Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Player Piano, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Technology and Progress
Happiness, Self-Worth, and Passion
Class Division and Competition
Corporate Life vs. Human Connection
Summary
Analysis
Over the next few days, Paul feels exhilarated by his secret plan to quit. He’s in no rush to do anything, thinking it better to let things develop while he works on getting Anita to value something other than financial success. As he waits, he takes up reading, enjoying novels about adventurous men living in the wilderness and imagining himself leading a similarly rugged existence.
Paul’s attraction to adventure novels in which men live outside hints at his desire to feel self-sufficient. Right now, he lives in a highly mechanized world in which the vast majority of his needs are taken care of, leaving him to focus on his boring job. This is why the idea of taking care of himself in the wilderness seems so appealing, since this would at least be challenging and gratifying.
Themes
Meanwhile, the yearly corporate retreat at the Meadows is fast approaching. Paul receives a box of t-shirts and learns that he’s been made captain of the Blue Team. Each year, a select group from the company are invited to the Meadows, an island upon which they split into different teams and compete against each other. In the evenings, they watch professional actors put on skits about the importance of managers and engineers, and then they all go out drinking. Everyone loves getting invited to the Meadows, but Paul dreads it this year.
The Meadows is a perfect example of how the company for which Paul works actively encourages competition. The company seems to think competition will encourage employees to work harder, spurring them along by breaking them up into arbitrary teams and creating petty rivalries. And though the company might also see this as a chance for employees to build up some camaraderie, it’s evident that Paul doesn’t gain much from this superficial kind of team spirit—otherwise, he would actually be excited for the festivities.
Themes
Paul learns that Shepherd has been made captain of the Green Team—a surprising development, since only important people are made captain. Nonetheless, the Blue Team is usually the best team, though Paul doesn’t really care about this hierarchy anymore. This apathy, however, doesn’t spare him from everyone else’s excitement.
It doesn’t matter to Paul, but the fact that Shepherd is a team captain solidifies the competition that already exists between the two men. Of course, Paul doesn’t feel competitive toward Shepherd, but at the Meadows he will be forced to compete with him. This is a perfect example of how the company infuses competition into the workforce, pushing people like Paul to indulge in petty rivalries instead of genuinely connecting with people.
Themes
Finnerty visits Paul’s office freshly shaven and clean. He asks if he can use Paul’s car to move his things to Lasher’s house, where he’s staying. He has finally found a place where he belongs: with the people on the other side of the river. Paul gives him the keys, feeling as though his friend sees him as uptight and trapped inside a boring, useless life.
Paul’s self-consciousness in this moment suggests that he’s quite aware of his own unhappiness. Whereas Finnerty has taken the plunge by quitting his job, Paul is still holding onto his corporate existence. He plans to leave the company, but he hasn’t done so yet, meaning that he still has to put up with things he hates—like the corporate retreat at the Meadows. Seeing Finnerty makes him jealous because it emphasizes his own discontent.
Themes
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Kroner calls Paul and yells enthusiastically into the phone about the unmatched superiority of the Blue Team—which, incidentally, Kroner is also on. Each team has its own rallying song, and everyone drives Paul crazy by singing theirs whenever they get a chance. As he listens to Kroner boasting about the Blue Team (and Baer in the background singing the glory of the White Team), Paul looks at the burly man on the cover of his novel and envies him.
Once again, the competitive spirit at Paul’s company exhausts him. Although people like Kroner and Baer might think this kind of competition motivates their employees and brings them together, it has no effect on Paul—except, of course, that it annoys him. It also isolates him from everyone else at the company, since it feels as if he’s the only person who doesn’t buy into the corporate camaraderie.
Themes
Paul thinks back to his college days and tries to remember if he learned any “manual skill” during that period, but he comes up with nothing. He begins to feel uncomfortable about the idea of leaving his job, wondering what he’ll do. But then he thinks about the possibility of farming, and the simple, machine-free life seems like a magical idea.
Even though Paul is unhappy at his job and has been for quite some time, it’s not easy for him to just get up and leave. This is largely because he lives in a society that places a huge amount of importance on whether or not people are skilled and useful. Beyond the duties of his corporate position, Paul isn’t sure he actually has any way of supporting himself and Anita—until, that is, he thinks about farming, clearly seeing it as an opportunity to live with the same kind of self-sufficiency he admires in the adventure novels he’s been reading.
Themes
There aren’t any true farmers anymore, since they’ve all been replaced by “agricultural engineers.” There is, however, an old farm on the outskirts of town. While everyone sees it as a useful piece of property, its owner, Gottwald, stipulated in his will that the property had to be preserved exactly as it is. A real estate agent named Doctor Pond says as much when Paul calls to inquire about the place. And though Pond frames this as a frustrating thing, Paul loves the idea of buying the farm precisely because it’s a relic of the past. With this in mind, he makes plans to go see the property, which Pond discreetly suggests he can probably buy for as little as $8,000.
Paul’s interest in farming continues in this section, as he considers buying the only farm in his area that still exists. The farm itself is a perfect representation of his desire to go back to a time before machines ruled the country. This, he thinks, will finally make him happy, apparently believing that automation is at the root of his discontent. And yet, it’s worth noting that machines haven’t done anything to interfere with his life. Unlike the people living in Homestead, he hasn’t been rendered obsolete by automation, so it doesn’t quite make sense that simply living a life free of machines will make him happy. Nonetheless, he continues to romanticize the idea of a simple, old-fashioned life.
Themes
