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
Elena writes that Lila, whom she met in first grade, was so impressive because of her badness. Lila was always getting in trouble, yet never kowtowed to their teacher Maestra Oliviero. Lenù recalls watching Maestra Oliviero fall and hit her head on the corner of a desk while walking through the classroom to reprimand Lila one day—looking at the teacher lying prone and unmoving on the floor, Lenù was full of horror but not shock. Lenù and Lila’s neighborhood is “a world in which children and adults [are] often wounded […] and sometimes people die.” Tales of death from illnesses and accidents define the girls’ lives—fear lurks around every corner. The girls’ mothers tell them that swallowing cherry pits or gum will kill them instantly—so will drinking cold water too quickly or getting hit in the temple.
This passage makes clear the atmosphere of violence and fear in which Lila and Lenù have grown up. While such an atmosphere has made Lenù timid and fearful, determined to fall in line and follow the rules, it has imbued Lila with a rebellious “bad” streak that makes her both dangerous to others and a danger to herself. Lila’s desire to flout rules and test the boundaries of the neighborhood’s social and behavioral dictums will continue as she grows older.
Themes
One afternoon, Lenù and Lila engage in a rock-throwing fight with Enzo Scanno (the son of Assunta the fruit and vegetable merchant) and some of Enzo’s friends. The girls hurl rocks at the boys together, and Lenù, bolstered by Lila’s determination to win, helps Lila land a blow on Enzo’s leg using a jagged stone. When Enzo picks up a large rock to throw back at Lila, Lenù grabs her friend’s arm—it is the first physical contact between them. Lenù urges Lila to quit, but Lila stands strong—and soon, Enzo succeeds in hitting her in the head with a rock, leaving a huge gash in her forehead.
This passage demonstrates the ways in which, even at a young age, Lila and Lenù must deal with male violence in their daily lives. They must reckon not only with the violence itself, but also with the ways in which they, too, begin to feel compelled to replicate that violence in their own lives.
Themes
