AI ToolsNew
Tools to make learning and teaching easier
Question about this poem?
Have a question about this poem?
Have a specific question about this poem?
Have a specific question about this poem?
Have a specific question about this poem?
A LitCharts expert can help.
A LitCharts expert can help.
A LitCharts expert can help.
A LitCharts expert can help.
A LitCharts expert can help.
Ask us
Ask us
Ask a question
Ask a question
Ask a question
-
“Surplus Value” Introduction
-
"Surplus Value" is a poem from David C. Ward's 2011 collection Internal Difference. It tells the story of the speaker's brother-in-law, an auto machinist whose comfortable life goes south when the Detroit auto boom collapses. At first, the machinist seems to be living the American Dream, but this dream turns out to have shaky foundations: he loses his "steady pay check," has to sell off prize possessions, and grows increasingly exploited and depressed. The poem links his ordeal to a broader story of worker exploitation, ecological destruction, and regional decline. The title "Surplus Value" alludes to a key term from Karl Marx's anti-capitalist writings, and the poem itself offers a harsh portrayal of industrial capitalism, including the boom-and-bust cycles that devastate both workers and their surrounding environments.
-
-
“Surplus Value” Summary
-
My sister's husband, who lived in Michigan, worked with industrial machine tools. He operated metalworking equipment, manufacturing car parts in factories that supplied Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors. He was a small, scrappy guy with strong fingers and scars all over his hands. He owned a Harley Davidson motorcycle, liked Iron City beer, and lived with his wife and children in a home he mainly built from scratch. At the height of the Detroit auto boom, he had a union-approved job contract and received overtime pay. These allowed him to buy steak dinners and a lakeside cabin in upper Michigan, where he vacationed in the summer and stayed while hunting deer in autumn. He felt proud of his skilled work and felt he was contributing to something more important than the cars he helped assemble for American consumers. For two decades, he received a pleasant and happy life in exchange for his work.
But all that came to an end. First, his labor union went under (due to its corrupt handling of retirement accounts, which resulted in jail sentences). Then the automakers cut costs and worker compensation wherever possible in order to gain an advantage in the industry. They worked their employees harder and harder for less and less pay. The boom times turned into a culture of penny-pinching, of outsourcing and contract jobs (rather than salaried in-house jobs). For my brother-in-law, welfare took the place of a regular income and twice-yearly bonuses. He lost his motorcycle first, then his lakeside cabin. He went on food stamps and could afford only a basic diet. A quiet man to begin with, he spoke less and less over the days, months, and years that followed. He kept his head down, his physical scars worsened, and he developed psychological scars, too.
In the prosperous years that people thought would last forever, the factories recklessly dumped so much industrial waste into the Saginaw River that the water never froze, even in mid-winter. Now it's permanently frozen.
-
-
“Surplus Value” Themes
-
Capitalism and Worker Exploitation
The speaker of "Surplus Value" tells a story of economic decline through the story of a single worker: "My Michigan brother-in-law." The poem's title borrows Karl Marx's term for the value workers create in excess of what capitalists pay for their labor—in other words, a key measure of worker exploitation. The poem shows how this exploitation plays out in an individual life and career, as the brother-in-law, an auto machinist, loses his union contract, job perks, and financial security. Broadly, then, the poem paints a damning portrait of American capitalism. It illustrates how this system cheats workers and creates harrowing cycles of "boom" and bust—in which even the booms are destructive, and the busts are downright devastating.
The poem at first appears to depict American capitalism in sunny terms, sketching a life and career that reflect the so-called American Dream. The speaker’s brother-in-law works for much of his life during "the heyday of Detroit metal," making car parts for the "Big Three / Auto makers" during the 20th-century auto boom. This career gives him a fairly prosperous life "For twenty years," complete with "house," "Harley" motorcycle, "summer vacations," and so on. It also gives him a measure of independence (he "mostly" builds his house himself), as well as job security ("union / Contracts") and a sense of satisfaction. During these "good times," he feels both "pride" and "happ[iness]" in his job. The American system seems to be working, and he seems to be living the dream.
