Player Piano: Chapter 4 Summary & Analysis

Anita greets Paul with a cocktail when he gets home. She’s dressed lavishly for the dinner at the Country Club, and Paul momentarily resents her for caring so much about his (and, by extension, her) stature in Ilium. When he asks where Finnerty went, Anita says she sent Finnerty down to the Country Club to entertain Kroner and Baer before the dinner. She tries her best to act as if she likes Finnerty, but she can’t help herself from talking about how dirty and unkempt he always looks. And it’s true: Finnerty rarely washes himself and is always wearing the same raggedy suit. When he lived in Ilium, he was respected by all, but he still scandalized the strait-laced community by never marrying, openly seeing multiple women, and driving a beat-up car.

Like Paul, Finnerty used to drive a beat-up old car when he lived in Ilium. Although he claimed this was only because he spent his money on other things, Paul knows that Finnerty drove an ugly car to irk the other people in Ilium. This pleases Paul—while he himself isn’t “aggressive,” he delights in Finnerty’s behavior. Paul often thinks about what it would take to make himself happy, but these thoughts don’t go far. Though he assures himself that he “vaguely” knows, the truth is that he has no idea.

Lately, Paul has considered seeing a psychiatrist. He hopes this would make him “docile” and happy with his station in life. But now that Finnerty’s here, he finds himself wanting to do the exact opposite. Finnerty has always acted as if Paul has a secret “rebellious streak” inside of him, and though Paul usually ignores this, he now wonders if Finnerty is right.

Paul tells Anita about the uncomfortable experience he had at the bar on the other side of the river. She listens patiently but doesn’t understand what the problem is—it sounds like everyone in the bar admired and celebrated him! When this fails to make Paul feel better, Anita suggests that he’s tired and says she’s going to ask Kroner to give him a month off. He bitterly says he’ll ask Kroner himself for time off if he wants it.

Paul’s annoyance with Anita quickly lifts when he goes to change for dinner and finds Finnerty stretched out on a bed upstairs. He’s supposed to be at the Country Club with Kroner and Baer, but he snuck back into the house after Anita pushed him out. When Paul asks about his job in Washington, Finnerty says that he quit because he was “sick of it.” Everything was going fine until he received his yearly invitation to the Meadows—a summer tradition to build company morale. Looking at his invitation, something just “snapped” inside Finnerty, and he decided he couldn’t take this life anymore. 

Paul’s hands shake as he puts a cigarette in his mouth, and Finnerty is excited by the idea that Paul seems unwell. When Paul explains that he’s just nervous for his speech, though, Finnerty is disappointed. He admits that he thought Paul might be feeling the same way he felt—in fact, that’s why Finnerty came. Relenting, Paul admits that he might see a psychiatrist, and Finnerty, delighted, suggests that they skip the Country Club dinner so they can go talk.

Anita enters and is surprised to find Finnerty in her bedroom. It’s clear she’s annoyed that he’s not with Kroner and Baer. And Finnerty, in turn, is annoyed that she burst in, so he tells her that he has half a mind to invent a machine that does everything she does, effectively replacing her as Paul’s wife—a comment that enrages her, sending her downstairs in a fit of anger. Paul chastises his friend for unnecessarily picking a fight, to which Finnerty says he’s not sorry. He then tells Paul to go to the dinner without him.