The tenement building is a metaphor for the society that traps the poor people in a vicious cycle of poverty. The building is owned and operated by an exploitative landlord, who bullies tenants and refuses to carry out the repair work on the building. The collapsing nature of the building is a metaphor for the dilapidated nature of the society. The building is not designed to provide a home for people in the same way that the society is not designed to benefit everyone. Instead, both the building and the society are designed to benefit the wealthy elite. The rich landlord exploits the tenants for rent money, providing no real worth in the form of habitable housing, while the society functions in much the same way. The poor are exploited to the benefit of the wealthy elite, and the building symbolizes how this exploitation happens at every level of society.

In the summer, the building is too hot. In the winter, the building is too cold. People sleep on the roof or on the sidewalk during the summer, while they sit and shiver in their apartments during the winter while the heating pipes break down and remain unrepaired.