The novel was the basis for the popular 1956 film The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit starring Gregory Peck and Jennifer Jones as Tom and Betsy Rath.

Tom barely survived as an Army paratroop officer during World War II, having fought in both the European and Pacific combat theaters; he had an extramarital affair in Italy during the former.

Hopkins is set to propose the establishment of national mental health services to a group of physicians and offer his own prestige and network toward that end.

In the end, Tom sees how his boss's marriage and family life have been ruined by overwork, so he turns down a high-pressure position involving travel in order to work normal hours and spend more time at home.

"Man in the gray flannel suit" entered the popular vernacular and the symbol has continued to appear for decades in references of sociologists to America's "discontented businessman".

Columnist Bob Greene wrote in 1992 that "[t]he title of Sloan Wilson's best-selling novel became part of the American vernacular—the book was a ground-breaking fictional look at conformity in the executive suite, and it was a piece of writing that helped the nation's business community start to examine the effects of its perceived stodginess and sameness.

The plot of the sequel concerns Tom's extramarital affair with a younger woman, which leads to his subsequent divorce and remarriage, as well as the death of his son in the Vietnam War.