Player Piano

Paul arrives at the meeting area for the competition on the St. Lawrence River, and says goodbye to Anita. The men are divided onto various ships, where they are taken to the island and shown their living quarters for the competition.

The opening ceremonies of band music and fireworks commence. Each participant is given a tent mate, which they are supposed to get to know: “[…] Paul saw the badge on his buddy’s pillow: ‘Dr. Frederick Garth’ […]” (191). Paul wonders if they have placed him with his competition purposefully.

At the lunchtime meal, Paul runs into Berringer, who was not supposed to be able to come to this function; however, Kroner invited him personally for some reason. He also wonders again why Doctor Shepherd was made a captain, which is reserved for higher-ups. They are encouraged to sit next to someone they don’t know during lunch.

They break for a memorial service, which an unfortunate young man interrupts and is probably ruined because of his interruption. The memorial is for Dr. Ernest S. Bassett, the former manager of the Pittsburgh Ilium.

The captains are called to their tents, but Paul gets sidetracked. He spots Luke Lubbock working as a waiter and crying over the death of Bassett. He wishes he could go to the saloon early. On the loudspeaker, they call for him: “I’ve just been informed that the captain of the Blue Team is not in his tent. Doctor Paul Proteus; Doctor Paul…” (202).

The Shah of Bratpuhr gets a haircut by a barber in Miami Beach: “He wants a little off the sides, a little off the back, and leave the top alone,” his translator tells the barber (202). Meanwhile, Halyard seems distressed about a letter he received recently, and that he carries with him.

The barber, Homer Bigley, “talked to the uncomprehending Shah after the fashion of an extroverted embalmer chatting with a corpse” (203). Bigley does talk for a long time to the Shah about matters such as the perception of barbers, how barbers used to be like doctors and bleed people, the card machines, the army—which he seems to have a fondness for—and the problem with the machines. He tells the Shah how “machines take all the dangerous jobs, and the dumb bastards just get tucked away in big bunches of prefabs that look like the end of a game of Monopoly, or in the barracks, and there’s nothing for them to do but set there and kind of hope for a big fire where maybe they can run” (207). He hopes that the barber machines don’t reach Miami Beach before he retires.

Halyard’s letter tells him that there’s was a mix-up at Cornell, and that Halyard never really completed his physical education requirements. He needs to return to Cornell to take the final test. They suggest he bring the Shah, in order to show the Shah an American university.

Paul and Kroner sit in the audience of the keynote play to kick off the festivities. Kroner tells Paul that the big boss will arrive that evening, and they’ll have to break away.

The play begins: “An old man, with a white beard reaching to his waist, wearing a long white robe and golden sandals and a blue conical hat speckled with golden stars, sits atop an extraordinarily tall stepladder” (211). The old man decides which stars have burned out and removes them from the sky. He’s removed stars such as labor unionism and socialism, until he arrives at the Oak—the symbol for Kroner’s organization.

Two men appear—a radical and a young engineer—each wanting to fight for the fate of the star.

A trial commences. The judge asks the radical to make his case. The radical calls John Averageman to the stand. The radical asks John “what [he] made before the star arose, and what [he] makes now?” (214). John says that he makes far less now than he used to when he still had his old job. John also laments that he feels like “nothing any more” (215).

The young engineer cross-examines the witness, getting him to admit that he has nicer things now than he did before the organization. He even convinces John that the radical wants to hurt him by bringing them back to the Dark Ages. The radical gets scared and leaves the courtroom. The engineer wins.

The old man looks at the star, the Oak. He points to the audience, telling them that they are responsible to keep this star healthy. There’s much applause.

Kroner praises the show. Paul remembers when his father used to take him to these shows, and how little has changed about them.

They go to a bonfire, where an actor dressed as Native American makes everyone take a fake Native oath of the woods. As Paul walks back toward the saloon, he sees young Edmund Harrison, whom he met earlier at lunch. Ed finds a real arrowhead. “So there really were Indians on this island,” Ed asks finally (224).

All of the head members of Ilium meet in an isolated house at the Meadows, including the Executive, Francis Gelhorne. Everyone else is at the saloon drinking, but not the way they used to in the old days.

Everyone waits for Director Gelhorne to speak. Finally, he says, “We’re here because somebody wants to kill us, wreck the plants, and take over the country” (226). The people who want to do this are called the Ghost Shirt Society, but they know little about them.

Paul thinks about Gelhorne’s rise to this position, and how he started without anything, even a college degree. He remembers how Gelhorne made smart deal after smart deal, until he finally owned a number of plants. He remembers how they met once when he was little, and how he gave Paul some standard business advice.

They know about Finnerty being a part of the group. They tell Paul that they want him to infiltrate the organization, and they’ll have to fire him to let him do that. Shepherd is to take over Ilium. Garth will run Pittsburgh until the mission is finished.

Paul tries to refuse the decision by telling them he quits, but they think that he’s already acting. 

Paul tries to get one last drink at the saloon before leaving the island. He’s refused. The bartender gets angry with him, hops over the bar, and confronts him. He calls Paul a “stinking saboteur” (234). Paul punches the bartender in the nose, knocking him down.

Paul awakens outside of the bar, near his boat. Ed Harrison is with him. Paul tells Ed not to jeopardize his career by helping him and to decide what he wants for his life, before it’s too late.

As Paul’s boat sails away, he hears Berringer discover that the bark of the great Oak is missing. They think Paul stripped it. “Beware the Ghost Shirt!” someone shouts (238). 

The Shah’s plane has to make an emergency landing in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The Shah spots a young woman on the street that he is interested in. Halyard thinks that the Shah’s interest in women makes him like every other guest.

Despite Halyard’s protests, the Shah approaches the young woman and asks her to come with him. She takes the Shah’s arm, and together they climb back into the limousine.

Along the way, she grows sad and begins explaining about the situation that would make her choose to prostitute herself. Her husband is an aspiring novelist. In order to be classified a novelist, he must submit his first novel to a board for criticism. Either they make him a novelist or a public relations employee. His novel was rejected because it was slightly too long and denounced by the machines. Halyard can’t believe he would do that and wonders why he isn’t in jail. She doesn’t know what a girl in her situation is supposed to do to help out with money, so she’s trying this.

The Shah listens to her plight: “The Shah removed a ruby ring and pressed it into her hand” (245). He tells her to keep it, for money, and then tells her to leave. 

Paul returns to the hotel on the shoreline and asks a hotel employee to call for Anita. She manages to find her, and Anita comes back. Paul feels that he needs her love.

Anita is wearing Shepherd’s shirt. She is cold toward Paul and tells him that she loves Shepherd. Paul asks her to listen to him and pleads for her:“sweetheart, wife, I need you now like I never needed anybody in all my life” (250). She refuses him.

She gives him a final, cold kiss before sending him off to the railroad station.