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
Each day, Lenù takes the stationer’s girls on the bus to the sea. She sits on the beach and watches them play, then returns with them to the neighborhood late in the afternoon. Lenù brings the girls home to their mother and then hurries off for secret dates with Antonio. At the ponds near the back streets of the neighborhood, Lenù lets Antonio touch her breasts and between her legs, and she touches a penis for the first time as she fondles him, too. During these exchanges, Lenù wonders if Lila does such things with Stefano. She comes to realize that touching and kissing Antonio doesn’t give her the same pleasure her strange encounter with Donato did, yet she sees Antonio as a “useful phantom” in conjuring those feelings on her own.
Even in the midst of her sexual encounters with Antonio, Lenù thinks mostly of Lila—she is constantly comparing herself to her friend. With things like writing and school, the two can compare their progress and status openly—but when it comes to love and sex, Lenù has unanswered questions about Lila’s experiences and point of view.
Themes
Antonio occasionally goes to the beach with Lenù and the stationer’s girls, buying them all sandwiches and entertaining the children while Lenù reads. One day, Lenù spots Lila at the beach looking like a movie star in big sunglasses and a glamorous swimsuit as an attendant sets up chairs for her and Stefano. Lenù hasn’t seen Lila in a long time—Lila doesn’t know about Lenù’s job or her new boyfriend. Lenù has trouble catching Lila’s eye and returns to reading, but soon, Antonio calls her over. The three of them and the girls spend the day together, and Stefano orders ice cream, sodas, and sandwiches for everyone.
Lenù knows that she and Lila are on different paths, and their encounter at the beach—one in which Lila doesn’t even spot Lenù—fills Lenù with fear that perhaps Lila will truly move on from their friendship and have no need of their relationship anymore.
Themes
While Antonio and Stefano talk, Lila urges Lenù to ask the stationer to pay her more for her work. Lenù jokes that she’ll gouge Lila for prices when the time comes for her to take Lila’s own children to the beach. Lila replies that she knows the “value” of time with Lenù and will pay her “treasure chests” of money. Lila asks if Antonio knows Lenù’s value—and if Lenù loves him. Lenù says she doesn’t. She asks Lila if Lila loves Stefano, and Lila replies that she loves Stefano more than anyone in the world—except for Lenù.
In this scene, Lila and Lenù have a casual, jocular conversation which quickly turns serious when Lila declares that not even Stefano can replace Lenù in her heart. This passage speaks to the ways in which female friendship—even more than love, sex, and committed partnerships—have the power to alter the trajectory of a person’s life.
Themes
Lenù invites Lila to come to the beach with her some days for the rest of the summer, and Lila agrees to do so. At the end of the afternoon, Stefano goes to pay and realizes that Antonio has already taken care of the bill. Back in the neighborhood, Lenù scolds him for paying when he doesn’t have the money to do so and asks him why he’d do such a thing. Antonio replies that he and Lenù are “better-looking and more refined” than Stefano and Lila.
Antonio clearly has a chip on his shoulder about the differences between him and Stefano. While Stefano can provide for Lila with ease, Antonio cannot do the same for Lenù—yet he is determined to show her his viability and utility as a romantic partner
Themes
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