Eventually, however, things go "south"—both for him and the surrounding economy—and the poem turns into a warning about capitalism. At a certain point, "the road [runs] out" on the auto boom, and the regional economy implodes. After the brother-in-law's union falls apart, "The companies" have free rein to exploit the workers, "slash[ing] and burn[ing] their way through labor" in pursuit of profit. In general, the "economy of scale" turns "to one of scarcity": as the auto industry shrinks, it loses the advantages that come with large-scale operations, and a culture of penny-pinching takes over.
Of course, this stinginess harms the workers, not their bosses. Steady, secure jobs give way to outsourcing and part-time gigs ("subcontracting" and "piecework"). And these changes hurt the brother-in-law directly: as he loses his union, bonuses, etc., he's forced to sell the possessions he was most proud of, such as his Harley and lake "cabin." Meanwhile, he sees "less and less return" from the work "sweated" out of him. He's still creating "Surplus Value" for his employers, but he's getting very little out of the bargain now. In fact, he winds up with hardly any money, security, or happiness. The experience leaves him with physical and emotional "scars" that will not heal.
The poem's ending suggests that this tragedy was inevitable and that the system itself is at fault. The poem depicts capitalism (at least, the American variety) as wasteful and destructive at best, cruel and catastrophic at worst.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-23
-
Labor, Pride, and Shame
The brother-in-law in "Surplus Value" initially takes great pride in his work: he feels he is "Building something bigger" than cars alone. But as the economy changes, the source of his pride becomes a source of anxiety and shame. As his work peters out to a bare minimum, it reduces him to utter defeat—a traumatized, nearly silent state. This emotional arc ties into the poem's political commentary, demonstrating by example the importance of worker dignity. Without such dignity, the poem suggests, people can become shells of their former selves.
At first, the brother-in-law takes not only pride but a sense of purpose from his job, and these factors sustain him almost as much as his pay. The speaker never names him, but defines him primarily through his work, introducing him as "a tool and die guy." For much of his life, it's implied, this is how the brother-in-law defines himself as well. "For twenty years of work," the speaker reports, the brother-in-law's job made him "happy." Partly, the reason was money: his steady income, "overtime" pay, etc., gave him a comfortable life and "good times." But the reason was partly emotional as well. He felt "pride" in "his craft and skill" as an auto worker, as well as pride in his company's larger mission. He believed he was "Building something bigger than the Fords or Chevys / He pushed on down the line for America to drive." He seems to have felt that he was helping build "America" itself: that his work served a broader social purpose. Even if he was making his bosses rich—creating "Surplus Value" for them—he felt relatively valued by and important to his society.
Yet once the economy turns and his exploitation worsens, he retreats into a state of anguish and shame. He was "Always quiet" to begin with: a stoic, silent type (and perhaps a man who felt a little anxious even in the best of times). Now, as his situation worsens, he grows "quieter," as if too discouraged and embarrassed even to speak. This change continues "From day to week to month" and shows no signs of reversing.
Finally, he seems utterly crushed, to the point where he disappears from the poem altogether. The speaker recalls him "Bowing his neck each day as the scars" on his body "grew deeper now, and inward." The humiliation of his struggle has left him with deep psychological wounds. Presumably, he's "Bowing" as he concentrates on his remaining work, but the posture suggests shame or defeat. And there's no apparent end to this defeat: it lasts all through "the years that stretched ahead." The final stanza contains no mention of the brother-in-law at all; it zooms out to comment on the surrounding economy and environment. It's as if this once-proud worker has been utterly sidelined, reduced to a ghost of his former self. But the last words of the poem, "frozen all year long," might comment metaphorically on his psychological state. Perhaps the years of mounting abuse and exploitation have left him emotionally frozen. At the very least, they've "frozen" him into an inescapable crisis.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 9-12
- Lines 21-23
-
Human Industry vs. the Environment
The last stanza of "Surplus Value" zooms out to show the impact of the Detroit auto industry on its surrounding environment. Whereas the auto boom benefits workers (to some degree) before devastating them, it devastates nature from the start. It pollutes Michigan's "Saginaw River" so heavily that, even once the pollution abates, the river suffers major long-term damage. By extension, the poem suggests that industrial capitalism—and the careless greed it promotes—has gravely damaged not only individual lives but the earth as a whole.
