We can sleep without sheets.”
Antonio is the family breadwinner, and as he is struggling to make ends meets, he lands a job for advertising bills. It is not an easy job to take in as it requires a bicycle, and he does not own one because he recently pawned his bicycle in a lost bet. He goes ahead to share his concerns with his wife Maria, she sacrifices her dowry bedsheets and sells them. This helps them get money for purchasing back the bicycle needed for Antonio to start working. Maria makes this decision whole-heartedly because she believes that the bicycle is their way out of poverty. She gladly chooses the comfort of lying in good bedsheets over Antonio’s job to ensure their survival in a hard time that is ensuing all of Rome post World War 2. It is evident that low-income families, during this trying period, have to choose what is most important for their survival, their basic needs over any other needs however enticing they might be.
Then why even file a complaint?”
Antonio involves the police to help him retrieve his bicycle after it is stolen while he is on top of a ladder hanging posters. When he goes to the police station to report the theft, the police make him sign a lot of papers, due to their bureaucratic system, and at the end of it all, they offer no help. The police insist that Antonio should look for the bicycle himself, this leaves Antonio without any hope in the power figures in his community and disappointed. This happens during another instance when he asks the police to help him after even identifying the thief and where he resides. Throughout the film, we see the unreliability of the police and other powerful figures in general, in helping out the poor class people and always end up neglecting their needs.
“Damn the day I was born!”
Antonio lands a job for advertising bills. It is not an easy job to take in as it requires a bicycle, and he does not own one because he recently pawned his bicycle in a lost bet. He feels unlucky that he finds this job just after he loses his bike to the pawnshop. This pessimistic view at life is drummed in by the constant unlucky circumstances of getting his bicycle back. Antonio encounters so many obstacles on his quest to recover his bicycle, from the non-helping police to unreasonable crowds. Antonio falls prey to the injustice of the crowd again when he is caught trying to steal a bicycle and wonders how come he is caught so fast, unlike the thief that stole his own bicycle.
Cowards, ganging up on one man!”
After Antonio learns where the thief lives, he makes a point to go to his place and confront him to see if he can get his bicycle back from him. This does not go as planned, on confronting the thief, he falls into a seizure. The neighbours haul insults at him and almost attack Antonio, blaming him for the thief’s illness. The thief’s neighbours are in no way helpful, and they help cover for him by giving him an alibi and chasing Antonio away. He is left powerless against the unreasonable crowd who unites together to have power over a single individual.