All My Sons Kate Keller Quotes

Mother: While you were getting mad about Fascism Frank was getting into her bed.
George: He won the war, Frank. (2.372-3)

Like Chris, George comes back disillusioned from the war. Faced with the banal reality of late '40s America, they can't understand what they were fighting for in the first place.

Kate Keller > Joe Keller

Quote 11

Mother: Everything that happened seems to be coming back. I was just down the cellar, and what do I stumble over? His baseball glove. I haven't seen it in a century. (1.254)

Kate subtly but very powerfully inserts reminders of Larry into the conversation, making it more difficult for Joe and Chris to be honest with her about their own belief that he's dead. She wants to maintain a certain reality.

Kate Keller > Ann Deever

Quote 12

Mother: [emotionally] You think of him! You see? [Triumphantly] She thinks of him!… he's in your thoughts.
Ann: That's a funny thing to say; how could I help remembering him? (1.358-361)

For Kate, Ann's reference to Larry is a vindication of her own faith that he's still alive. For Ann – who, even at this point, knows for a fact Larry is dead – it's just part of a memory.