close familial relationship.But, of course, the other characters in the play recognize that Joe might very well have been responsible for the shipping of the parts Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dol
Act 2 Quotes
. . . it’s very unusual to me, marrying the brother of your sweetheart.
I don’t know. I think it’s mostly that whenever I need somebody to tell me the truth I’ve always thought of Chris . . . . He relaxes me.
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Sue makes no bones about telling Ann that her behavior—marrying Chris after being Larry's girlfriend during the war—is "strange" to her. Ann, for her part, admirably replies that she loves and admires Chris, and that the two themselves have had a long friendship, dating back even to when Larry and Ann were together. Ann thus parries Sue's attack—trying to brush off her concern while defending her choice to be with Chris.Sue seems to want to sow discord between Chris and Ann. She, like Jim and some of the other neighbors, is heavily involved in the privates lives of those she Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo
And now you’re going to listen to me, George. You had big principles, Eagle Scouts the three of you [Larry, George, Chris] . . . Stop being a philosopher, and look after yourself. Like Joe was just saying—you move back here, he’ll help you get set, and I’ll find you a girl and put a smile on your face.
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Kate more explicitly addresses what she perceives to be George's "problem." Kate believes that everything can be solved by the creation of an intact family unit. This is perhaps why she is most haunted by Larry's loss—because Larry was not able to return, marry Ann, and begin his own family. Although Kate also wants Chris to have a family, she is cooler on the prospect of Chris's marrying Ann, who is "Larry's girl," and who belongs therefore to a different family unit.Kate ignores, then, what George is really saying—that Joe is a criminal and a liar, and that he has Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus
Act 3 Quotes
The war is over! Didn’t you hear? It’s over!
Then what was Larry to you? A stone that fell into the water? It’s not enough for him [Joe] to be sorry. Larry didn’t kill himself to make you and Dad sorry.
What more can we be!
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Kate's statement—The war is over!—means that the past is really in the past, that there is nothing anyone can do to change it. Kate believes that, whatever crimes Joe committed, whatever guilt the family bears, they must be ignored if the family is to continue on into the future. This is why the Kellers remained in the neighborhood and lived their lives as though nothing had happened.But Larry also remains the reason why the Kellers cannot fully let go of the war. Because Kate holds out hope that Larry will, in fact, return, the war is never truly relegated to Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferend
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Larry Keller Character Timeline in All My Sons
The timeline below shows where the character Larry Keller appears in All My Sons. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Act 1
...has two sons: one, Chris, who works with him in the family business, and one, Larry, who died flying a mission in the Second World War. The play is set is...
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...a tree in the backyard, a tree Joe reveals was planted as a memorial to Larry, his son lost in the war. Joe says a storm the previous night sheared the...
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...and eating breakfast—Ann was a girl who used to live in the neighborhood and date Larry, and she remains a friend of the Keller family.
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Chris and Joe look at the shorn tree that once memorialized Larry. Chris tells Joe, to Joe’s surprise, that Kate, Joe’s wife and Chris’s mother, has already...
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...“made a mistake” with Kate because they have kept her under the false impression that Larry might still be alive, even though he went missing in battle three years before. Chris...
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...wants to ask her to marry him, even though he knows that Annie was once “Larry’s girl,” and even though Kate will not approve of the union—since it will mean, symbolically,...
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...But Kate also says she likes the fact that Annie has not moved on from Larry and gotten married. Kate complains that many women whose husbands or boyfriends died in the...
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...becomes upset with his mother, indicating to her that, perhaps, Annie is no longer mourning Larry, and that she has waited to get married for other reasons. But Kate will have...
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Chris is shocked to hear that Kate believes it is “too soon” to be mourning Larry. Chris says that the tree’s being cut in half has no significance for Larry’s life...
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...presumed lost in the war who have returned home, but Joe says the chances of Larry returning are very slim. Kate still believes, or wants to believe, that Annie, too, is...
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...she’s surprised he has so many clothes, but Chris reveals that Annie is staying in Larry’s old room, and that the clothes and shoes, still shined by Kate, are Larry’s—Annie seems...
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Annie goes so far as to wonder whether her father’s negligence didn’t kill Larry, who happened to go missing in a plane crash. But Kate begs Annie never to...
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...Annie tells Chris to kiss her like he means it, and not like he’s just Larry’s brother. Annie asks Chris if Chris is ashamed about their union, and Chris says no,...
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Act 2
...day. Chris is outside, in dress pants but no shirt, clearing away the brush from Larry’s sheared tree. Kate comes out, not yet dressed for dinner, to see what Chris is...
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...finished his astrological calculations, and that November 25th was in fact a favorable day for Larry, meaning Larry “can’t” have died on that day. Kate appreciates this information and sends Frank...
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Kate then screams to Joe and Chris that Chris has to understand something: if Larry is dead, then Joe “killed” him, and “God doesn’t allow fathers to kill their sons.”...
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...the murder of 21 pilots, and though Joe keeps arguing that he’s not responsible for Larry’s death, Chris is too horrified by his father’s actions to believe anything he says anymore....
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Act 3
...that she wants Kate to speak directly to Chris, apologizing for keeping the memory of Larry alive. Annie vows that Larry is in fact dead, and that Kate knows it. But...
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...to intercept her, shoves it in Chris’s hands, telling Chris it was the last thing Larry sent her—Annie does this, it seems, to persuade Chris to take her with him, since...
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...though he was responsible for the deaths of some pilots, he was not responsible for Larry’s. Joe tells Annie, Kate, and Chris that, although he always thought he didn’t kill his...
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