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Part 2, Chapter 11
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
Mike’s money worries are on his mind as the midterm elections approach. He is determined to vote for the Socialist candidate, Eugene Debs, but the company bosses round up the workers and, in a thinly veiled threat, remind them that, “anything that hurts the company hurts you” before passing out sample ballots “marked with a vote for a straight Republican ticket.”
The extent of the steel company’s power and influence is such that it even controls the local political apparatus. Bell makes clear that the power of business leaders makes a mockery of the idea that voting constitutes a sacred act of “freedom” in America.
Themes
Mike and the other workers cross the yard to the schoolhouse basement that houses the voting booths. Several mill bosses lurk about, reminding workers, “if you know what's good for you, vote right.” Perovsky pulls Mike aside and warns him not to make trouble. Mike knows that the company has ways to find out who men vote for, and that by casting his vote for Debs, he risks his job. He nonetheless votes for the Socialist candidate and fully expects to be fired. However, on the next payday he receives his pay as usual and breathes a sigh of relief. The futility of his rebellious vote, however, reminds him that he is a “flinger of pebbles against a fortress,” whose “impunity [is] the measure of his impotence.”
In this passage, Bell initially frames Mike’s decision to defy the company and cast his ballot for Debs as an act of heroism. Yet, while Mike’s decision is indeed brave, it is also completely futile. By highlighting the pointlessness of individual acts to challenge the company’s power, Bell sets the stage for the resurgence of collective labor organizing later in the novel that eventually mounts a successful challenge to the steel bosses. Mike learns that one man cannot make a difference, and it is a lesson that his son will also take to heart.
Themes
