Idealisms vs. Pragmatisms

627 Words2 Pages

In an event in which individual(s) feel overwhelmed by stress, according to Freud, an individual often tends to use a range of defense mechanisms to cope with any and/or all issues one deems too stressful. One of those mechanisms is denial: a primitive ego defense mechanism by which a person unconsciously negates the existence of a disease or other stress producing reality in their environment, by disavowing, thoughts, feelings, wishes, needs, or external reality factors that are consciously intolerable. The consistent interweaving between past and present in Arthur Miller’s “All My Sons,” introduces a remarkable perspective of idealisms vs. pragmatisms, and how the battle between the two can sometimes result in complete absence of one or the other. Throughout the story, several characters undergo vigorous denials and maintain vigilant irresponsibility to acknowledge actual happenings for ones own self preservation.

Kate Keller, wife of the main character Joe Keller and mother of Chris and Larry, is a principal example of how her own idealistic standards for her own family sup...

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