While these symbolic meanings of shutters may seem disparate, they each reflect a tension between the inside and outside world, with marginalized, poor sectors of society feeling excluded and unacknowledged by authoritative presences like the police and employment offices. As the camera tracks right, a woman closes her shutters when the police officer is framed within the window, demonstrating a distrust toward law enforcement and local authority. Finally, we see Antonio and a police officer searching the young thief’s apartment. We also watch Bruno close the shutters in the bedroom so his infant sibling stays warm and protected from the outside world, an action which represents Bruno’s paternal instincts. Maria peers into the locker rooms where Antonio is employed, only to have the shutters rudely closed on her, illustrating the exclusion of women in the workforce. Shutters recur throughout the film, and they often take on a multitude of meanings and contexts.
The bicycle’s embodiment of hope is even suggested with its brand name, “Fides,” which means faith in Italian. When Antonio and Maria sacrifice their sheets and reattain the bike, they are finally imbued with hope, overjoyed at a chance for a better life.
The possession of the bicycle will help diminish Antonio and Maria’s social and economic disadvantages and thereby enable upward mobility, and Antonio and Maria’s desperation to retrieve the bike from the pawn shop proves their understanding of the bike's literal and symbolic significance. However, as the film progresses, the bike comes to represent so much more than the potential for labor-it symbolizes hope and social mobility. In the beginning of the film, we recognize the bicycle as the key to Antonio’s employment, as the billposter position requires it for transport around Rome.
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