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
That night, Rino taunts Marcello about Stefano’s new car—and the fact that Stefano purchased the shoes for 25,000 lire. Marcello laughs the provocations off. Over the next several nights, Rino continues looking for ways to insult Marcello, while Lila takes to avoiding him by staying in her room during his visits. One night, Marcello asks Nunzia if Lila likes someone else. He says Lila has been spotted at Stefano’s grocery a lot, and Nunzia points out that it’s the only grocery in town. Marcello says Lila was spotted in the car with Stefano and Lenù—Nunzia insists Stefano is interested in Lenù. Marcello tells Nunzia not to let Lila spend time with Lenù anymore.
As the Cerullos collectively become more disdainful of Marcello—and bolder in venturing to show that disdain—Marcello attempts to tighten his control of Lila. He has caught wise to what’s going on and still believes that his influence—and the threat of the violence his family is capable of—is enough to reign her in.
Themes
When Lila reports this conversation to Lenù, Lenù throws her support behind Stefano. Lenù tells Lila that Stefano is rich—and as she does, she realizes that her childhood dreams of wealth have been reconfigured to accommodate the idea that wealth is about what kind of ease money can bring to the everyday. The more Lenù considers this idea, the more depressed she becomes. She reminds Lila of how Stefano tried to prick her tongue when she was small. Lila insists that Stefano was just a child then, and, in her voice, Lenù hears a great deal of emotion. Over the next few days, Lenù observes how deeply Lila really does appear to care for Stefano and the “pact” they are making together. Desperate not to be excised from Lila’s life, Lenù clings to Lila as she and Stefano plot and plan.
While observing the courtship between Lila and Stefano, Lenù has seen Lila’s pursuit of him as purely a strategical maneuver. Now, though, Lenù begins to understand that Lila does actually care for Stefano—whether that care is motivated by what he can give her or whether it comes from a deeper place of gratitude and hope for change in the neighborhood.
Themes
One day, as several workers and apprentices arrive to begin renovating the shoe shop and start work on some new products, Stefano arrives at the shop with a package wrapped in brown paper—he has framed Lila’s designs, and now asks Fernando permission to hang them on the wall. Once the pictures are hung, Stefano asks for Lila’s hand in marriage. Fernando, frightened, “weakly” states that Lila is engaged to Marcello. Stefano replies that if she is, she doesn’t seem to know it. Rino, too, says that Lila hates Marcello. Stefano looks around the shop knowingly. He urges Fernando to let Lila decide for herself—if she wants him, he says, Fernando must give her to him.
Over the last several days, Stefano has stacked the deck indisputably in his own favor. He has essentially taken over the Cerullo family business, making Fernando beholden to Stefano—and thus to Lila, as Lila is essentially controlling Stefano with her beauty and wiles. These complicated social maneuvers demonstrate the complex and sometimes dangerous ways in which the community members make use of one another.
Themes
During all of this, Lila and Lenù have been waiting outside. Stefano calls them inside the shop. Stefano tells Lila that he loves her “more than […] life” and asks her to marry him. Lila says she will. Fernando gasps and almost immediately asks who will tell Marcello the news—Lila and Stefano are offending “all the Solaras.” Lila insists that she will be the one to break the news.
Lila is aware that in marrying Stefano and rejecting Marcello, she is rocking the status quo of the neighborhood and putting herself—and her future marriage—in jeopardy. However, if there’s anyone who believes they can stand up to the Solaras’ wrath, it is the stony, intrepid Lila.
Themes
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