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
Lenù is upset by the news of Lila’s upcoming wedding and shocked by the suddenness and finality of the fixed date—March 12th. There are still nine months until the wedding, yet Lenù fears she and Lila are speeding toward a “crossroads that [will] separate [their] lives.” Lenù begins to feel that school is more meaningless than ever. She also begins berating herself for her “meager” number of romantic experiences.
Lenù feels she’s constantly living in Lila’s shadow even in moments of personal triumph, yet this creates within her a desire to continue getting closer to Lila rather than to shut her out.
Themes
When Lenù goes to school the next day, however, Professors Gerace and Galiani praise her most recent Italian paper and Gerace reads a passage before the final exam committee. Hearing her words come from the Maestro’s mouth, Lenù is proud of her writing for the first time in her life—it is not a mere imitation of Lila’s voice, but her own. Lenù is promoted to her third year with perfect grades—but her family doesn’t seem to care much. Even Maestra Olivero is uninterested in the good news when Lenù goes to deliver it to her—Oliviero only wants to talk about Lila and lament the waste of Lila’s mind.
This passage is indicative of Lenù’s lifelong uphill struggle to determine what percentage of her thoughts and of her work is truly hers—and what percentage she owes to Lila. Lenù’s academic achievements bring her great personal satisfaction, but with every success she has, she—and those around her—are constantly measuring her against Lila.
Themes
Alfonso is the only one who congratulates Lenù—she is grateful for his support and surprised when he hugs her and gives her a big kiss on the cheek. On the way home from school, Lenù asks Alfonso how he feels about the upcoming wedding and his new sister-in-law. Alfonso recalls the competition in which Lila “humiliated” him even though he was the son of the feared Don Achille—he remembers finding Lila’s lack of deference “intolerable” and states that if it were up to him to choose who to marry, he would choose Lenù. As they part ways, Lenù promises to meet up with Alfonso over the summer—but she reveals that the season will go by without them seeing each other even once.
Alfonso clearly has affection for Lenù—and he also seems to have complicated feelings about his brother’s engagement to Lila. Lenù resists getting too close to Alfonso, however, because part of her still believes it would be humiliating to be with the younger brother of her best friend’s fiancé.
Themes
Lenù looks for summer work and quickly finds that the stationer needs someone to watch her young girls and take them swimming during the day. Lenù can hardly believe that she’ll be paid to take the three girls to the beach for July and part of August. On the way home from the stationer, she runs into Antonio on the street and shares the good news with him. Antonio, excited for Lenù, asks her to be his girlfriend. Knowing that Lila is just about to “complete a definitive leap” beyond Lenù’s experience, Lenù accepts the older boy’s offer of companionship.
In this passage, as Lenù accepts Antonio’s offer to be her boyfriend, Ferrante shows how Lenù, threatened by the idea that Lila will soon move on without her (and surpass her in terms of romantic experience) decides to use a relationship with Antonio to stay apace with Lila.
Themes
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