In the poem's narrative, even when capitalism is thriving, it benefits humanity only to a point—and it absolutely trashes nature. Even during "the boom that no one thought would ever end," the "Heedless" (reckless) Detroit auto firms dump tons of industrial "waste" into the Saginaw River. That is, even during the "good times" capitalism holds out as an incentive, the system pollutes the environment and harms communities. And, of course, the auto "boom" does eventually end, as industrial booms always do. The Marx allusion in the poem's title is relevant here, since Marx predicted that the boom-and-bust cycles inherent in capitalism would ultimately bring down the system.
When the boom in the poem ends, the system shows what it's capable of at its worst. The river regains the winter "ice[]" it lost during the waste dumping, but "Now it's frozen all year long." The environment remains severely damaged, and the region—including the speaker's brother-in-law—seems to freeze into a state of permanent crisis. Overall, then, the poem presents a tragedy of environmental degradation as well as worker exploitation. It portrays the American Dream as a lie and capitalism as a catastrophe—for individuals, communities, and the planet.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 24-27
-
-
Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Surplus Value”
-
Lines 1-5
My Michigan brother-in-law ...
... mostly built himself.Lines 1-5 establish the poem's setting and central character. "Surplus Value" is a family anecdote about the speaker's "Michigan brother-in-law." As the poem develops, however, it also tells the broader story of a region (the Midwest) and an industry (the American auto business). In many ways, it also tells a story about capitalism itself.
The speaker's brother-in-law (unnamed, just like the speaker) is "a tool and die guy," meaning that he works with machine tools in a factory setting. He's an auto "machinist"; his job entails manufacturing car "parts" in "shops" (factories) that supply the "Big Three" American "Auto makers." (At the time the poem was written, these three companies were Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler; Chrysler has since merged into a multi-national corporation called Stellantis North America). The Big Three companies have historically been headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, a.k.a. Motor City.
The speaker describes their brother-in-law as a "bantam"—meaning a man who is small and scrappy, like a bantam rooster. The brother-in-law has strong, "thick fingers" and "scarred hands": a testament to his difficult, sometimes dangerous manual work. (Notice how this imagery evokes many years of experience through one or two key details.) For a while, his work gives him a solid middle-class lifestyle: he rides a "Harley [Davidson] soft-tail" motorcycle, drinks "Iron City" (a brand of Midwestern beer), and "live[s] / With his wife and kids in a house he mostly built himself."
In other words, he may not live in the lap of luxury, but he's got a family home, some creature comforts, and some independence. In many ways, he appears to be living the American Dream. Symbolically, however, his scars hint at the toll this dream takes.
-
Lines 6-11
During the heyday ...
... America to drive.
Unlock all 317 words of this analysis of Lines 6-11 of “Surplus Value,” and get the Line-by-Line Analysis for every poem we cover.
Plus so much more...
Get LitCharts A+ -
Lines 12-17
For twenty years ...
... Share. -
Lines 17-21
The work was ...
... essentials, nothing more. -
Lines 21-23
Always quiet, he ...
... now, and inward. -
Lines 24-27
During the boom ...
... all year long.
-
-
“Surplus Value” Symbols
-
The Frozen River
The poem claims that Michigan's Saginaw River, which was previously unable to freeze due to industrial waste-dumping, now remains "frozen all year long." This last part is not literally true (the river ice melts in the warmer seasons), so the image can be read as symbolic. It suggests that the region around the river is frozen in some metaphorical sense—economically stuck, emotionally closed-off, and/or unable to move on from its traumatic past.
