The individual and the crowd
We often see Antonio as an individual in crisis against a collective. All of his triumphs occur when he personally confronts authority figures, who actually value his perspective and view him as an individual with legitimate hardships. Antonio receives the job offer when he is signaled out by the employment officer, he gets his official job assignment when he personally meets his boss, and he and Maria collect extra money for their sheets once the pawn shop employee empathizes with their suffering. Because Antonio faces these authority figures—an employment officer, his boss, and a pawnbroker—one-on-one and is not outnumbered, he is finally treated like a human being.
By contrast, Antonio’s defeats occur when he is alone and outnumbered by a collective. A roomful of police deem the theft of his bicycle frivolous. The copious flea markets sell hundreds of bicycles, which renders Antonio’s task of finding his personal bicycle impossible. Members of the Communist party ironically hush Antonio, a distressed working class man, out of their meeting. The malicious neighbors of the thief torment Antonio and force him to leave, and it is a crowd that captures Antonio when he himself becomes a bicycle thief. Many of these groups (the police, the Communist party) are commonly perceived as allies to the trials and tribulations of the working class. And yet, they are apathetic to Antonio’s problems, whose individuality becomes diluted and subservient to these powerful groups in society. The losses Antonio suffers when he is outnumbered in a group reflects De Sica’s ideological message of the film—a man cannot combat the larger forces of society, who will either turn him into a thief or starve him.
Religion
Like the inadequate, apathetic institutions in Italy, religion fails to offer a sanctuary for poor individuals in Bicycle Thieves. The church depicted in the film charitably provides free haircuts and lunch for poor guests, but with a crucial caveat: they must attend a mandatory sermon. By forcing impoverished populations to embrace and conform to their religious practices to receive basic aid, the church reveals its true intentions, which is to control the poor and take advantage of their abject poverty. The proletariat characters turn to religion, but only because it is the only institution that will provide them basic necessities. Thus, De Sica depicts the church as a dubious and indifferent institution—just like the police, employment services, and Communist party.
Neglect
Antonio continually neglects what he values most in life, namely his bicycle and Bruno. He sacrifices his sheets to retrieve his bicycle and secure his job; however, despite all the adversities he endures, Antonio fails to keep a keen eye on his bicycle on his first day of work, which results in its theft, and ultimately his unemployment. Antonio treats his precious son in a similar inattentive manner. He constantly outpaces Bruno and leaves him behind throughout their journey around a labyrinthine Rome. Antonio doesn’t notice Bruno fall in the rain, nor does he notice 2 cars nearly run over him. Antonio finally upholds some parental concern when he suspects that Bruno is the drowning boy in the river in Part 4. Bruno is not the boy in danger, but he could have been. By linking the bicycle with Bruno, each an object of neglect, De Sica suggests that Antonio’s carelessness can result in an outcome much more devastating and indelible than the theft of a cherished possession: the death of his own son.
The inadequacy of functionaries
Inadequate government functionaries cast a looming presence throughout Bicycle Thieves. De Sica demonstrates how these individuals, cogs in a failing bureaucracy, hinder Antonio’s chances of finding his bicycle and, more universally, suppress and neglect the adversities of the poor. The employment officer insists that there’s nothing he can do for the unemployed, starving group of men. The apathetic police are characterized by a similarly dismissive attitude; they encourage Antonio to search for the bike himself, as they claim they wouldn’t even recognize it if they saw it. One police officer even convinces Antonio not to press charges against the thief. The employment office, the Communist party, and the police are influential institutions, but unfortunately, they use their power to undermine the poor and maintain their marginalized subservience within the established social hierarchy of Rome. Not only do the police and the employment offices fail to improve the destitute circumstances of the poor, but they showcase an indifference toward the cruel poverty affecting thousands of powerless individuals across Rome.
Spirituality and faith
Spirituality and faith underlies several characters’ actions in Bicycle Thieves. Though not wholly distinct from religion, spirituality in The Bicycle Thieves is mainly represented by the seer, while religion is represented by the church. In two different scenes, we see a crowd of people line up to receive insight from the seer. This suggests that people turn more to spirituality when institutions (the police, the government, religion, employment services) fail to offer them security and hope. This reliance on blind faith explains why Antonio visits the seer, despite having belittled her earlier in the film. Having received little help elsewhere during his journey to find his bike, Antonio desperately insists on having some authority figure offer guidance and hope to him. The seer’s advice to Antonio is trite and simple; she says, “Either you find it right away or you never will...I don’t know what else to tell you. Go now, and try to understand.” Immediately afterwards, Antonio spots the thief. While this miraculous event may not be logically explicable, it is perhaps Antonio’s greatest stroke of luck in the film. This breakthrough results in Antonio’s revitalized perseverance to retrieve his bicycle, thereby signifying that the investment of one’s faith in spirituality upholds some legitimate efficacy.
Love
Many of Antonio’s actions are driven by his love for his family and his wish to support them. At the beginning of the film, we see Antonio’s family bond: Maria makes Antonio breakfast, Bruno winsomely ribs Antonio, and an infant lies peacefully in bed. Through this exposition, we become aware of the love Antonio has for his family; if he fails to provide for them, he will be left with nothing, no real sense of happiness or purpose. While Antonio does indulge in some of his worst qualities (carelessness, selfishness, and short temper) and at times treats Bruno poorly, we know his motivations are ultimately noble—he wants to do right by his family.
For his part, Bruno demonstrates his abiding love and admiration for his father at the end of the film. By attempting to steal another man’s bicycle, Antonio abandons all his morals and later cries in humiliation and hopelessness. In spite of his Antonio’s shameful actions, Bruno grasps his father’s hand; this small gesture reassures Antonio that he has not fallen in his son’s eyes. Through his son’s love, Antonio receives redemption for his sins, and remains a flawed, albeit extraordinarily human, protagonist.
Poverty
Poverty runs through nearly every scene of Bicycle Thieves, and the main character Antonio and his family are acutely afflicted. Antonio’s family is limited with their resources, forced to choose one necessity over the other: the basics of comfort (their sheets) or employment (the bike). Antonio’s desperate odyssey allows us to understand how life can hinge upon an item as mundane as a bicycle. Systematic poverty also damages several citizens’ livelihoods postwar Italy. Characters like the old man, the group of unemployed men at the beginning of the film, the young boy begging for money, and the attendees at church live in dire conditions and are forced to degrade themselves simply to survive, and their collective predicaments illustrate the ubiquity of poverty in Rome. Also, when Maria and Antonio sell their sheets to get the bicycle, they see a massive tower revealing pawned sheets strikingly similar to their own, an image representing the countless other families who have experienced the same basic struggle as Antonio. Subtle visual cues, such as the lack of cars in Rome, hint at the citizens’ inabilities to afford luxurious items and the economic despair afflicting the country as a whole. By linking together Antonio’s individual predicaments, the heavy presence of other poor and working class characters, and thoughtful cinematography, De Sica highlights how a cruel, destitute economy and widespread unemployment affect a nation of working class people.
