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Chapter 18
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Player Piano, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Technology and Progress
Happiness, Self-Worth, and Passion
Class Division and Competition
Corporate Life vs. Human Connection
Summary
Analysis
The next day, Paul and Anita go to the Meadows. When their plane lands, they part ways, since the men stay on a separate island from their wives and families. As the men make their way onto a boat that will take them to their island, they shout out their team names and then listen to the national anthem play over a speaker while fireworks explode in the air.
There’s an exaggerated sense of team spirit and camaraderie that comes along with this corporate retreat. The employees are expected to not only celebrate their teams, but also the country as a whole. This suggests that there’s a certain overlap between company pride and patriotism, as if it’s deeply patriotic for people to devote themselves wholeheartedly to their jobs—an attitude that aligns with this society’s overall obsession with work and productivity.
Themes
Once on the island, the employees make their way to their tents, where they’ve been assigned a bunkmate. Paul is surprised to discover that his tent-buddy is Fred Garth—the other man up for the Pittsburgh job. Paul wonders why he would be placed with Garth. But instead of dwelling on this, he focuses on exchanging greetings with the man, who tells him that his oldest son just took the General Classification Test and failed. Luckily, Garth was able to appeal this result, so the boy will be taking the test again tomorrow.
Although Paul doesn’t bother to think too deeply about this turn of events, it’s clear that the company has placed him with Garth as a way of sparking competition between the two men. Of course, Kroner has already implied that he wants Paul to get the Pittsburgh job, but he apparently still wants to keep Paul on his toes—yet another illustration of how competition is a huge part of the corporate world to which Paul belongs. However, even Garth doesn’t seem particularly interested in competing with Paul, instead worrying about his son’s future. This is interesting because it reveals that even people from successful, powerful families have to prove their intelligence. At the same time, though, the fact that Garth’s son gets to take the General Classification Test twice implies that he enjoys certain privileges that people from less powerful families don’t have.
Themes
At dinner that night, everyone is required to sit next to someone they don’t know. On his way to his seat, Paul walks by Kroner, who tells him that the following night, they’ll sneak away together for a secret meeting with Doctor Gelhorne. Gelhorne is the “National Industrial, Commercial, Communications, Foodstuffs, and Resource Director,” which is the highest position at the entire company. Paul knows that this meeting will be about him betraying Finnerty and Lasher. Kroner suggest that this will be huge for Paul’s career.
Paul has managed to put off quitting ever since he last spoke to Kroner. Although he has told himself that he’s going to leave the company, he has yet to actually do so. This illustrates his passive way of moving through life. Instead of simply refusing to betray his best friend, Paul waits and does nothing. This highlights how easy it is to simply go with the flow of corporate life. In the same way that Paul spent years ignoring his unhappiness by just going about his daily duties, he now puts off actually telling Kroner that he won’t betray Finnerty.
Themes
Paul sits down next to a young engineer named Doctor Ed Harrison, who recognizes Paul’s last name and asks him about his father. As Paul and Harrison talk, everyone quiets down because Kroner walks over to a large oak tree and delivers a speech. Each year, he stands under this tree—which he says is a symbol of “courage, integrity, perseverance, beauty”—and speaks emotionally about the great employees of the past. This year, he eulogizes the former manager of the Pittsburgh Works, and as he does so, Paul is astounded to see how solemn and mournful everyone becomes at Kroner’s words, which are mainly about this man’s devotion to the company.
The company encourages employees to get to know each other but then doesn’t even give them enough time to legitimately connect. This is evident when Paul starts talking to Harrison but is quickly cut off by Kroner’s speech, underlining that the company doesn’t actually care whether or not people connect with each other. This suggests that the company merely wants to seem like the kind of place that fosters meaningful relationships. In other words, everything is extremely impersonal in this corporate environment, as made obvious by the fact that Kroner’s eulogy focuses exclusively on the former Pittsburgh manager’s value to the company, not on what kind of person he was.
Themes
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