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Larry Keller
Never seen in the play, Steve Deever, Annie’s father, was Joe’s subordinate at the manufacturing plant, and his cowardice in allowing the parts to be caulked over and shipped has landed him in jail. Steve, however, knows that Joe ordered him to caulk over the parts, and Steve therefore demands that Joe, too, face justice for the crime he has committed.
Steve Deever Quotes in All My Sons
The All My Sons quotes below are all either spoken by Steve Deever or refer to Steve Deever. 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
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
The man was a fool, but don’t make a murderer out of him.
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Joe's motivations for justifying Steve's behavior (knowingly shipping faulty parts for airplanes during the war) are complex. We learn later that Joe really is guilty of negligence, and that he is doubly guilty for foisting the blame entirely on Steve. By the end of the play, it sounds as though Steve simply was not strong enough to stand up to Joe and prevent the shipment of the parts. Nevertheless, the prime mover in the shipment was Joe, and therefore he should have paid most mightily for his crimes. Yet Joe walks around the community unpunished—until the very end of the 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 volupt
Act 2 Quotes
. . . you and George . . . go to prison and tell him [Steve] . . . “Dad, Joe wants to bring you into the business when you get out.”
You’d have him as a partner?
No, no partner. A good job.
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Joe's comments to Chris and Ann are as complicated as many of his other emotional responses in the text. Joe and Steve were partners in the airplane-part business—thus, Joe offering Steve a job is, at best, a less-valuable offer than the job Steve originally had. Of course, it is later revealed that Joe also testified against Steve and put him in jail, allowing him to take the fall for the entire faulty-part affair. Many have repudiated Steve and his actions—including Ann—although George, Ann's brother, seems more willing to defend their father.Joe, in short, feels that he owes at least something 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 ip
How is he [Steve]?
He got smaller
Smaller?
Yeah, little. He’s a little man. That’s what happens to suckers, you know. It’s good I went to him in time—another year there’d be nothing left but his smell.
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George is clearly the most embittered character in the play. He is desperately angry at the Keller family for what he feels is their injustice toward his father. George seems to understand that his father, Steve, could not have acted alone in the faulty-part affair. He senses instead that Joe perhaps directed the production of the parts, or at least knew about them, and did nothing to stop their shipment. George therefore does not participate in much of the "performance" of goodwill and friendship that others in the town, and especially in the Keller family, try to put on. George 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.
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Steve Deever Character Timeline in All My Sons
The timeline below shows where the character Steve Deever appears in All My Sons. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Act 1
Joe and Kate also ask after Annie’s father, Steve, and mother—there seems to have been some trouble in their relationship, and Annie tells them,...
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...when he was exonerated after a re-trial (the trial which appears, also, to have sent Steve to jail), he walked home with his head held high, and although some women in...
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...does not; she thinks he is a murderer, and Chris appears to agree, saying that Steve “killed” 21 American pilots in the war. Again, this fact is not explained further.
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...to her that she knows Larry never flew P-40s, and that the malfunction for which Steve was apparently responsible—a manufacturing error—had nothing to do with the kind of plane Larry would...
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...to Annie what her father has done (and, simultaneously, providing the audience with more context): Steve and Joe worked together in Joe’s business (Steve was Joe’s direct subordinate), and Steve OK’d...
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Joe tells Annie that her father is not a bad man, that he just made a mistake, and that he’s no...
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...still harbors a grudge against Joe for her father’s prison term, since Joe averred that Steve acted alone, without Joe’s input, in OK’ing the production of the cracked parts. This was...
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...have nothing to do with George, and that Annie harbors no grudge against Joe for her father’s fate (in fact, she strictly blames her father), Joe appears cheered, saying he wants to...
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Act 2
...Jim “know” that Joe merely lied to get out of jail time and to put Steve in prison; she says she hates living next to the “Holy Family,” the Kellers, and...
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...everyone. Annie asks Chris why he pretended that the whole town had forgotten about the Joe-Steve affair, and Chris says he was worried, at first, that Annie would find it strange...
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...a lawyer job in the small town, and, additionally, could probably find a job for Steve back at Keller, Inc. Annie is surprised that Joe would want to do anything for...
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...Jim is worried that George’s anger, which Jim believes to have to do with the Joe-Steve affair, will only cause Kate grief, and Jim is worried about Kate’s fragile state of...
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...with the intention to marry Chris. This prompted remorse in George, who wanted to tell Steve of Annie’s impending marriage; thus George flew to Columbus to see Steve, where Steve told...
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George tells Annie and Chris, in the yard, that Joe ordered Steve, on the phone three years ago, to weld over the defective parts, then Joe pretended...
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Chris tells George that Steve is a timid man who wants to shift the blame to someone else; but George...
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...and strains his “joviality” to welcome George. He asks how George is doing, and how Steve is; George says Steve seems “sick” in his soul, and that he hates Joe’s guts,...
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Act 3
...Joe over Annie, but Kate tells him, flat-out, that the argument was about George and Steve. Jim reveals that he has known, too, that Joe was responsible for the faulty parts,...
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...Joe away from him (to keep Joe from hearing), that Larry was aware, overseas, of Steve and Joe’s trial, and that, out of shame, Larry decided, the day after the letter,...
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