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 continues to succeed in school over the course of the year, and she continues filling out as well. One day, she attracts the attention of Marcello and Michele Solara, who try to take her for a ride in their 1100. Lenù refuses and heads to the gardens to meet Gigliola—she knows if she were to ever get in the Solaras’ car and if her father were to find out, her little brothers would feel obliged to kill the Solaras once they were grown up. One day, the Solaras succeed in dragging an older girl, Ada Cappuccio, into their car. When Ada’s brother, Antonio, confronts the brothers, they beat him bloody. The episode becomes a heated point of discussion for Lenù, Lila, Gigliola, and their other friends—Lila insists that if the brothers ever try to do to her what they did to Ada, she will “take care” of them herself.
This passage shows how fraught every interaction is as Lenù grows older and begins attracting the attention of boys and young men. Lenù knows that how she responds to advances from young men—especially powerful ones like the Solaras—will have a bearing not just on her own future reputation, but on how her family members conduct themselves in the years to come. Lenù and Lila try to prepare themselves to fend off such advances—while also recognizing that offending their suitors could lead to serious social strife and a new outbreak of retributive violence.
Themes
One day, Lila confides in Lenù that she and Rino are working on a plan: they want to persuade Fernando to make a fancy line of shoes that will sell well in the center of town, on the Rettifilo in Naples. Their father, however, believes in quality over appearance and in handmade shoes over factory-made ones. Lila and Rino are nonetheless determined to show their father the way of the future. One day, Lila shows Lenù some sketches—she and Rino are planning to make the shoes in secret and prove to their father that they are right about the direction his business should take. Lila is determined to become rich not through novel-writing, but through starting a business: the Cerullo shoe factory.
This passage represents a significant turn in Lila’s fate. Lila decides to shift her attentions away from academics and instead focus on revitalizing her father’s business. Shoes will, over the course of the novel, come to symbolize the sacrifices Lila makes as she seeks to advance her social and economic position. In turning her attention to shoes, she’s already giving up her study sessions with Lila and her aspirations of becoming a novelist.
Themes
Lila points out that the Solaras run the neighborhood because they have money. They only mess with poor girls, she points out; as a result, she suggests, the only way to protect oneself from the Solaras and others like them is to make money. Lila pulls out a sharp knife she’s stolen from Fernando’s workshop and shows it to Lenù. She tells Lenù that if the Solaras ever try anything again, Lenù should come to her—she will deal with them herself.
Though Lila is young, she already has a deep understanding of the cycles of violence, cruelty, and wealth that run her neighborhood—and she is determined to stand up to them, no matter the cost.
Themes
