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Chapter 47
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
Ford is now close to making 2 million cars a year; he has 60 factories across the U.S. and 28 in foreign countries. People are also traveling and mingling like never before, thanks to Ford remaking the roads of America. As time passes, however, Ford starts to lose his optimism; he feels the world is becoming corrupted. Girls are wearing short skirts, people are listening and dancing to jazz music, and the public is even starting to criticize the Model T. Though Ford led the world into the future, all he wants is to retain old values. Trying to hang onto the past, Ford buys a traditional house and fills it with objects from his childhood.
Ford’s obsession with the past is an aspect of his disillusionment—he feels that Americans are losing the values that he once held dear. The irony is that Ford was a huge instigator of progress, as his cars allowed people to travel and appreciate new styles and different music. Thus, his nostalgia (as he fills his home with objects from a time before this progress) is another aspect of how technology and progress don’t always seem wholly good.
Themes