The real-life Saginaw River was indeed heavily polluted throughout the 20th century, due in part to waste-dumping by General Motors and other companies. Environmental cleanup has restored some of the river's vitality. However, plenty of cleanup work remains, and the region's economy has never fully recovered from the end of the Detroit auto boom. Symbolically, then, the image of a permanently frozen river evokes the lasting damage of this slump—as well as the human and ecological cost of capitalism in general.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Lines 24-27: “During the boom that no one thought would end, / Heedless the factories flushed their waste straight into / The Saginaw River, so much so that it never iced, even / In the depths of winter. Now it's frozen all year long.”
-
The Scars
The brother-in-law's "scarred hands" result from his work as an auto "machinist"—difficult, often painful manual labor. But over the course of the poem, his scars become symbols of psychological trauma as well. The speaker makes this clear in lines 21-23:
[...] Always quiet, he grew quieter
From day to week to month to the years that stretched ahead,
Bowing his neck each day as the scars grew deeper now, and inward.As his outward scars worsen, they are joined by "inward," emotional scars—a consequence of his increasing exploitation and financial hardship. His work has taken a physical toll, but it has also discouraged and degraded him, inflicting wounds invisible to the eye.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Line 3: “A bantam with thick fingers, scarred hands”
- Line 23: “Bowing his neck each day as the scars grew deeper now, and inward.”
-
-
“Surplus Value” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
-
Metaphor
"Surplus Value" has a fairly plain, straightforward style, without much figurative language to speak of. However, it does use a few simple but powerful metaphors.
For example, the speaker calls their brother-in-law a "bantam" in line 3. A bantam is a type of small chicken, but it's also a conventional metaphor for a small, feisty person (usually a man). The word evokes the brother-in-law's tough, scrappy personality and makes his later shame and weariness all the more poignant.
The metaphor (or simile) in lines 10-11 challenges the reader to decide on its meaning:
Building something bigger than the Fords or Chevys
He pushed on down the line for America to drive.That "something" is clearly an abstraction. Perhaps the brother-in-law felt he was helping, in some way, to build "America" itself, or the kind of rewarding life (American Dream) the country is said to offer.
Yet the poem's later metaphors paint a picture of failure and destruction. The speaker says that "the road ran out" on the brother-in-law's good fortune (line 13)—an appropriately auto-related metaphor for the decline of the auto trade. The speaker then claims the auto companies "slashed and burned / Their way through labor and its costs," invoking the practice of "slash-and-burn agriculture" (which involves cutting down and burning large areas of forest). This metaphor implies that, to the companies' callous owners, the workers were no more than deadwood to be sacrificed. Finally, in line 23, the speaker points to their brother-in-law's metaphorical "scars": the psychological traumas that accompanied the literal scars on his skin.
Where metaphor appears in the poem:- Line 3: “A bantam with thick fingers,”
- Lines 10-11: “Building something bigger than the Fords or Chevys / He pushed on down the line for America to drive.”
- Line 13: “But that road ran out.”
- Lines 15-16: “The companies and their money men slashed and burned / Their way through labor and its costs”
- Line 23: “Bowing his neck each day as the scars grew deeper now, and inward.”
-
Imagery
Unlock all 241 words of this analysis of Imagery in “Surplus Value,” and get the poetic device analyses for every poem we cover.
Plus so much more...
Get LitCharts A+ -
Caesura
-
Asyndeton
-
Juxtaposition
-
-
“Surplus Value” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Surplus value
- Tool and die guy
- Machinist
- Big Three auto makers
- Bantam
- Harley soft-tail
- Iron City
- Detroit metal
- Indictments
- Pension fraud
- Economy of scale
- Subcontracting
- Piecework
- The dole
- Food stamps
- Heedless
- The Saginaw River
Surplus value-
(Location in poem: )
A term associated with Karl Marx's theory of political economics, which critiques the capitalist system and predicts its ultimate downfall. "Surplus value" is the value that workers create for their employers above and beyond the cost of their labor. (Or, to be more precise, the value of the products they manufacture above and beyond all costs associated with the manufacturing process, including materials and equipment as well as worker compensation.) Because employers (capitalists) pocket this difference as profit rather than sharing it with their workers, workers always get an unfair bargain. Hence, surplus value (in Marx's view) is a key measure of worker exploitation and the injustice of capitalism as a whole.
