Exploitative business practices
Warren comes out of the gates showing her disdain for predatory lending practices and the exploitative interests of banks. She shows through story how those imbalances affected her in real life. Her father was a middle class worker who lost everything when health concerns (a heart attack) rendered him unable to continue being productive at his job. He tried to make ends meet, but Warren explains that the banks were all-too-happy to take what they had invested in. They reposessed the family car and almost took the house.
Life for the common person
Warren is a politician, but she spends this book arguing that she is a normal person with a long life as a normal person. She says that she was very fortunate to get help in the form of scholarships, or else she couldn't have gone to school. She describes herself as a mother and a hard worker. Her political opinions originate in these experiences of normal life. She isn't like other predatory politicians, she argues, because the people who have corrupted American politics are the big businesses that she has made her career in opposing.
Politics and resistance
The thematic subtext for this memoir is that Warren's life in politics is a genuine self-sacrifice. She argues that she dedicated her life to politics so she could try and make a difference by resisting the gravitas of corruption that defines life in Washington. Her opinion is predicated on this thematic belief, that political action is required by duty when corruption and imbalance threaten the life of the common man. She explains how she has been able to fight against lobbyists and big business interests.
