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
In the new plant, Abner continues to oversee the wheel assembly. He goes from car to car, watching others work. This is before the assembly line, which means that a lot of men are constantly bumping into each other. Abner also has to keep the men in line behaviorally, making sure that they don’t come to work drunk. Abner is generally easy-going and hates to make trouble, but if someone isn’t doing their work correctly, Abner is forced to report the man to a supervisor.
Abner notes the inefficiency of their division of labor without the assembly line, because so many men are wasting time running around and bumping into each other. Abner also reveals how the hierarchy in the plant puts the men at odds with one another, rather than unifying them as workers in pursuit of the same benefits and wages.
Themes
In 1907, there is another panic on Wall Street, but it barely affects Ford’s sales. In the year after the panic, he produces 6,181 cars—three per worker. Within three years, Ford is making 35,000 cars for 6,000 workers—almost six cars per worker. In that period, Abner is paid a 15 percent wage increase to make twice as many cars, and he considers himself one of the luckiest workers in America.
The data in this passage paints a clear picture of the profit system’s inequity. While Abner is doing twice the work, he only receives a 15 percent increase in wages, highlighting the need for fair wage regulation and unionization. The fact that Abner views himself as one of the luckiest workers in America is telling, because it illustrates the reason that Abner won’t ask for more money—he knows that other people don’t make nearly as much as he does and he could easily lose his job to someone who will work for less. Thus, these statistics highlight the need for an outside force like a union to ensure the men are treated fairly.
Themes