-
Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Surplus Value”
-
Form
"Surplus Value" consists of two stanzas, one long, one short. The first stanza tells the tragic story of the speaker's brother-in-law. The second adds a kind of symbolic epilogue, showing the broader impact of the brother-in-law's industry—and capitalism as a whole—on the surrounding area.
The poem is written in free verse, meaning that it contains no meter or rhyme. It reads like a prose narrative broken into roughly (but not perfectly!) even lines. Its prosy style suits the poet's intent, which is to tell the more or less straightforward history of an individual, industry, and region. David C. Ward is a historian and museum curator by trade (he came to poetry relatively late in his career), so this style reflects his background and strengths.
-
Meter
"Surplus Value" is a free verse poem, so it has no meter. Its lines remain roughly equal in length throughout (getting slightly longer toward the end of the first stanza), but they never settle into a consistent rhythm. Instead, the language remains prose-like and matter-of-fact, with very few lyrical touches of any kind.
Besides reflecting the poet's training as a historian, this approach suits the poem's subject matter. The poem focuses on the speaker's brother-in-law, a "quiet," average-Joe "guy" with a working-class job. The brother-in-law grows depressed as his industry slumps, and the surrounding region grows economically depressed as well. The poem's spare, almost journalistic style makes sense for this tragic story and down-to-earth setting. By contrast, an elaborately "literary" style would likely seem ill-suited to the main character, a man of few words and mainstream tastes. The lack of conventional poetic touches also reflects the way the brother-in-law's life, industry, and community have been "slashed and burned" down to "essentials."
-
Rhyme Scheme
As a free verse poem, "Surplus Value" has no rhyme scheme or rhyme of any kind. Once again, its clear, plainspoken narrative seems to suit the "quiet," unpretentious main character, while reflecting the poet's own training as a historian. Free verse is also closely associated with developments in 20th-century American poetry (from modernism onward), so it's a natural choice for a poem about 20th-century America.
-
-
“Surplus Value” Speaker
-
The speaker of "Surplus Value" is a nameless first-person narrator telling a family story about "My Michigan brother-in-law." The speaker doesn't reveal anything about their own location, occupation, etc., but it's possible that they're simply a stand-in for the poet himself.
The speaker's language is matter-of-fact, prose-like, and fairly colloquial, featuring casual idioms like "went south," "money men," and "the dole" (meaning welfare). This style helps the poet forge an easy connection with the reader.
At the same time, the speaker talks knowledgeably about the decline of the Michigan auto industry, using precise economics terms like "market / Share" and "economy of scale." In other words, they discuss the subject with a level of sophistication they wouldn't necessarily glean from informal chats with their brother-in-law. Their familiarity with details like the fate of their brother-in-law's union ("pension fraud; indictments; prison terms") suggests that they may have followed these developments in the news or researched them later.
As it happens, David C. Ward himself is an experienced researcher: besides being a poet, he's a historian and museum curator. Starting from the Marx allusion in the title, the poem's voice reflects not only the speaker's family experience but his own understanding of broader economic theories and social trends.
-
-
“Surplus Value” Setting
-
The setting of "Surplus Value" is the U.S. state of Michigan, particularly the Detroit area and the area around the Saginaw River (which flows past the city of Saginaw).
For much of the 20th century, Detroit was dominated by the automobile industry (hence its nickname, Motor City). Part of the poem takes place during that "heyday of Detroit metal" (line 6). In the 1970s and 1980s, however, the American auto industry suffered a major decline, and the city of Detroit declined along with it. These problems reflected the broader economic struggles of America's "Rust Belt," a region of the Midwest once dominated by manufacturing jobs. Even the boom years had polluted the region's air and waterways, as the last stanza of the poem suggests,
The region's auto industry and environment both recovered somewhat in the early 21st century, but the story of both are still unfolding.
-
-
Literary and Historical Context of “Surplus Value”
Literary Context
David C. Ward (b. 1952) is an American historian, museum curator, and poet. "Surplus Value" appears in his first collection, Internal Difference (2011). His second and most recent collection, Call Waiting, was published in 2014.
