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
Though Ford has been known as a model employer for years, now his practices are being questioned. His assembly line is using more machines so that one man can do the work formerly done by 20 men. The other 19 are then fired on violations like forgetting to wear a badge, or for staying too long on the toilet. When they’re fired, there is no appeal. Sometimes factory supervisors don’t even fire workers; they simply tell the workers that they aren’t needed at the moment and those workers have no way of making money or getting another job.
The machines on the assembly line represent another way in which technology does not mean unilaterally positive progress. Even though it allows Ford to be more efficient, it does so at the expense of working-class people, as many of them lose their jobs as a result. This also highlights the need for union protection, as the company can fire or furlough workers for essentially no reason without any kind of unemployment benefit.
Themes
With every month of the economic depression, conditions in the factory get worse. Supervisors drive the remaining workers until they injure themselves in their exhaustion. The supervisors overseeing the speed of the assembly line often overrule the safety department. The company even has its own hospital and there is a saying in the factory that one man dies on the assembly line every day.
