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 starts to feel that only the things Lila does have any importance. One Sunday, Lenù sees Lila duck into the elementary school building, and she sneakily follows her inside. The only open door in the building is the door to the library, which is run by Maestro Ferraro, but Lila is not in the room. Lenù wonders why Lila keeps abandoning her—and why Lila is taking out books without sharing them with her.
Lenù continues to feel hurt each time she realizes that Lila is going about life without her—and she is especially wounded when she realizes that Lila has been going on reading without inviting Lenù to join her. Writing and literature are, again, major centers of connection for Lila and Lenù.
Themes
Lenù continues developing. Her mother takes her to buy a bra, but her breasts are still noticeable to her male classmates, who “besiege” her and ask to see her breasts, having heard about what Lenù did for Gino. Lenù begins staying inside and studying hard during every spare moment. One morning in May, while Lenù is on her way to school, Gino asks her to be his girlfriend. She rejects him, feeling angry and embarrassed—yet she is proud to have been wanted. When news of Lenù’s rejection of Gino reaches Lila, Lila asks why Lenù would turn him down—Lila suggests Lenù tell Gino she’ll be his girlfriend if he’ll buy ice cream for Lenù, Lila, and Carmela all summer. Lenù takes this proposition to Gino, who refuses her out of hand.
This passage shows how, in even an early experience with sex and romance, Lila encourages Lenù to think about a relationship with a man as a transaction and consider what she can get out of it before accepting to a man’s terms. Lila and Lenù will go on to treat most of their future romantic relationships like trades or transactions, often sacrificing certain elements of happiness for having other needs met.
Themes
Lenù believes that Lila’s sharp, witty advice marks a new chapter in their friendship, one in which they can talk about grown-up things like love and boys—but instead, Lenù finds that because Carmela has told all of their friends about Lila’s advice, Lila has become more popular with the girls of the neighborhood than ever. She has several new friends who seek her advice—every time Lenù sees Lila out with these girls, dispensing relationship advice, she “suffer[s]” inside.
Lenù wants Lila to be all hers—she doesn’t want to have to share her friends with the other neighborhood girls. Lenù continues hoping that she and Lila will experience a revival of their friendship even as she fears that others might take Lila away from her.
Themes
