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
At the end of the school year, Lenù does poorly on her Latin exam and is told she’ll need to retake the test. Her father becomes angry with her and suggests it’s pointless for her to continue in her lessons. Lenù becomes depressed and angry—but surprisingly, her mother assures her that if she studies hard on her own, even without the lessons, she could still pass the retake. Lenù studies harder than ever.
Lenù is desperate to stay in school—she knows that dropping or failing out will resign her to a life like her mother’s, and she will do anything to avoid that fate.
Themes
One morning, while Lenù is studying, Lila calls her out to the courtyard. Lenù goes out to meet Lila and talk with her, reluctantly admitting that she is studying to retake the exam. As the two gossip about school, Carmela and Alfonso, and the things Carmela has told Lenù about Don Achille’s murder, Lila is pained to realize that Carmela believes everything she says—as “all the girls” do. Lila says she doesn’t want to talk to any of them anymore. Lenù points out that it's good to talk to others—Lila retorts that it is, but only when “someone […] answers.” Lenù feels a burst of joy in the idea that Lila might want to talk only to her.
In this passage, Lila admits that she feels Lenù is the only one of her friends or former classmates who “answers” the questions she has and the topics she wants to discuss adequately. This makes Lenù feel proud—because language has been a point of connection between the two of them for so long, she feels proud and gratified to realize that she is the only person Lila really enjoys talking to.
Themes
The girls continue to stroll and gossip, and Lenù feels joyous. At one point, Lila asks Lenù if the two are still friends. Lenù answers that they are. Lila asks if Lenù will do her a favor. Lenù says yes, privately thinking that she would do absolutely anything for Lila. Lila asks if Lenù will meet her once a day in the public gardens and bring the Latin schoolbooks along. Lila wants to study with Lenù as Lenù prepares to retake the exam.
As Lila and Lenù reconnect, their friendship circles back—as it always does—to writing, reading, and studying. Lila knows that Lenù needs help, and because she herself misses school so much, she decides that the two of them could mutually benefit from an arrangement in which they study together.
Themes
