Stage Direction: The house is two stories high and had seven rooms. It would have cost perhaps fifteen thousand in the early twenties when it was built.
Miller establishes in the setting that the Kellers' financial comfort defines them.
1 of 6
Chris: If I have to grub for money all day long at least at evening I want it beautiful. I want a family, I want some kids, I want to build something I can give myself to.
Chris hopes he can maintain a balance of making money and building a life he can believe in. His idealism prevents him from acknowledging the reality of the business he's inheriting.
2 of 6
Keller: I can afford another bag of potatoes.
Keller threw the potatoes away because he thought they were garbage. This wastefulness provides an interesting contrast to his crime of saving machine parts (which actually were garbage) and selling them to the military.
3 of 6
Keller: Walkin' down the street that day I was guilty as hell. Except I wasn't, and there was a court paper in my pocket to prove I wasn't, and I walked past the porches. Result? Fourteen months later I had one of the best shops in the state again.
What matters to Keller is that he eventually restored his business to prosperity. Material success is the ultimate goal.
4 of 6
Keller: I don't know what you mean! You wanted money, so I made money. What must I be forgive? You wanted money, didn't you?
Joe feels betrayed by Kate turning on him now. Like her neighbor Sue, she must have at some point encouraged him to make the family comfortable. Both Joe and Kate hide from their own responsibility in this matter.
5 of 6
Keller: It's dollars and cents, nickels and dimes; war and peace, it's nickels and dimes, what's clean? Half the Goddamn country's gotta go if I go!
Joe uses the dominant American ideology, capitalism, to excuse his actions.
6 of 6
Other cards in this set
Card 2
Front
Chris: If I have to grub for money all day long at least at evening I want it beautiful. I want a family, I want some kids, I want to build something I can give myself to.
Back
Chris hopes he can maintain a balance of making money and building a life he can believe in. His idealism prevents him from acknowledging the reality of the business he's inheriting.
Card 3
Front
Keller: I can afford another bag of potatoes.
Back
Card 4
Front
Keller: Walkin' down the street that day I was guilty as hell. Except I wasn't, and there was a court paper in my pocket to prove I wasn't, and I walked past the porches. Result? Fourteen months later I had one of the best shops in the state again.
Back
Card 5
Front
Keller: I don't know what you mean! You wanted money, so I made money. What must I be forgive? You wanted money, didn't you?
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