The "social Responsibility" Compared in Two Plays: The Crucible and All My Sons

The "Social Responsibility" compared in two plays: The Crucible and All My Sons

Should I tell the truth, or should I lie to get out of my problem? This is one question many humans are faced with today. But most don't consider the two options thoroughly enough to make the right choice. On the other hand, some do. Some people firmly believe in one of the options over the other. In the case of Arthur Miller, a famous 1950's play writer, the right choice is to do the right thing (a.k.a. tell the truth/exercise justice), no matter what the consequences. He believes there is no justification to do the wrong thing, even if it is for self-serving means. He shows this theme of social responsibility in two of his famous plays, The Crucible and All My Sons, in different examples.

In All My Sons, Miller illustrates the social responsibility humans have toward one another. Joe Keller (a main character) owned a business/factory that made and sent out airplane parts to the government during World War II. The government was demanding a certain number of planes from Keller, a number that Keller could not achieve if something went wrong. All was well until, one day, a shipment of defected parts came in. Keller had to decide whether to send the out the planes with defected parts or to throw the parts away and risk the chance of his company going bankrupt. He put all his hard work into the business for his family, and didn't want it all to go to waste. So he decided to send out the planes made of defected parts. Keller did not consider enough that his action would lead to the deaths of the soldiers flying in those planes. He thought his family was more important than the young soldiers' lives. He only later realized that he had not thought about his social responsibility to his own species. "...they were all my sons." This quote describes the way Keller felt about the soldiers who he indirectly killed after he realized his social responsibility to others. Another example of this is when Keller was sent to jail once the government found out that it was Keller's fault that the soldiers in his planes died. To save his own life, and his family's income, he blamed another employee for giving the order to send out the planes. Keller ruined that employee's life; the employee was sent to jail, no way to provide for his family. Keller did not recognize the social responsibility humans have toward one another, and that he shouldn't have blamed someone else for his actions. It took him a few years to finally realize that he owed his life to a much bigger society than his family.

Arthur Miller also shows the social responsibility of humans in his play The Crucible. This play was based in 1692 in the puritan town of Salem, Massachutes. This was a time where witchcraft was a common explanation of unfortunate events, and many people were put to death because they