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
Ford is now the richest man in the world. He started out with ideals, but at 70 years old, he is now “helpless in the grip of a billion dollars.” Shut off from the outside world by security guards, Ford’s only associates are yes-men; he rarely talks to strangers because he has made a fool of himself in the newspapers so many times. He also made workers dependent on him, but now he has fired many of them and left them to fend for themselves. As a result, people are starting to believe that Ford bears some responsibility for the 5,000 unemployed workers that the city of Detroit is supporting, especially as Ford does not have to pay any taxes to Detroit because his factory lies outside the city.
Here, the novel examines the differences between how Ford lived when he began his enterprise and how he lives now. The contrast illustrates that both Ford and his workers have lost their humanity because of the constant desire for profit. The fact that Ford is “helpless” in the “grip” of his fortune suggests that he has lost agency in the capitalist system, and that his fortune has more control over his actions than he does. His workers, meanwhile, have completely lost their ability to gain basic human needs.
Themes
