Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Flivver King, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Capitalism and Dehumanization
American Idealism and Disillusionment
Misinformation, Media Bias, and Ignorance
Individualism vs. Unionization
Technology and Progress
Summary
Analysis
With Abner’s new job security, he and Milly get married and take their first and last vacation. Over the following six years, they have six children, of whom four survive: three boys (John, Henry “Hank,” and Tom Jr.) and a girl (Daisy). While Abner and Milly are fulfilling their dream, Ford is fulfilling his: to make sure that the Shutt children grow up in a world with millions of cars to convey them anywhere in the country.
Abner and Henry are both starting to achieve success. Abner is able to marry and pursue his version of the American Dream: having a good job and a big family. Meanwhile, Ford continues to pursue his own dream of providing people with greater mobility around the country, underscoring his new technology’s benefits.
Themes
In its first year, the Ford Motor Company makes $1.5 million—nearly one quarter of which is profit. The first car, the Model A, sells for $850, and Ford hopes to keep reducing the price in order to sell more cars. This strategy puts him at odds with his investors, who want to design a new car model every year that costs the same high price. That way, wealthy people will feel like they have to have the latest model and will continue to buy new cars.
While Ford wants to provide people with opportunity on a grand scale, the investors are attempting to provide the car’s opportunity and economic benefit only to the rich, demonstrating how new technology and progress can sometimes intensify the socioeconomic inequality that already exists.
Themes
The investors outvote Ford, so Ford begins making new models at the same prices every year. Each year, however, his sales drop further. Ford decides to buy out the investors who are dissatisfied, and as a result anyone who doesn’t agree with Ford leaves the company. Ford then starts to make less expensive cars, and the results are immediate: in 1906, the year after this buyout, the company sells five times as many cars as the previous year.
Ford’s new strategy demonstrates how the capitalist system is benefitting everyone—at least at first. Americans are able to buy cars at significantly reduced prices, and as a result Ford is able to find a much greater level of success.
Themes
