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 April Sunday, Lenù and Lila go out into the city with Carmela, Pasquale, and Rino. Lila suggests visiting a wealthy and trendy neighborhood. As they walk down the street, they hear honking and turn to see the Solaras in their 1100—Gigliola and Ada are in the back of the car. Lenù is full of “bitterness”—she wishes that she and her friends had a car of their own. She feels poor and sad and wants to go home, but Lila’s desire to continue wandering, laughing, and having fun makes her feel a bit better.
When confronted with the wealthy, luxurious lifestyle others live, Lila and Lenù have opposite reactions: Lenù becomes jealous, bitter, and depressed, while Lila becomes invigorated and motivated.
Themes
As the group arrives in the wealthy, trendy area, Lenù feels as if she is “crossing a border.” All of the young, beautiful, well-dressed men and women seem as if they have come from “some other planet.” Rino and Pasquale grow sullen, and the girls soon pick up on their energy. All of them start to mock the fancy dresses and shoes worn by the wealthier teenagers. Their laughter escalates and they become bolder in their statements. When Rino insults a ridiculous bowler hat worn by the girlfriend of a young man in a white pullover, the boy insults Rino back. Rino punches the boy and knocks him to the ground. The group’s laughter turns to fear as the girls pull Rino and Pasquale away from the burgeoning brawl. Rino yells at Lila for bringing him to such a neighborhood and orders her, Carmela, and Lenù to head home.
This passage examines how Lenù and the rest of her friend group react to encountering an area of extreme wealth—and other young people like them who have access to luxury and refinement, who have never known the burdens of poverty and scarcity that they have. Rino and the others have contempt for these posh mirror images of themselves—and as Rino lashes out in anger at them, it becomes clear that the male violence of the neighborhood, which seeks to dominate anything in its path, has given Rino false hope that he can somehow use his anger to bend fate to his will.
Themes
Lenù, Lila, and Carmela start for home, but as they walk through the piazza, they see a group of boys with sticks heading for where they’ve left Rino and Pasquale. They follow the boys with sticks and find them already beating Rino and Pasquale. The girls scream for help, but no passerby come to their aid. Soon, the Solaras’ 1100 pulls up. Marcello gets out and throws himself into the fight right away. Michele pulls a crowbar from his trunk and joins the fray, too. Soon, the well-dressed Naples men are beaten off. Rino asks the Solaras to bring the girls home.
In this passage, Lila and Lenù realize that they will never be able to truly outrun the male-dominated violence of their neighborhood—even if they make it elsewhere in the world, the shadows of their past will follow them wherever they go.
Themes
Jammed in the backseat, Lenù feels as if her neighborhood has expanded and begun “swallowing all Naples.” Lila is sullen the entire car ride and ignores Marcello’s attempts to talk with her. Back at the entrance of their building, a shaken Lenù remarks to Lila that rich people are “worse” than them by far. Lila doesn’t answer. Lenù adds that the Solaras are “shit,” but that the brothers at least came to Rino and Pasquale’s aid when they needed it. Lila simply shakes her head.
This passage represents yet another significant blow to Lila’s previously-held belief that money could fix anything—she now realizes that those with money are just as corrupt and violent as her impoverished neighbors, schoolmates, and friends.
Themes
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