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
As the depression wears on, Ford meets hard times as well. While he was making more than $100 million in profits in 1924, 1925, and 1926, in 1931 he loses $53 million, and the following year he loses $75 million. Though Ford has $300 million in cash reserves, he’s worried about how long the depression will last.
Ford’s perspective during the Great Depression indicates how the capitalist system also degrades the wealthy. Ford is so concerned about maintaining his wealth that he doesn’t use his massive reserves to care for his workers; instead, he is only thinking of himself.
Themes
Meanwhile, public sentiment turns sharply against Ford. People point out Ford’s hypocrisy when he tries to convince the public that he is a philanthropist, even though he is clearly worried only about his own business. Ford wants the public to believe that good times are on the way back, but his optimism rings false because his actions don’t match his words. He says that he is going to hire 20,000 new men, but when workers show up for the jobs, he uses armed guards with clubs and guns to turn the workers away.
The public begins to recognize that Ford has lost some of his idealism. Rather than actually help workers in this time of dire need, he simply wants to project an image of helping others. At the same time, he takes actions that directly harm the people who want to work for him, as he not only tells them that he has jobs for them, but then he also violently turns them away when they simply want to make a living.
Themes
