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
On the 25th of August—Lenù’s 15th birthday—two important things happen. The first is that she receives a letter from Lila early in the morning, which she devours, struck by Lila’s beautiful writing and the naturalistic way she is able to “speak” through the written word in a way that Lenù has never encountered before. There is “no trace of effort” or artifice in Lila’s letter, and Lenù is “ashamed” of the “childish” letters she herself has been sending all summer.
Language and writing are so often points of competition for Lila and Lenù—but just as often, they are points of connection. In this passage, Lenù finds herself in awe of Lila’s natural way with words—but her joy at hearing from Lila is tinged with jealousy over Lila’s proficiency with language and shame over her own halting past communications.
Themes
Lila’s letter states that she hasn’t written so as not to spoil Lenù’s beautiful vacation with her “terrible stories”—but now she feels compelled to tell Lenù what’s been going on at home. She writes that after Lenù’s departure, Marcello began coming to the Cerullos’ for dinner every night with pastries and chocolates in tow. Lila never touched a single thing he brought and tried to act like he wasn’t there at all. One morning, Marcello and a large man arrived with a big box containing a television: a gift for Lila and her family.
As Lila relays to Lenù the story of being wooed by the frightful and odious Marcello Solara, it becomes clear that Lila’s parents—who have already thrown her life off course by barring her from school—are now seeking to use Lila and her potential union with Marcello to advance their own stations.
Themes
Lila incurred wrath from all sides: from Rino for leaving him to labor in the workshop while she pursued life as a lady and from her father for being hostile to Marcello. She even drew ire from Marcello himself, as he felt that he was Lila’s fiancé already and he grew increasingly frustrated each day Lila ignored him (and even taunted him by telling him about her “nonexistent boyfriends”). Marcello threatened to kill Lila if he found out she liked someone else. Lila, terrified, could do little but continue carrying her trusty knife with her at all times.
As Lila resists Marcello’s advances, she becomes a target for violence from all the men in her life. Lila, having learned that the only way to fight violence is with more violence, readies herself by carrying a weapon at all times.
Themes
Lila writes to Lenù of the “good and evil […] mixed together” throughout the neighborhood. Though Marcello is a good match, the good “taste[s] of the bad and the bad […] of the good.” Lila closes her letter by including an anecdote: a few nights ago, she writes, while washing dishes, she heard a loud noise. She turned to face the wall and realized that a copper pot hanging there had exploded—seemingly of its own accord—leaving a hole in the middle and the structure “deformed.” Lila signs off by stating that she hopes Lenù stays on Ischia forever and that she never has to return to the neighborhood again.
Lila is clearly beginning to fear for her life. Based on her penchant for telling fanciful stories in the past, it’s unclear whether the story about the pot is an exaggeration—or whether a warning shot was fired into her apartment to frighten her. Either way, it is clear that Lila feels profoundly threatened and unable to enjoy her life as long as Marcello’s influence confuses and alienates her.
Themes
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