When Antonio's bicycle is stolen, he loses more than a bike. The brand name of the bicycle "Fides" (Faith in Latin) suggest it has symbolic value. What is the significance of that symbol? What does Antonio lose? Are there other symbols in this film?
Although to most of us, losing a bike would not be a big deal, to Antonio, it is catastrophic. As mentioned in the Film Analysis textbook, Antonio’s bike not only represents a required mode of transportation, but it symbolizes his connection with the world of work and the well-being of his family. When he loses his bike, he loses control, and he loses the feeling of masculinity he gains from providing for the family. When he is given an opportunity to make an income to support his family, he immediately takes it even though he does not own a bike, which is required for the job. This shows his eagerness and dedication to creating a good life for his wife and son, and his need to feel like he is an important part of their lives. His determination to find the bicycle thief and the bike itself also shows his commitment to getting his job back, and through that, the survival of his family. He goes through the town nagging citizens that he thinks may be able to help him, and refuses to give up. As the search goes on, he becomes more and more short-tempered, and we can tell he is starting to give up. Yet, he tries to stay strong for his son, Bruno. I also believe he goes extremely out of his way to find the thief in order to show Bruno that evil never succeeds. Unfortunately, they never find the thief, and throughout the film, Antonio sets a bad example for his son by angrily confronting people that may have been involved with the theft, and in the end, by hypocritically stealing a bike. I think the fact that the bike is never found symbolizes the unfairness of life, and Antonio's attempted theft shows that two wrongs do not make a right, and that sinking down to the level of a criminal will not solve his problems.
Antonio spends the whole day looking for his bike, and for most of the day he seems pretty confident that he's going to find it. When he goes to the flea market, when he's following the old man, when he's going after the "thief". He does all of that because he really believes that one of these people will be able to get him his bike back. His hope keeps rekindling. He even has faith that he will be able to steal a bike and get away with it himself. However, when he doesn't succeed, he's finally ready to go home. He's completely given up on his chase. So he loses his own bike, then his faith his renewed when he sees the bike named "fides" But that is taken away from him also. I think another important thing about faith in this movie is antonio's son, Bruno. He stays the whole day to help his father find his bicycle.
Antonio doesn’t just lose a bike for a job. His bike symbolized the faith of surviving the years through a poor area in Italy. Antonio needs a job in order to feed and support his family, and when he finally gets lucky enough to be offered a job putting up posters he finds out he needs a bicycle. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have a bicycle so he had to trade in expensive sheets to get a bike for the job which will provide for his family. Antonio is in desperate need for a job, after just recently having a baby. When his bicycle is stolen, he is not only losing some useful money, but also his job, his security, his lunch for the next week, and anything else that could result from being unable to support his family. Because Antonio realizes that his bike is the only thing that can help him and his family he urgently looks for his bike among the thousands of bikes among the streets. From my point of view, the task seemed impossible from the beginning but he did not give up faith. Antonio’s bike was the only thing that kept his faith of keeping his family together and creating a well off life for his children. Another symbol in the film is the scene where Antonio accuses a boy of stealing his bicycle and the boy’s friends and neighbors say the boy would never do such a thing. This symbolizes the closeness among neighbors and friends during times of extreme poverty and starvation where people would do anything to make money and keep from being hungry.
Well we find out early on in the movie that Antonio needs this bike in order to continue to be able to provide for his family. We see that he can barely afford it but we also understand that in his mind he has no other choice. When his bicycle is stolen it is as if his whole life has been taken away from him. He had already lost his job so when that bike was stolen it was just like losing his job for a second time. I think its definitely symbolic that the bike was labeled Fide because Antonio does kind of lose his faith in his search for the bike. We see that he is trying to be strong for his son and not to do anything that will make Bruno look at him in a negative light but in his heart you can tell that he is very discouraged about the situation. He wants Bruno to be able to experience a better way of life and to experience the kind of life he could have if he was to grow up to have money. It's interesting that something that seems so simple to us can make a world of change in this man's life which it what makes the concept of this film interesting.
So far as symbols besides the bike I would have to say that the fact that Antonio spends like film looking for his bike or the theif and he ends up becoming a theif. I don't even really know if it is a symbol I just find it very interesting. Antonio knew how it felt to have his bike stolen and even thought the bike he attempted to steal might not have meant as much to its owner Antonio still was not right for taking it. It just goes to show how far some will go simply because they care about their family and they want a better life for themselves. I think that even though he meant well and that he should have set a good example for Bruno and simply kept looking. I just feel that good things come to those who do the right thing.
