Page 67 - Point 5 Literature Program Option 1 Teachers Guide (2) (1)

students apply the skill of Explaining cause and effect to answer questions 7–10.
Answers to questions 7–10 might include:

7. The outcome was that 21 planes crashed and 21 pilots died.
8. Kate has to believe that Larry is coming back, otherwise maybe Joe is responsible for his death. If she lets Chris
and Ann marry, it means she has to accept Larry’s death. This is an effect she cannot accept.

9. George and the others realize that Joe must have been faking illness on the day the cracked cylinder heads were
shipped to the USAF, and this implied that Joe was guilty after all.

10. Joe finally understands that he is responsible for the death of Larry as well as for the deaths of the 21 pilots. He
goes into the house, supposedly to prepare to go to the police and turn himself in, but shoots himself instead.

In questions 11–13, students choose which HoTs to use to answer the questions and justify their
choices. accept all logical responses regarding choice of thinking skill.

Answers to questions 11–15 might include:

11. a. War brings out the worst in people.
Joe Keller and Steve Deever: They produced cracked cylinder heads in a rush at their plant, covered the cracks
and shipped the heads to the USAF so as not to lose money. Twenty-one pilots died because their planes
crashed. Lydia turned her back on George when he went to war and married Frank.
b. War may teach a new sense of loyalty.
Chris acquired a new sense of loyalty from his troops, who all sacrificed their lives for each other and for their
country during the war.
12. a. It is the news of Larry’s suicide that makes the Keller family fall apart.
b. It was the only way that Ann could convince Kate that Larry was dead so that she could marry Chris.
13. oe was right about Chris having high moral standards but made out that Chris was petty, unbalanced and
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impractical, which was not the case.
Larry was also a very moral and idealistic boy and couldn’t bear to continue living in the face of his father’s
involvement in war profiteering. Joe thought he would have had Larry’s support, so he was completely wrong
about him.

14. We can infer that if Larry died on his ‘favorable’ day, it was no accident – it must have been by choice, i.e., suicide.
15. The title refers to the fact that at the end of the play Joe Keller realizes that he should have treated all the pilots
as if they were his sons. If he had thought that Larry might end up flying one of those planes, he would not have
sent out the cracked cylinder heads. He should have cared just as much about the lives of the other pilots.

Bridging Text and Context

The question relates to miller’s critical examination of social values in america.
Use Rubric 3 on page 88 to mark written answers.
Answers might include:
What is important to Joe Keller is the financial success of his business as this gives him social status among his neighbors.
He also feels great pride that he preserved the business so he can pass it on to his son. This is much more important to
him than worrying about the safety of the pilots who might fly in planes with his cracked cylinder heads – which would
be both the moral and socially responsible choice. I can understand that Miller wants to criticize the over-importance of
wealth in a capitalist society and he uses the character of Keller to make this criticism.

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