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Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Player Piano, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Technology and Progress
Happiness, Self-Worth, and Passion
Class Division and Competition
Corporate Life vs. Human Connection
Summary
Analysis
Doctor Halyard sits in a barbershop in Miami while the Shah gets an American haircut. The barber goes on at length about how difficult it has been for the country to replace barbers with machines. There is, however, a machine for cutting hair, and it was actually invented by a barber who kept fretting year after year that somebody would invent a machine to replace him. As he worried, he kept unintentionally dreaming up designs that might put him out of business, until he had inadvertently thought out a flawless machine. The barber cutting the Shah’s hair just hopes that these machines don’t make their way to Miami for another two years, at which point he’ll be retired.
The story about the barber who inadvertently designed a hair-cutting machine suggests that humans are naturally inclined toward invention. The barber in this story specifically hoped nobody would come up with a machine to replace him—and yet, he himself created one, indicating that sometimes curiosity and creativity get the best of people (as well as, perhaps, the anxiety of someday becoming obsolete). Although certain individuals might renounce machines, then, they can’t change the fact that curiosity inevitably leads to inventive forms of progress—for better or worse.
Themes
As the barber talks, Halyard looks at a letter he received from the State Department. According to the letter, the department discovered that Halyard never completed the Physical Education requirement at Cornell University, where he earned his bachelor’s degree. This means that his subsequent master’s degree and doctorate are invalid. To keep his position, he will have to complete Cornell’s fitness test, which he can do while giving the Shah a tour of the university.
A firmly established employee of the State Department, Halyard suddenly discovers that his job is at risk. This underscores just how much this society cares about arbitrary credentials. Halyard’s ability to complete a fitness test has nothing to do with his ability to successfully carry out his job, but this doesn’t matter because the entire structure of this society is built on the idea that only people who have completed certain degrees are qualified to hold well-paid, prestigious jobs. According to this system, then, Halyard is unqualified for his own job, since his college degree is technically invalid. And though this is nothing but a petty bureaucratic detail, it has the potential to ruin his entire career.
Themes
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