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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
Paul reaches the mainland dock, where he’s supposed to meet Anita so they can go home. As he waits, he sees a young couple run out of the woods and embrace each other, kissing passionately. Paul watches them, fondly identifying with the man and thinking about how much he must be enjoying this moment—until, that is, he realizes the man is Shepherd and the woman is Anita.
It finally becomes clear that Anita really is having an affair with Shepherd. This isn’t all that surprising, since she has been spending so much time with him lately. They’re also a pretty good match, since they’re both obsessed with status and career advancement. In many ways, Shepherd is everything Anita wants Paul to be: motivated, competitive, and generally gung-ho about corporate life.
Themes
The lovers soon part ways, and then Anita sees Paul. But she doesn’t show much remorse. In fact, she thinks Paul owes her an explanation, since she heard he has been fired. She then admits she’s in love with Shepherd, and all Paul can do is laugh. This infuriates her, and she accuses Paul of never caring about her at all—Finnerty was right, she says. A machine really could replace her as Paul’s wife. Having said this, Anita declares her intention to marry Shepherd. Paul is stunned, but he still shares a final kiss with Anita, after which they go their separate ways.
Anita references the remark Finnerty made when she came upstairs to find him in her and Paul’s bedroom. In that exchange, Finnerty was annoyed at Anita for interrupting their conversation and forcing Paul to go to the dinner at the Country Club, so he harshly suggested that a machine could take her place as Paul’s wife. A rather sexist thing to say, the implication of Finnerty’s comment was that Paul is only interested in Anita insofar as she satisfies his domestic needs and sexual desires. Now that she sees how unbothered Paul is about her affair with Shepherd, Anita actually thinks Finnerty was right: Paul doesn’t care about her as a person, he only cares about having a wife. Whether or not this is really the case remains unclear, though it’s perhaps unfair of Anita to suggest that Paul is the one in the wrong—she’s the one, after all, who cheated on him. What’s more, she has been withdrawn from the relationship, caring more about Paul’s career than about their actual bond.
Themes
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