Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in My Brilliant Friend, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Female Friendship
Masculine vs. Feminine Violence
Women’s Work
Poverty, Social Climbing, and Sacrifice
The Uses of Community
Love, Sex, and Strategy
Summary
Analysis
One morning, Lenù’s father takes her on the route she’ll have to travel to commute out of the neighborhood to her new high school. Lenù feels full of love for her father and excitement about the fading boundaries of the neighborhood—she is thrilled to be in the city. Her father excitedly shows her off around town, bragging to everyone about her good grades and bright future. As her father shows her around Naples, Lenù begins to wonder if her neighborhood is the only one plagued by violence and ugliness.
Lenù is entranced by her first real visit to Naples—she sees the city as a place of possibility, openness, and civility. Realizing that there are such places outside of her neighborhood makes her even more determined to do whatever it takes to make her way out one day.
Themes
Toward the end of the day, Lenù’s father takes her down to the sea to glimpse Mount Vesuvius. Standing near the ocean with her father, Lenù wishes that Lila were with them. Returning to the neighborhood that evening feels strange to Lenù, but she is nonetheless excited to tell Lila all about her excursion. Lila listens “without curiosity,” and Lenù is offended, but soon she realizes that Lila is trying to focus on making the images of the bustling city and the beautiful ocean come alive in her mind—and failing to do so, since she knows nothing of the world beyond the neighborhood. Lila responds to Lenù’s story by stating that they need to accept Pasquale’s invitation for Sunday.
The experiences Lenù has in life aren’t as full without Lila—yet in this passage, she realizes that the more experiences she has on her own, the further apart she and Lila will drift. Lila can attempt to imagine the things Lenù is going through, but there will always be a fundamental gap between their experiences of the world. Lila tries to remind Lenù of experiences they can have together, which shows that she is still invested in making sure they have common ground.
Themes
Over the summer, Lila begins going to more and more little dance parties at the Pelusos’. Lenù is shocked by Lila’s newfound interest in dancing, but soon, in accompanying her, finds that she likes to dance herself. At one party, while dancing, Lenù discusses listening to music on a gramophone with Rino. Lila approaches them and tells Lenù that “gramophone” is a Greek word.
Lila begins outshining Lenù socially—and, as she reveals that she has knowledge of Greek, she haughtily shows that she has the power to outshine her intellectually, too, even though she is no longer in school.
Themes
