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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
Henry Ford is working on a “horseless carriage” in his backyard. While the adults in the neighborhood dismiss Ford as an eccentric inventor, kids like Abner Shutt are excited about his contraption. The carriage runs on four bicycle wheels and a new kind of engine, which is powered by gasoline. Hearing the loud chemical reactions from Ford’s garage, his neighbors think that Ford is going to blow himself up, but the kids eagerly come out to watch him work. Ford insists that when he finishes the engine, there will be roads full of the horseless carriages.
The opening of The Flivver King introduces the brand-new technology that will be central to the book—so new that it doesn’t have a name yet. Ford recognizes how the “horseless carriage,” or car, as it will come to be known, has the potential to revolutionize modern society.
Themes
