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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
Britain is winning against the German naval fleet and they are intent on destroying it entirely. These forces have a big impact on Wall Street: prices for everything that can be used in a world war go up, and 17,000 new millionaires are made in America. Banks are keen for the war’s continuation and the German fleet’s destruction, and magazines and newspapers (which are those banks’ clients) make fun of Ford mercilessly for his peace ship. Most people agree with the newspapers, but historians, looking back on the way the Allied forces took advantage of their situation and what came out of it afterward, thought that Ford showed more sense than most of Europe.
Sinclair continues to reveal the corruption of American institutions. Rather than fight for peace and diplomacy, the newspapers and other leaders mock Ford for his pacifism. Journalists like Sinclair note that banks and others have a vested interest in the war, and they are also able to bias the newspapers and the people as a whole. Sinclair hints, however, that Ford’s instinct toward pacifism was right; he foreshadows here that end of World War I instigated German nationalism and set the stage for World War II.
Themes
