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In All My Sons, describe Chris's main conflicts with his father, mother, and girlfriend.
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Chris Keller faces significant conflicts with his family and girlfriend. With his father, Joe, Chris struggles to reconcile the man he admired with the one who committed a crime that killed 21 pilots, leading to a permanent rift. His mother, Kate, refuses to accept Larry's death, causing tension as Chris plans to marry Ann, Larry's former girlfriend. Chris and Ann clash over confronting his parents with the truth about Joe's guilt and Larry's death.
Chris Keller is deeply conflicted about his relationship with his father, which includes working in the family business. He has long viewed his father as a person of integrity, but during the course of the play, he is forced to admit the man he admired is a fraud and a liar. Their confrontation turns him away from his father permanently.
Kate, Chris's mother, clings to the idea that her other son, Larry (who is MIA), is still alive. Her conflicts with Chris include this belief, as she favors the idealized, distant son over the real, present one. She further takes issue when Chris believes the information about his father's guilt. Also, if Larry is alive, Chris is wrong, in her eyes, to want to marry Ann. Chris knows the truth will destroy his mother, but he must be honest.
Ann is the daughter of Steve Deever, Joe's former business partner,...
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who took sole blame and went to jail for the corruption in which Joe shared equally. Ann loves Chris, but she knows that Larry is dead and that his father is guilty and should have been jailed instead. She and Chris clash over him stepping up and confronting his parents with the truth.
Chris is in conflict with his mother over whether or not he should marry Ann, his brother's former girlfriend. Kate, Chris's mother, insists that Larry is still alive and so it would be wrong for Chris to marry his girlfriend.
Chris, however, is assured that Larry will not be coming home. Ann feels the same way.
The conflict between the two would-be lovers is rather slight. Chris is hesitant to "claim" Ann or to truly embrace her, literally and figuratively. He is worried that he is betraying a truth about himself that he discovered in the war about living authentically.
The conflict between Chris and his father is related to the conflict that animates the play at large. Chris does not want to suspect his father of committing a fraud that led to the deaths of twenty-one pilots, but ultimately comes to understand that Joe Keller is guilty of this crime.
The conflict between the two men is directly drawn from this act of betrayal on Joe's part. Joe is extremely upset by the loss of his son's faith and affection.
He talks, too, of needing Chris's forgiveness and his intent to take his own life should he not get it.