Friendship

Ford depicts friendship as a source of meaning and fulfillment in the novel, in contrast to the socioeconomic landscape that dehumanizes poor, racialized immigrants. While political actors like Mrs. Irvine and wealthy investors like Louis J. Turnbull treat Ernest like a commodity to be sold or raffled off, Ernest is able to reaffirm his humanity through his friendships with Maisie and Fahn. Although the Tenderloin is a brothel and explicitly trades women's bodies for money, Ford shows the reader that there is not a great difference between the brothel and the world outside of the brothel; the only difference is that the Tenderloin is more explicit in how people are sold as commodities. Because the Tenderloin is outside of acceptable society, the brothel does not have to follow society's rules, and the good working conditions and camaraderie among the workers there shows that friendship can make...