100 pages • 3 hours read
Upton SinclairThe Flivver King: A Story of Ford-America
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1937A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapters 1-3
Chapters 4-6
Chapters 7-9
Chapters 10-12
Chapters 13-15
Chapters 16-18
Chapters 19-21
Chapters 22-24
Chapters 25-27
Chapters 28-30
Chapters 31-33
Chapters 34-36
Chapters 37-39
Chapters 40-42
Chapters 43-45
Chapters 46-48
Chapters 49-51
Chapters 52-54
Chapters 55-57
Chapters 58-60
Chapters 61-63
Chapters 64-66
Chapters 67-69
Chapters 70-72
Chapters 73-75
Chapters 76-78
Chapters 79-81
Chapters 82-84
Chapters 85-92
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaChapters 73-75Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 73 Summary
Tom Shutt graduates from the University of Michigan. His graduation is an elegant affair that, of all the Shutts, only Daisy attends. Tom introduces Daisy to “a lovely co-ed in pale blue chiffon, the daughter of a manufacturer, who gazed upon him with what appeared to be doglike devotion; so Daisy understood the meaning of a college education” (191). Daisy is so impressed that she tries to leave early so that Tom won’t have to “introduce his poor ignorant sister to his rich and learned friends” (191).
However, Tom insists on riding home with Daisy that night, and spends the ride trying to convince Daisy that everything she has seen is “the bunk” (192). The speaker “whose eloquent idealism had so moved her was a hireling of the power corporations” (192), and the manufacturer’s daughter was not his ideal. Rather:
the girl he might hit it off with was that cute little one with large spectacles and slightly stooped shoulders; she had got that way bending over a study-table preparing a set of graphs showing the relationship of profits and wages in depressions throughout American history. Real wages always dropped quicker than profits, she had proved, and they never came back so fast (192).
As Tom speaks, Daisy exclaims that he “talk[s] like a Red!” (192). Tom concedes that the papers may call him that: “Long before I went to college I’d made up my mind that labour was getting a crooked deal, and what I’ve got out of my four years’ study are the facts and figures to prove it” (193).
Chapter 74 Summary
Daisy asks Tom what he plans to do with his education, and he responds that he intends to get a job working for Ford: “I’ll be a worker that knows what’s happening to him; and maybe I can tell some of the others” (193). When Daisy expresses concern about her brother becoming a “trouble-maker,” he offers to work elsewhere to avoid causing the family difficulty. Daisy tells him that isn’t necessary, but advises him not to worry their parents. She also warns him not to tell Hank about himself at all.
When Tom asks about the nature of Hank’s work, and whether he is “some sort of stool-pigeon” (194), Daisy refuses to answer. Tom guesses that he and Hank may have to spy on each other in the future but makes light of it.
At the end of the conversation, Daisy reveals that Milly has a mysterious illness and may soon die.
Chapter 75 Summary
The Shutts are happy to have Tom home, and he proves to be a kind, reliable boarder who pays on time and doesn’t put on airs. Thanks to his “being young and husky, and knowing how to talk to people” (195), he gets a job at the Ford Company immediately. The company is happy to hire strong, young workers with “personality” (195) who may make good service workers.
Tom’s job is putting on pinion gears. Although one man ran four machines in the pre-Depression years, Tom must run twelve. The work, which pays $25.65 a week, pleases him well enough that he “wanted it to last forever” (196), but he suspects it will not.
He works diligently and obediently, and despite the many restrictions on their time, eventually gets to know his co-workers. His discussions with them lead to an increase in consciousness among the workers:
When he got to know a man he fell to talking about what had happened to him and to others, and whether there was anything wrong about it, and if so, what. It wasn’t long before Tom had discussed these questions with scores of men; and presently, without his having done anything special about it, groups of men were meeting quietly in one another’s homes at night, talking about what interested them most (197).
Chapters 73-75 Analysis
Tom Shutt’s graduation from college signals the end of his innocence. This “young man with no illusions, except possibly as to his own strength and determination [...] going into life with his teeth set in a mood of battle” (192) is portrayed as kind (Daisy expects him to feel embarrassed by her poverty, but he appears genuinely happy to see her and spend time with her, and not at all embarrassed); good-natured (he laughs in response to Daisy’s worries, and suggests, without resentment, that he can seek a job at some other factory in order to avoid causing the rest of the family trouble); and responsible (he works hard and pays more than he owes his parents). His talent for talking to people and for leadership enables him to succeed, both at work and in his labor organizing. However, he will soon encounter the brutal repression of the workers’ movement, something he knows about in theory but has not yet faced in practice.
The portrayal of Tom in these chapters also endears him to the reader: Tom is a likable character whose sense of humor and down-to-earth manner temper the seriousness and focus with which he approaches his mission in life. He has Abner’s diligence, but is intellectually talented as well; he has Hank’s independence, but an intact moral compass; and he has Daisy’s good-natured ability to get along with everybody but is firm in his convictions, rather than neutral. Although Tom does not emerge as a fully-formed character until Chapter 73 of The Flivver King, he is the novel’s other main protagonist.
