All My Sons - Context

All My Sons - Context

1. Based on a true story of a woman who turned her father in for supplying defective parts to the army

2. Miller took two and a half years to write the play. When he started in 1945 he was 30 years old

3. At the time there was a change in the role of women as they were offered more jobs due to men being in the war

4. Money was more and more important at the time, finance was a big part of life which was the opposite of make do and mend

5. A military minded person had pride, respect, self discipline, emotional detachment and didn't question authority

6. There was a lot of death occuring at the time. People were not returning home from the war and that left gaps in families

7. Communism, consumerism and capitalism. The period of the play coincides with the development of the idea of "The American Dream"

8. 18 years previous the Wall Street Crash heralded 10 years of depression throughout America. Miller's father lost his business and the failure of capitalism is shown throughout All My Sons