Out of This Furnace Themes

In Out of This Furnace, Thomas Bell explores how immigration continually redefined the meaning of American identity at the turn of the twentieth century. When Slovakian immigrant George Kracha and his family settle in the steel town of Braddock, Pennsylvania, they face constant discrimination from the native-born workers who hail from Irish, English, and German “old immigrant” stock. Bell follows three generations of Kracha’s family to show just how long it takes for them…

The title of Bell’s novel references how everything that happens therein literally and metaphorically comes from “out of the furnace.” The furnaces bring both life and death; it symbolizes both creation and destruction. The steel mills inspire Slovak immigrants to come to America with hopes of achieving a better life. Yet while the mills provide income for Slovaks to support their families, workers are subject to endless hours, terrible wages, and a loss of autonomy…

The men in Out of This Furnace work in the steel mills, while the women tend to homemaking and childrearing. Bell makes clear that domestic work is just as backbreaking and stress-inducing as work in the furnaces. Unlike millwork, which at least comes with downturns, women’s work has no breaks: it is a full-time job, seven days a week. In addition, because work in the mills is so dangerous, the very real potential of…

The struggle between capital (the class who owns the means of production) and labor (the workers who sell their work to the capitalist class) is at the heart of Out of This Furnace. Capital—the owners and bosses of the steel companies—wields immense power over labor. It prevents workers from forming a union to bargain for higher wages, shorter hours, and better pensions. Since individual workers in Braddock are powerless to improve their conditions, they…