Ward worked at the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery from 1979 to 2017, serving as the institution's Senior Historian from 2012 onward. In that role, he curated a variety of exhibitions while lecturing and publishing historical scholarship (for example, on the American painter Charles Willson Peale). His historical and literary interests have occasionally intersected: for example, he curated a special Portrait Gallery exhibition on the 19th-century poet Walt Whitman.
Taking cues from American predecessors like Whitman and Hart Crane (about whom he has also written), Ward's poetry reflects an interest in the broad sweep of American history, as well as the fabric of ordinary American lives. His training as a historian shows through in poems like "Surplus Value," which begins as a family anecdote (about "My Michigan brother-in-law") and ends up providing the capsule history of an industry and region.
Historical Context
The story of the speaker's "Michigan brother-in-law" reflects the broader story of the American auto industry in the 20th century. "During the heyday of Detroit metal" (line 6) in the early to mid-1900s, Detroit became the nerve center of the industry, and Michigan and surrounding states experienced a major economic boom. The "Big Three" American auto makers (General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler) made the region their home base and dominated the automobile market for decades.
Detroit's population swelled, and the region's fortunes began to hinge on its success. As historian Thomas J. Sugrue recounts, a popular saying arose: “When Detroit gets a cold, the whole Midwest gets pneumonia.” Conversely, when the industry grew, auto workers' fortunes rose along with it:
By the mid-twentieth century, a majority of Detroit residents were homeowners; many autoworkers saved money to send their children to college; and tens of thousands could even afford lakeside summer cottages—leading to the rise of blue-collar resort towns throughout Michigan.
At first, the machinist in the poem has "a cabin on an upstate lake" himself, and other perks of the "good times": a family home, motorcycle, and so on. But as the industry suffers setbacks toward the end of the 20th century, his prosperity dwindles to the point where he's forced to go on "food stamps" and welfare.
A crucial reason is the implosion of his "union." In the 1930s and '40s, auto workers had successfully unionized despite corporate resistance, allowing them a greater share in their companies' success. In the later 20th century, however, some major unions fractured due to the kind of corruption described in line 14 ("pension fraud; indictments; prison terms"). At the same time, American auto makers encountered stiffer competition from their overseas rivals. Foreign-owned companies expanded into the U.S. and set up their operations in southern states, where "right-to-work" laws thwarted unionization efforts. (In that sense, the industry literally went south.) Non-union competition squeezed the auto workers' unions into making concessions. As a result of all these changes, many workers in Michigan—like the machinist in this poem—lost their "steady pay check[s]" and suffered exploitation and job insecurity.
The poem takes its title from a concept popularized by the 19th-century economist and political theorist Karl Marx. "Surplus value" is, essentially, the value that workers create for their employers (capitalists) above and beyond what they receive as compensation. Marx believed that this imbalance (or injustice) would ultimately destroy the capitalist system from within, prompting a massive revolution and the establishment of a socialist "workers' state." Lines 15-17 of the poem directly describe the kind of exploitation Marx decried:
The companies and their money men slashed and burned
Their way through labor and its costs in search of market
Share. The work was sweated from the men for less and less return.The poem also points to the real-life environmental impact of the Michigan auto industry (and industrial capitalism in general). The claim that the "Saginaw River" is now "frozen all year" may be hyperbolic, but the "waste" dumping described in lines 25-27 actually happened. General Motors, for example, dumped toxic chemicals into the river for decades and were forced to pay a major settlement after an environmental lawsuit in the 1990s.
-
More “Surplus Value” Resources
-
External Resources
-
How the Poet Came to Poetry — A Smithsonian Magazine article on Ward's career as both historian and poet.
-
The Poet as Historian — Ward's bio at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., where he works as a historian and curator.
-
Ward on Video — Watch Ward's introduction to an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.
-
A History of "Motor City" — Background on the rise and decline of the auto industry in Detroit, Michigan.
-
What is Surplus Value? — An explanation of the term in the poem's title.
-
-