Antonio’s bicycle is much more to him than just a device for recreation or transportation. It is a necessity for work, and acts as a symbol for all that that entails. Antonio is jobless and very poor at the beginning of the film. When he is offered a job putting up posters, it is impossible for him to turn it down for the sake of himself and his family. Although he does not have a bike at the beginning of the film, his wife and he make sacrifices and pawn their bed sheets in order to have enough money to buy his old bike back from the pawnshop. The bike for Antonio represents his pride, his livelihood, and his ability to support his family. After the joy of starting work, having his bike stolen is a huge blow to Antonio emotionally, and a huge problem financially as well. All his control over his own life is taken away when the bike is stolen, and he is left powerless. The brand of the bike, “Fides”, is very telling in this regard. The meaning, “Faith”, may relate to the dependence that Antonio has on the bicycle, and the faith the Antonio has in that this job will turn his life around. This name turns out to be an ironic statement about how the bicycle is in fact not faithful or dependable at all, because it is quickly stolen away, and suddenly Antonio has no way to do his job.
It is no coincidence that in The Bicycle Thieves the bike is named Fides. When Antonio loses Fides in Bicycle Thieves, he loses more than a bike, he loses all hope for a chance to provide for his family. That bike meant job security, dignity, and a chance to finally prove himself for Antonio. His entire families’ livelihood rests on the bicycle. His family, in the beginning of the film, is shown to have been willing to sacrifice anything to get their bicycle, because they realize that it’s the only way they can keep surviving. It gives the husband a sense of pride; he becomes a working man, in the city nonetheless. He goes from begging for a job to having one he can be proud of and show off. Not only is he excited about it, but now his son and his wife have a newfound respect for him for getting this job. This means when Antonio gets his bike stolen from him, his faith or fides in life goes away; how can someone still have hope when the only good thing to happen to them gets yanked away so easily? To show how much he needed that bicycle, he devotes all of his time towards trying to apprehend the culprit, putting himself and his son in danger. Eventually it drives him to steal a bicycle, showing that even the most upstanding protagonist is willing to sacrifice all of his morals towards providing for his family.
It is no coincidence that in The Bicycle Thieves the bike is named Fides. When Antonio loses Fides in Bicycle Thieves, he loses more than a bike, he loses all hope for a chance to provide for his family. That bike meant job security, dignity, and a chance to finally prove himself for Antonio. His entire families’ livelihood rests on the bicycle. His family, in the beginning of the film, is shown to have been willing to sacrifice anything to get their bicycle, because they realize that it’s the only way they can keep surviving. It gives the husband a sense of pride; he becomes a working man, in the city nonetheless. He goes from begging for a job to having one he can be proud of and show off. Not only is he excited about it, but now his son and his wife have a newfound respect for him for getting this job. This means when Antonio gets his bike stolen from him, his faith or fides in life goes away; how can someone still have hope when the only good thing to happen to them gets yanked away so easily? To show how much he needed that bicycle, he devotes all of his time towards trying to apprehend the culprit, putting himself and his son in danger. Eventually it drives him to steal a bicycle, showing that even the most upstanding protagonist is willing to sacrifice all of his morals towards providing for his family.
When Antonio loses his bike, it not only represents his main form of transportation being lost, but his possible socio-economic status improvement going along with it. This bike certainly allowed him to perform his new found employment, but it also symbolized his ability to earn a higher living and possibly improve his family's situation. He was given the opportunity of a new job, that could have possibly changed his life, and with the bike he was able to do his job, but the bike was the last and most important piece to his success. When the bike was taken away, there was a domino effect, because his job couldn't be done, which meant he wouldn't get the benefit of a higher earning and couldn't give his family a better lifestyle than they had been living. But there was another major symbol in this movie, and that was the search for the bike itself. Obviously the bike had material value, but what he was really searching for throughout the movie, was a better life. Antonio is living with his family, but they are not in the best financial or social situation. His searching for his bike is almost a way for him to look for a way out of the root that his life is at this point in time. Every time he gets close, we feel a sense of relief for him, but his worrisome attitude directly relates to his feelings about his life and the future for him and his family.
The bike that is stolen in the film really is a lot more than just a bike. This bike pretty much represents the lifestyle that Antonio could be able to live. Antonino was moving up on the social/economical scale. With this new bike he was able to get a better job which paid better which meant a better way of living for him and his family. This bike could be seen as two different means of transportation. The more obvious would be that the bike is what he used to get from place to place for his new job, so in that sense the bike transported him physically. Another way to look at it is, this bike took him to a higher social status, so this bike transported for a lower social class to a higher social class. I think that the search for the stolen bike is really a metaphor for the search of a better life. I wholly agree with Zac when saying that the bike obviously had material value, but nothing could be more valuable than seeing your family happy and not having to worry about financial stress and such. So all in all, the most obvious thing that Antonio loses is his bike but in reality he really loses the opportunity to get him and his family to a better place socially and financially. He really loses the opportunity to feel real happiness.
