Wealth, Power, and Inequality Theme Analysis

Both of the main characters in The Sirens of Titan—Malachi Constant and Winston Niles Rumfoord—are extraordinarily rich and powerful, and through them the novel explores the dangers, drawbacks, and illusions of power and inequality. Both Rumfoord and Constant at times appear to have almost superhuman levels of power, but this neither makes them happy nor works out in the long run. Rumfoord and Constant’s experiences show that wealth and power can foster loneliness and paranoia on the part of the wealthy and powerful themselves. Through the war that occurs between Earth and Mars, the novel also demonstrates how inequality tends to create an unstable social system that can lead to brutal and violent vengeance.

Constant and Rumfoord come from two very different forms of wealth, but neither man actually earned their money, suggesting that just because one is a wealthy elite doesn’t mean one deserves the disproportionate power that one has over others. Rumfoord is from an “old money” New England family, and has thus inherited wealth, power, and status that has passed through many generations. Constant, meanwhile, is the son of a self-made man (Noel) who became rich almost by accident. The unearned nature of Constant’s position in the world is reflected in the following description of him: “He was not a great scientist. He was not even well-educated. He had been thrown out of the University of Virginia in the middle of his freshman year. He was Malachi Constant of Hollywood, California, the richest American, and a notorious rakehell.”

Unlike those who inherit wealth, self-made men like Malachi’s father, Noel Constant, are often assumed to have “earned” their money and power, yet the novel also disputes this interpretation. Noel did not become rich because he was especially intelligent, talented, or hard-working—rather, it happened pretty much at random. Indeed, the novel repeatedly suggests that people cling to the idea of meritocracy because they can’t handle the truth that inequality is essentially random. Many people don’t understand how Noel became rich, not because it is actually a complicated story, but because they cannot handle the truth that it was so undeserved. The narrator explains, “The people who can’t understand it are people who have to believe, for their own peace of mind, that tremendous wealth can be produced only be tremendous cleverness.”

While the novel on one hand condemns wealth and power that aren’t fairly earned, it also shows that these markers of success don’t even lead to happiness. Constant’s life is so luxurious and easy that he has lost his capacity for joy and satisfaction. As a result, he turns to drugs. In the words of the narrator, “Hallucinations, usually drug-induced, were almost all that could surprise and entertain Constant any more.” Not only this, but Constant suffers from loneliness and paranoia in a way that is implicitly linked to his unique status as the richest man in the U.S. At one point, Constant becomes intoxicated at a party and black out. Afterward, he is told that during the party he couldn’t stop crying, gave everyone around him oil wells as gifts, and accused them of wanting to wait until he fell asleep so they could shoot him into the sun in a rocket. This scene demonstrates just how miserable Constant’s wealth and power make him. Gifting people oil wells seems to be a desperate attempt at securing intimacy, while his conviction that people want to shoot him into the sun suggests that his position has made him deeply paranoid and unable to trust people.  

In a sense, Constant’s paranoia is proven right. While at the beginning of the novel he is so wealthy and powerful that he seems untouchable, this does not last. After being conscripted into the Martian Army, Constant’s memory is wiped, and he is given a new identity as Unk. He is placed under the absolute control of the army and has a low impression of himself, as shown by the fact that when he discovers the letter addressed to him (which he initially doesn’t realize he also wrote himself), he thinks that the letter-writer made a mistake in believing that he is smart or heroic enough to be a recipient of this information. Constant’s fall from grace is further emphasized by the contrast between his reversal of fortune and that of Boaz, one of the commanders of the Martian Army. As the narrator notes, “Unk had everything back on Earth, and Boaz had nothing.” This turn of events highlights that wealth and power are unpredictable, and that inequality creates an unstable social situation. People’s good fortune, which is shown to be random in the first place, can be reversed as quickly as it emerges.