He is finally arrested and put in jail after trying to steal some iron in order to buy his fiancée an engagement ring.

He also admired "what he considered their pre-political rebelliousness";[3] they were separated from the partisan politics that plagued post-war modern Italy.

He later wrote in Heretical Empiricism that literature should be "written in a language substantially different from that of the writer, not leaving out of consideration a certain naturalism".

[5] Another alienating characteristic of the book is the fact that the narrator does not provide any background information for readers unfamiliar with the social setting of his story.

[6] He saw the underground class as the only ones who survived the corruption brought about of industrialization and modernity, a sort of human time capsule, the only ones who are truly free.

Ragazzi di vita parallels some of Pasolini's films like Mamma Roma and La Ricotta in developing his own form of neo-realism, separate from that of Roberto Rossellini and other post-war directors.