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ReplyDeleteAlthough to most of us, losing a bike would not be a big deal, to Antonio, it is catastrophic. As mentioned in the Film Analysis textbook, Antonio’s bike not only represents a required mode of transportation, but it symbolizes his connection with the world of work and the well-being of his family. When he loses his bike, he loses control, and he loses the feeling of masculinity he gains from providing for the family. When he is given an opportunity to make an income to support his family, he immediately takes it even though he does not own a bike, which is required for the job. This shows his eagerness and dedication to creating a good life for his wife and son, and his need to feel like he is an important part of their lives. His determination to find the bicycle thief and the bike itself also shows his commitment to getting his job back, and through that, the survival of his family. He goes through the town nagging citizens that he thinks may be able to help him, and refuses to give up. As the search goes on, he becomes more and more short-tempered, and we can tell he is starting to give up. Yet, he tries to stay strong for his son, Bruno. I also believe he goes extremely out of his way to find the thief in order to show Bruno that evil never succeeds. Unfortunately, they never find the thief, and throughout the film, Antonio sets a bad example for his son by angrily confronting people that may have been involved with the theft, and in the end, by hypocritically stealing a bike. I think the fact that the bike is never found symbolizes the unfairness of life, and Antonio's attempted theft shows that two wrongs do not make a right, and that sinking down to the level of a criminal will not solve his problems.
ReplyDeleteAntonio spends the whole day looking for his bike, and for most of the day he seems pretty confident that he's going to find it. When he goes to the flea market, when he's following the old man, when he's going after the "thief". He does all of that because he really believes that one of these people will be able to get him his bike back. His hope keeps rekindling. He even has faith that he will be able to steal a bike and get away with it himself. However, when he doesn't succeed, he's finally ready to go home. He's completely given up on his chase. So he loses his own bike, then his faith his renewed when he sees the bike named "fides" But that is taken away from him also. I think another important thing about faith in this movie is antonio's son, Bruno. He stays the whole day to help his father find his bicycle.
ReplyDeleteAntonio doesn’t just lose a bike for a job. His bike symbolized the faith of surviving the years through a poor area in Italy. Antonio needs a job in order to feed and support his family, and when he finally gets lucky enough to be offered a job putting up posters he finds out he needs a bicycle. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have a bicycle so he had to trade in expensive sheets to get a bike for the job which will provide for his family. Antonio is in desperate need for a job, after just recently having a baby. When his bicycle is stolen, he is not only losing some useful money, but also his job, his security, his lunch for the next week, and anything else that could result from being unable to support his family. Because Antonio realizes that his bike is the only thing that can help him and his family he urgently looks for his bike among the thousands of bikes among the streets. From my point of view, the task seemed impossible from the beginning but he did not give up faith. Antonio’s bike was the only thing that kept his faith of keeping his family together and creating a well off life for his children. Another symbol in the film is the scene where Antonio accuses a boy of stealing his bicycle and the boy’s friends and neighbors say the boy would never do such a thing. This symbolizes the closeness among neighbors and friends during times of extreme poverty and starvation where people would do anything to make money and keep from being hungry.
ReplyDeleteWell we find out early on in the movie that Antonio needs this bike in order to continue to be able to provide for his family. We see that he can barely afford it but we also understand that in his mind he has no other choice. When his bicycle is stolen it is as if his whole life has been taken away from him. He had already lost his job so when that bike was stolen it was just like losing his job for a second time. I think its definitely symbolic that the bike was labeled Fide because Antonio does kind of lose his faith in his search for the bike. We see that he is trying to be strong for his son and not to do anything that will make Bruno look at him in a negative light but in his heart you can tell that he is very discouraged about the situation. He wants Bruno to be able to experience a better way of life and to experience the kind of life he could have if he was to grow up to have money. It's interesting that something that seems so simple to us can make a world of change in this man's life which it what makes the concept of this film interesting.
ReplyDeleteSo far as symbols besides the bike I would have to say that the fact that Antonio spends like film looking for his bike or the theif and he ends up becoming a theif. I don't even really know if it is a symbol I just find it very interesting. Antonio knew how it felt to have his bike stolen and even thought the bike he attempted to steal might not have meant as much to its owner Antonio still was not right for taking it. It just goes to show how far some will go simply because they care about their family and they want a better life for themselves. I think that even though he meant well and that he should have set a good example for Bruno and simply kept looking. I just feel that good things come to those who do the right thing.
