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Chapter 30
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
Paul sits in jail and makes conversation with the other man in his cell. This man has been jailed for beating a traffic safety education box to smithereens. The box tells pedestrians when to cross the street and dispenses safety tips—all of which deeply annoy this man because his window is right next to one of these machines. As a result, he lost his temper one day and smashed the box to pieces. As his cellmate complains about his predicament, Paul thinks about his own situation and considers the fact that he’s still along for the ride, not knowing what, exactly, will happen to him. All this time, he realizes, he hasn’t made any actual decisions—he’s simply gone along with whatever happened.
The story of how Paul’s cellmate wound up in jail illustrates the extent to which machines often drive people crazy instead of helping them. The fact that this man beats a traffic box to smithereens is a good indicator of just how fed-up people are with their highly mechanized society. Meanwhile, Paul has the time in jail to reflect on his involvement with the Ghost Shirt Society, finally recognizing that he hasn’t actually made any decisions for himself. Instead, he has just bounced from his corporate life to the life of a rogue revolutionary, thus demonstrating his overall lack of personal agency and direction in life.
Themes
Paul hears a tapping sound against the wall and recognizes it as Morse code. Tapping back, he asks who’s there and is shocked to learn that Fred Garth is sitting in the next cell. In Morse code, Garth tells him that he vandalized the oak tree because his eldest son failed the General Classification Test again. Fed up with the entire system, Garth took out his anger and dismay on the tree, and though this isn’t actually a crime, the company called the police and easily convinced them to arrest him.
Fred Garth turned against the company because he finally experienced the injustices of this societal structure. Because his son has failed the General Classification Test twice now, it’s obvious that his options in life will be severely limited. After all, nobody without a college degree can have much of a career. Fred himself has probably never had to worry about this until now, since he occupies a powerful position as the manager of the Buffalo Works. Now, though, he can’t just ignore the unfair nature of this system. This hints at one of the reasons it’s hard to change the power structures of this society: the people in power have never experienced the hardships that everyone else has to deal with. Fred’s story suggests that if they had, it might be easier to change their minds.
Themes
A guard calls Paul out of the cell, where he meets two visitors: Anita and Kroner. Kroner asks how he’s doing, and Anita congratulates him for his work. She knows that he was working as an infiltrator. And now that she knows this, she’s excited to reunite with him, strongly insinuating that they will have sex as soon as they get home. Paul considers this and is relieved to find that he doesn’t care if he never has sex with Anita again. Before he can decline, though, Kroner compliments him on the letter bearing his name, saying it was a perfect way to make everyone believe he really belonged to the Ghost Shirt Society—though the letter itself made no sense to Kroner at all.
The last time Paul saw Anita, she told him she was going to marry Shepherd. Now, though, all she wants is to go home and make love to Paul. This shows how much she cares about status, since her feelings toward Paul are directly linked to whether or not she thinks he’s in a position of power at the company. When she thought he’d been fired, she wanted nothing to do with him, but now that he’s back in the good graces of the company, she’s eager to erase any tension between them. This change of heart makes it obvious that she doesn’t really care about Paul as a person—so obvious, in fact, that Paul finally seems to realize that their relationship isn’t all that fulfilling, which is why he doesn’t care if they never have sex again.
Themes
Anita excitedly tells Paul that the letter bearing his name has done something magnificent: he’s now lined up for a much bigger job than manager of the Pittsburgh plant. Baer apparently read the letter sent out with Paul’s name and found it so convincing that he packed up his things and quit. Because of this, Paul will become the Manager of Engineering for the entire Eastern Division.
It’s worth remembering the conversation that Baer, Kroner, and Paul had in Kroner’s study, when Baer genuinely stopped to think about Paul’s worry that technological progress is detrimental to society. This suggests that Baer has always been open-minded enough to entertain opposing viewpoints. In fact, he even implied in that conversation that the only way he was able to keep doing his job was by not thinking too much about the repercussions of automation. The Ghost Shirt letter, it seems, has made it impossible for him to go on ignoring these repercussions. More than anything, this suggests that society truly is ripe for a revolution, since even powerful people like Baer aren’t as steadfast in their opinions as it might initially seem.
Themes
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The only thing Paul needs to do to become Manager of Engineering is go on the record with the information he discovered when he was with the Ghost Shirt Society. But when Kroner turns on the tape machine, Paul freezes. He has seen this day coming for a while, knowing he’d eventually have to make some kind of choice of his own. And this choice, he realizes, has nothing to do with machines—it’s an “internal” choice, and he knows in his heart what to do. When Kroner asks him who the official leader of the Ghost Shirt Society is, then, he doesn’t hesitate: “I am,” he says, feeling a sense of belonging and purpose for the first time in his life.
Paul finally makes a decision, pledging his allegiance not to the company, but to the Ghost Shirt Society. What’s interesting, though, is that he feels as if this decision has nothing to do with machines. Even though the Ghost Shirt Society’s main objective is to fight back against automation, Paul’s decision to officially join them is more of a personal matter. Throughout his career, he has struggled to feel a sense of passion for his job, and this has led to a constant, low-level unhappiness. But now, for the first time, he actually feels he has a purpose because he knows his involvement with the Ghost Shirts is tangibly benefitting the Society. In this way, he finally gets to feel the sense of usefulness that Lasher argues everyone must feel in order to be happy.
Themes
