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
In mid-winter, Tom Jr. gets into a car accident on an icy road and is more than an hour late for work; when he arrives, his boss promptly fires him. Tom is blacklisted, meaning that he cannot work for any big industry in the Detroit area because Ford refuses to provide references for him. Fortunately, Tom has some money saved up, so during the day he attends committee meetings, and at night he meets with workers in absolute darkness to organize. They know that meeting not only imperils their job, but also their lives.
Tom’s firing over his involvement in the labor movement highlights exactly the need for that labor movement. At this time, Ford has a huge amount of power over workers—not only in their ability to make money at Ford’s, but in their ability to make money anywhere in Detroit. This power instills so much fear in workers that they feel unable to even meet together during the day when they might be recognized.
Themes