Antonio’s bicycle is much more to him than just a device for recreation or transportation. It is a necessity for work, and acts as a symbol for all that that entails. Antonio is jobless and very poor at the beginning of the film. When he is offered a job putting up posters, it is impossible for him to turn it down for the sake of himself and his family. Although he does not have a bike at the beginning of the film, his wife and he make sacrifices and pawn their bed sheets in order to have enough money to buy his old bike back from the pawnshop. The bike for Antonio represents his pride, his livelihood, and his ability to support his family. After the joy of starting work, having his bike stolen is a huge blow to Antonio emotionally, and a huge problem financially as well. All his control over his own life is taken away when the bike is stolen, and he is left powerless. The brand of the bike, “Fides”, is very telling in this regard. The meaning, “Faith”, may relate to the dependence that Antonio has on the bicycle, and the faith the Antonio has in that this job will turn his life around. This name turns out to be an ironic statement about how the bicycle is in fact not faithful or dependable at all, because it is quickly stolen away, and suddenly Antonio has no way to do his job.
ReplyDeleteIt is no coincidence that in The Bicycle Thieves the bike is named Fides. When Antonio loses Fides in Bicycle Thieves, he loses more than a bike, he loses all hope for a chance to provide for his family. That bike meant job security, dignity, and a chance to finally prove himself for Antonio. His entire families’ livelihood rests on the bicycle.
ReplyDeleteHis family, in the beginning of the film, is shown to have been willing to sacrifice anything to get their bicycle, because they realize that it’s the only way they can keep surviving. It gives the husband a sense of pride; he becomes a working man, in the city nonetheless. He goes from begging for a job to having one he can be proud of and show off. Not only is he excited about it, but now his son and his wife have a newfound respect for him for getting this job.
This means when Antonio gets his bike stolen from him, his faith or fides in life goes away; how can someone still have hope when the only good thing to happen to them gets yanked away so easily? To show how much he needed that bicycle, he devotes all of his time towards trying to apprehend the culprit, putting himself and his son in danger. Eventually it drives him to steal a bicycle, showing that even the most upstanding protagonist is willing to sacrifice all of his morals towards providing for his family.
It is no coincidence that in The Bicycle Thieves the bike is named Fides. When Antonio loses Fides in Bicycle Thieves, he loses more than a bike, he loses all hope for a chance to provide for his family. That bike meant job security, dignity, and a chance to finally prove himself for Antonio. His entire families’ livelihood rests on the bicycle.
ReplyDeleteHis family, in the beginning of the film, is shown to have been willing to sacrifice anything to get their bicycle, because they realize that it’s the only way they can keep surviving. It gives the husband a sense of pride; he becomes a working man, in the city nonetheless. He goes from begging for a job to having one he can be proud of and show off. Not only is he excited about it, but now his son and his wife have a newfound respect for him for getting this job.
This means when Antonio gets his bike stolen from him, his faith or fides in life goes away; how can someone still have hope when the only good thing to happen to them gets yanked away so easily? To show how much he needed that bicycle, he devotes all of his time towards trying to apprehend the culprit, putting himself and his son in danger. Eventually it drives him to steal a bicycle, showing that even the most upstanding protagonist is willing to sacrifice all of his morals towards providing for his family.
When Antonio loses his bike, it not only represents his main form of transportation being lost, but his possible socio-economic status improvement going along with it. This bike certainly allowed him to perform his new found employment, but it also symbolized his ability to earn a higher living and possibly improve his family's situation. He was given the opportunity of a new job, that could have possibly changed his life, and with the bike he was able to do his job, but the bike was the last and most important piece to his success. When the bike was taken away, there was a domino effect, because his job couldn't be done, which meant he wouldn't get the benefit of a higher earning and couldn't give his family a better lifestyle than they had been living. But there was another major symbol in this movie, and that was the search for the bike itself. Obviously the bike had material value, but what he was really searching for throughout the movie, was a better life. Antonio is living with his family, but they are not in the best financial or social situation. His searching for his bike is almost a way for him to look for a way out of the root that his life is at this point in time. Every time he gets close, we feel a sense of relief for him, but his worrisome attitude directly relates to his feelings about his life and the future for him and his family.
ReplyDeleteThe bike that is stolen in the film really is a lot more than just a bike. This bike pretty much represents the lifestyle that Antonio could be able to live. Antonino was moving up on the social/economical scale. With this new bike he was able to get a better job which paid better which meant a better way of living for him and his family. This bike could be seen as two different means of transportation. The more obvious would be that the bike is what he used to get from place to place for his new job, so in that sense the bike transported him physically. Another way to look at it is, this bike took him to a higher social status, so this bike transported for a lower social class to a higher social class. I think that the search for the stolen bike is really a metaphor for the search of a better life. I wholly agree with Zac when saying that the bike obviously had material value, but nothing could be more valuable than seeing your family happy and not having to worry about financial stress and such. So all in all, the most obvious thing that Antonio loses is his bike but in reality he really loses the opportunity to get him and his family to a better place socially and financially. He really loses the opportunity to feel real happiness.
ReplyDelete