Female Friendship
Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend is a novel about many things—community, poverty, violence, toxic masculinity, and education—but at its heart is the profound, complicated relationship between Elena “Lenù” Greco and Rafaella “Lila” Cerullo. As the two girls grow up together, they find themselves helpless to resist each other’s influence—and as they move from childhood into adolescence, they make sometimes bizarre but always impactful choices based on their desire to impress each other, to draw…
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Masculine vs. Feminine Violence
The world of My Brilliant Friend—set in a poor suburb of Naples, Italy in the 1950s and 1960s—is one suffused with violence. As the men of the neighborhood engage in acts of violence as a means of securing revenge, of defending the honor of their wives or sisters, and of settling debts and slights, Elena Ferrante demonstrates how this atmosphere of unending, pervasive male violence trickles down to the women of the community. Ultimately…
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Women’s Work
As Lila and Lenù come of age in their Naples, Italy neighborhood, their paths diverge when Lenù remains in school while Lila goes to work in her father’s shop after her parents refuse to pay for her education. Elena Ferrante sets My Brilliant Friend in the 1950s, a time when women’s intellectual and professional aspirations were not taken seriously but were on the cusp of a new kind of recognition—thus contrasting Lila and Lenù’s wishes…
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Poverty, Social Climbing, and Sacrifice
In the poor suburb of Naples, Italy where My Brilliant Friend is set, opportunities for economic and social advancement are few and far between. As Lila and Lenù scheme throughout their shared childhood and adolescence, forever imagining ways to elevate themselves socially, economically, and academically, Elena Ferrante points out the fierce competition that arises between even the best of friends when matters of self-preservation enter the fray. Ultimately, Ferrante suggests that for those faced with…
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The Uses of Community
The neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples, Italy in which My Brilliant Friend is set is a small and insular one in which generations of families have grown—however uncomfortably—alongside with one another. Throughout the novel, Elena Ferrante questions what the uses of a community are when one’s community is divided so profoundly by interpersonal conflict, generational animosity, financial inequity, and, above all, violence. Ultimately, Ferrante suggests that a community that fixates on resentments, vendettas, and…
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Love, Sex, and Strategy
As Lila and Lenù grow from children to young women over the course of My Brilliant Friend, they compete with each other not just in terms of academics, creativity, or even beauty, but in the measure of male attention they receive over the course of their adolescent years. As the girls rotate through a veritable carousel of crushes, boyfriends, and violent or nonconsensual sexual encounters, they struggle to understand the world of love and…
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