Player piano

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For more about the automated musical instrument, see player piano

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Player Piano is a novel by Kurt Vonnegut, published in 1952, about a near-future society that is almost totally mechanized and automated, eliminating the middle class. This widespread mechanization creates conflict between the wealthy upper class of engineers and managers that keep society running and the lower class, whose skills and purpose in society machines replaced. The theme is that a society run by machines devalues human life.

Plot introduction

Explanation of the novel's title

Characters in \"Player Piano\"

Paul Proteus

the novel's protagonist, is the head of industry in Ilium, New York. He is caught in the middle of the conflict, forced to choose whether to continue his work and move on to a future of fame and success, or become the figurehead leader of a rebellion against the machine society. His father was an influential and important figure in the transition to an automated society and thus Paul finds himself in an interesting position. He is to be given a big promotion

Anita

is Paul's wife. She was a "regular" person, as they refer to her in the novel, in that is she didn't score well enough to get a job as an Engineer or go to college; had Paul not married her she would have been living in Homestead. She is described as an attractive woman with an desire for her husband's career advancement, to a fault. However, she can not bear children which hinders Paul from continuing his family's success and prestige through a child.

Kroner

is Paul's boss and one of the most important men in the country. He treats all of his underlings as if they are his children and he even refers to his wife as "mother" when speaking of her to Paul. He's overtly sexist and believes the system of automation in place is the best thing for the country with every fiber of his being.

Ed Finnerty

is Paul's old best friend. They had come up through the Engineering ranks together and they had grown close. Their friendship waned when Finnerty took a high ranking position in Washington, D.C. and they lost touch. 'Finnerty' as he is called throughout the book had always been somewhat of a nut, never caring what others thought of him in the least, and his poor hygiene is discussed at length in the start of the book. It is Finnerty that first plants the seeds of revolution in Paul's mind.

Rev. James J. Lasher

was in a bar that Paul happened to go into to buy scotch and struck up a conversation with him. When Paul went back the next day with Finnerty, the two hit it off and began swapping revolutionary ideas almost immediately.

The Shah of Bratpuhr

is the spiritual leader of the Kolhouri, a sect with six million adherents. He is led on a tour of the United States to learn from the most powerful nation in the world how to improve the lives of the people in his mountain kingdom.