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
Before the reorganization, Ford helped a friend out of debt by buying a local paper called the Dearborn Independent. Ford has long been frustrated with the dishonesty of the American press and decides to make the Dearborn Independent a journal which would “speak for the people’s welfare” and have “the courage to give them the truth.” He worries about the world, which seems constantly to be on the verge of chaos, and wants to figure out what is causing the world’s problems.
Ford’s desire to start a paper that will speak for “people’s welfare” and “the truth” suggests the idea that he doesn’t believe most print journalism does so. Publishing the Dearborn Independent, then, is Ford’s means to try and combat the misinformation that he has frequently encountered.
Themes
One day, a Russian man named Boris Brasol, a former agent of the “Black Hundreds,” meets with Ford, claiming to know what is causing the world’s problems. He has 100 pages of documents proving that the troubles of the world are due to a conspiracy of the Jews, who are plotting to seize control of the world. He points to the fact that all of the international bankers, munitions magnates, and revolutionaries are Jews. Boris’s documents convince Ford that what the man says is true.
Although Ford wants to find out the truth, he continues to be easily convinced by misinformation. The Black Hundreds were an anti-Semitic, ultra-nationalist movement in Russia. Thus, the information that Boris presents is just as biased and misinformed as the journalism that Ford hates. Yet Ford’s ignorance makes him susceptible to that bias.
Themes
