All My sons

If I decide to put a coin on a railroad track, when the train comes it will derail. Sure I may go to jail for my actions which shows that I brought the trouble to myself, but it also affects the people who were on the train. It was not their fault that I put the coin on the track and because of me, I possibly killed or hurt many people. In this example, I have caused some minor obstacles for myself, but have caused monumental obstacles for the people riding the train and also their family and relatives.
Arthur Miller illustrates this interpretation of the quotation in All My Sons. In this play, Joe Keller ships some cracked cylinder heads during the war and they are placed in some planes. The planes crash and kill twenty-one men. Joe Keller does go to jail for a little but he is set free because he was not at the shop when the heads were shipped. Instead he had his partner, Steve Deever, send the cylinder heads and Joe stayed home to maintain an alibi. Steve, however, is punished muc...