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 hires a well-known boxer in the navy, Harry Bennett, to head his security department. It is Bennett’s job to organize and train 3,600 private police who guard the gates of the plant, watch the work in the departments, report any violations of their regulations, and identify and root out union organizers from the workforce. In this way, Ford essentially sets up an intelligence bureau with spies. Bennett hires Hank Shutt as one of these spies, and Hank makes a good deal of money in this job—so much that he brings Abner and Milly money which allows them to afford food and shelter while Abner is unemployed.
Again, Ford demonstrates how he cares more about maintaining his fortune than he does about providing his workers with livable wages. Ford even spends huge amounts of money hiring people like Hank and Harry Bennett rather than spending money rehiring unemployed workers or providing the existing workers with a more livable wage. Ford’s wealth and Hank’s newfound success also exposes the irony of the American Dream: that the only people who can make a living during the Great Depression are ex-criminals and those who give up their morals, while honest, hard-working people are unable to make that same living.
Themes
