Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Out of This Furnace, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Immigration and American Identity
Industrialization and Destruction
The American Dream vs. Reality
Women’s Work
Capital vs. Labor
Summary
Analysis
World War I ends, and Johnny gets a raise in the steel mill, but the family still has trouble covering their expenses. Rent, food, clothes, insurance, and the occasional candy or movie add to the constant upkeep of a “ramshackle, vermin-ridden house.” Shortly after New Year’s, Mary begins to feel unusually tired and soon finds herself bedridden. Pauline insist that they send for Dr. Kralik, who diagnoses Mary with Spanish Influenza and urges her to rest. Unable to reconcile rest with the need to keep house and make ends meet, Mary works herself into a fit of “wracking convulsions” until her mouth fills with blood. Dr. Kralik insist that without rest, Mary will die. He tells her she must go to a sanitarium for a year or more and bring her children with her, especially since Pauline also has a mild case of the flu.
The stress, work, and fatigue of raising four children on her own finally proves to be a mortal threat to Mary. In Bell’s novel, the idea of dying from too much work applies equally to women who run households and to men who suffer horrible accidents in the blast furnaces. In addition, just as the death of men in the mills reverberates through whole families, so too does the pain of an overworked homemaker. Mary’s situation demonstrates the latter point, as Pauline has also contracted Spanish influenza alongside her mother.
Themes
In April, the Cresson sanitarium accepts Mary and the children. Johnny goes to live with his aunt Alice. Mary has two insurance policies on herself. She makes the $500 policy over to Anna and the $750 policy over to the bank “in the event of her death” to be “held in trust” for Agnes. Mary also takes the engagement ring Mike had purchased for her to the jeweler. He purchases the ring’s diamond for $35, reshapes the ring, and engraves it with Johnny’s initials. Mary then gives the ring to Johnny. Finally, she visits Mike’s grave before moving to the sanitarium.
Mary’s reshaping of Mike’s engagement ring as a gift to Johnny provides a symbolic moment that connects Johnny to his father. Where Mike once yearned to achieve the American Dream with Mary before his death, the literal passing on of a token of Mike and Mary’s partnership to their son symbolizes the passing on of a family’s hopes for a better life to a new generation.
Themes
