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
At 40 years old, Ford still has no business success and he is essentially making cars by himself. But one of Ford’s friends, a coal dealer named Malcolmson, is interested in Ford’s victories in the races. Malcolmson puts up $7,000 to create the Ford Motor Company, and together he and Ford round up a series of investors. Altogether, the new company starts with $28,000; with these investments, they set up a new shop to make the cars in a building with a false front, which makes the building appear taller than it actually is.
Malcolmson’s and the others’ investments acknowledge Ford’s invention’s importance and the potential progress that it carries. The car itself is also a symbol of American idealism and industry at first, because it provides greater freedom and proves that success can be earned hard work. The detail of the false front on Ford’s first building is also symbolic, because it represents the fact that Ford is putting up a front of idealism—one that masks his underlying greed and corrupt nature.
Themes
