My Brilliant Friend

My Brilliant Friend

by

Elena Ferrante

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on My Brilliant Friend makes teaching easy.
Silvio is the owner of Bar Solara, a neighborhood bar and pastry shop where gambling, fights, moneylending, and Camorrist activities take place in shadowy rooms. As a Camorrist himself, Silvio seizes financial control of the neighborhood in the wake of Don Achille’s death. His sons, Michele and Marcello, are cocky and violent boys who work in the bar as their father’s muscle and often go around settling his debts and grudges throughout the neighborhood. The imposing Silvio serves as speech master at Lila and Stefano’s wedding—Stefano is forced to give Silvio this important, symbolic role as ring-bearer in order to placate him after Lila’s rejection of Marcello. He does so in order to ensure that Cerullo shoes can be sold in the right places.
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Silvio Solara Character Timeline in My Brilliant Friend

The timeline below shows where the character Silvio Solara appears in My Brilliant Friend. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Childhood: The Story of Don Achille, Chapter 18
Masculine vs. Feminine Violence  Theme Icon
Poverty, Social Climbing, and Sacrifice Theme Icon
The Uses of Community Theme Icon
...the temperatures rise. At the Bar Solara, a popular gambling location run by the Camorrist Silvio Solara, many fights break out each week. Silvio takes it upon himself to beat up... (full context)
Adolescence: The Story of the Shoes, Chapter 7
Poverty, Social Climbing, and Sacrifice Theme Icon
The Uses of Community Theme Icon
...where Gigliola Spagnuolo’s father, a baker, makes the pastries. Marcello and Michele, the sons of Silvio Solara, buy a fancy new car—a Fiat 1100. Alfredo Peluso’s old shop is now a... (full context)
Adolescence: The Story of the Shoes, Chapter 45
Female Friendship Theme Icon
Masculine vs. Feminine Violence  Theme Icon
Women’s Work Theme Icon
Poverty, Social Climbing, and Sacrifice Theme Icon
The Uses of Community Theme Icon
Love, Sex, and Strategy Theme Icon
...by Lila’s relationship with Stefano, nevertheless jumps to the Cerullos’ defense when he hears that Silvio Solara has threatened to squash Fernando’s shoe business before it even begins. Lenù tries to... (full context)
Adolescence: The Story of the Shoes, Chapter 56
Masculine vs. Feminine Violence  Theme Icon
Poverty, Social Climbing, and Sacrifice Theme Icon
The Uses of Community Theme Icon
Love, Sex, and Strategy Theme Icon
...the new speech master will be until he at last reveals that he has asked Silvio Solara to do the job. Lila becomes enraged and declares that she never wants to... (full context)
Female Friendship Theme Icon
Masculine vs. Feminine Violence  Theme Icon
Poverty, Social Climbing, and Sacrifice Theme Icon
The Uses of Community Theme Icon
...parents’ house would be cruel. When she visits Lila, she attempts to remind her that Silvio is not his sons—and if Lila lets him speak at the wedding, he’ll help her... (full context)
Adolescence: The Story of the Shoes, Chapter 58
Masculine vs. Feminine Violence  Theme Icon
Poverty, Social Climbing, and Sacrifice Theme Icon
The Uses of Community Theme Icon
...knows that many people must have borrowed money for their outfits—and as she looks at Silvio Solara, the speech master, standing in front of the church next to his wife “loaded”... (full context)
Women’s Work Theme Icon
The Uses of Community Theme Icon
Lenù notices that Lila will not look at anyone but the priest—not Silvio, not her father, and not even Stefano. Lenù is full of anxiety—she wonders if Lila... (full context)