My Brilliant Friend LitChart

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My Brilliant Friend
course of the novel, the girls come to recognize these dark
INTR
INTRODUCTION
ODUCTION influences in their society. They also interrogate the role
fascism and Nazism have played in their country’s recent
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF ELENA FERRANTE history and begin to indict the social, religious, and academic
Elena Ferrante is a pseudonymous Italian author whose structures which failed to resist the political pull of fascism’s
bestselling books include the popular Neapolitan Novels: cruelty.
2011’s My Brilliant Friend, 2012’s The Story of a New Name,
2013’s Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, and 2014’s The RELATED LITERARY WORKS
Story of the Lost Child. Ferrante’s novels have received
recognition from the Man Booker Prize and the Independent Though little is known of the pseudonymous Elena Ferrante’s
Publisher Book Awards, and Ferrante herself has been listed as biography, many of her readers have speculated that the
one of TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people. Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels are highly autobiographical in nature,
pointing to Ferrante’s choice to adopt her protagonist and
decision to publish her life’s work under a pseudonym has left
narrator’s name, Elena, as her own pseudonym. Karl Ove
many readers itching for answers as to her “true” identity—but
Knausgård’s controversial My Struggle series is also a sprawling
many others insist that a woman publishing on her own terms
heralds a new era in novel-writing and a new way for female autobiographical epic based on the minutiae of his life, and
writers to achieve recognition. In 2016, the Italian journalist many readers of Knausgård and Ferrante alike have pointed to
Claudio Gatti published an article which purported to reveal the authors’ two series as representative of a new, bold wave of
the identity of the mysterious Ferrante—the article was autofiction, or fiction drawn from the author’s life. Other
controversial in nature and many readers denounced Gatti’s examples of contemporary autofiction include Rachel Cusk’s
attempt to unmask the novelist. Elena Ferrante’s other novels Outline trilogy, consisting of the novels Outline, Transit, and
include The Days of Abandonment and The Lost Daughter. Her Kudos, as well as Sheila Heti’s “novels from life,” How Should a
work has been widely adapted for stage and screen; her 1992 Person Be? and Motherhood.
novel Troubling Love was adapted into 1995 film called Nasty
Love, while the Neapolitan Novels are currently being adapted KEY FACTS
into a sprawling 32-part television series for HBO. While little • Full Title: My Brilliant Friend
is known of Ferrante’s biography, her work revolves around
• When Written: 2010s
themes of female friendship, love and infidelity, fractured
communities, and the unhappy, often transactional nature of • Where Written: Italy
relationships between men and women. • When Published: 2011 (Italy), 2012 (English translation)
• Literary Period: Contemporary
HISTORICAL CONTEXT • Genre: Novel
Set in Naples, Italy in the 1950s, My Brilliant Friend concerns • Setting: 1950s Naples, Italy
itself with major milestones in Italian history and controversial • Climax: Lila Cerullo realizes, in the middle of her wedding
topics in Italian politics and social life. Reeling from the impact reception, that her new husband Stefano Carracci has
of World War II, Lila and Lenù’s impoverished neighborhood is betrayed her to her hated former suitor Marcello Solara in
full of people struggling to make ends meet in a time of order to enter into business with the wealthy Marcello.
widespread poverty and turmoil. The Neapolitan neighborhood • Antagonist: Don Achille; Marcello and Michele Solara;
of Lila and Lenù’s youth is run by loan sharks and Donato Sarratore; Rino and Fernando Cerullo; Elena’s
Camorrists—members of an Italian crime syndicate and secret mother
society called the Camorra, whose roots in Naples date back to • Point of View: First Person
the 17th century. My Brilliant Friend is rife with violent killings
motivated by love and money. As the Sicilian mafia (or Cosa EXTRA CREDIT
Nostra) and similar organizations like the Camorra spread their
influence across the globe throughout the 19th and early 20th Dialects in Dialogue. Throughout My Brilliant Friend, Lila, Lenù,
century, Ferrante posits that social mobility became a kind of and their neighbors in their suburb of Naples speak a
dark contract—advancement, wealth, and comfort could be Neapolitan dialect derived from Italian. Often called napulitano
sold to the highest bidder or bestowed upon the most devoted or napoletano, this dialect shares vocabulary with Italian, but
soldier. Lila and Lenù’s political awakening is slow, but over the the differences in accent (related to the pronunciation of
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unstressed vowels) are so profound that the languages often powerful Silvio Solara, is arrested for the crime. The stoic Lila
sound entirely disconnected to non-native speakers of either. comforts the distraught Carmela by assuring her that even if
Throughout the novel, dialect becomes an important Alfredo did commit the murder, he did the right thing in taking
instrument of status and class. Characters move between out the “ogre of fairy tales.”
dialect and Italian depending on the social situations in which As young women, Lila and Lenù continue to seek ways of
they find themselves—for instance, when Lenù speaks the escaping the bleak fates for which they feel they are destined.
Italian she learns in school at home or in the neighborhood, her Lenù struggles in school, leading her mother and father to
family and friends accuse her of acting superior or unnatural. argue about whether or not she should drop out. Lila,
meanwhile, begins work in her father’s shoe shop. She extols
her occupation to Lenù at every chance she gets, insisting that
PL
PLO
OT SUMMARY her work is worthier than studying. Soon, however, Lila asks
In a brief prologue, Elena Greco—a woman in her sixties living Lenù if she can join her as she studies for her end-of-year
in Turin, Italy—receives a call from her friend Lila’s son back in test—it is clear that the books Lila borrows from the library are
Naples. Rafaella “Lila” Cerullo, Elena’s friend since childhood, not enough to keep her mind occupied. But after several weeks
has gone missing. Elena suggests that Rafaella—whom she has of studying, Lila tells Lenù that she wants to stop. She and Rino
always called Lila—doesn’t want to be found and coldly tells her have an important secret project to work on: a line of fine shoes
son to stop looking for her. Angry with Lila for taking things for men and women that will hopefully sell well in town,
“too far,” she sits down at her computer to write their story. allowing Fernando to open a factory and make more money. As
Looking back on her childhood in 1950s Naples, Elena—then Lila and Lenù each become more aware of the stronghold the
known as Lenù—recalls life in a neighborhood run by loan Solara family has over their neighborhood—and the ways in
sharks and Camorrists (gangsters) and dominated by which Marcello and Michele Solara, a pair of brothers several
widespread violence perpetrated by both men and women. years the girls’ senior, pick on and harass the poor girls of the
neighborhood—they realize that the only way to protect
Elena begins her story when she and Lila are in elementary
themselves is by securing money of their own.
school. As Elena describes their primary school years, she
interweaves stories of day-to-day life with the tale of her and Lenù passes middle school with flying colors. She is upset,
Lila’s journey one fateful afternoon up to the apartment of Don however, when Lila doesn’t seem proud of her. Her confidence
Achille, a mysterious and feared loan shark, to demand the suffers further hits when Lila beats Lenù out for an award for
return of a pair of dolls they believe he stole from them. Lenù top borrowers from the local library and when Pasquale,
and Lila bond over the years as they compete fiercely in Carmela’s older brother, uses Lenù to flirt with Lila. Lenù
school—Lila is preternaturally gifted and has taught herself to cannot deny that Lila has changed lately, becoming lovelier in
read and write by the age of seven. Lenù, desperate to keep up indefinable ways. Meanwhile, when Lenù tells Lila that she is
with Lila, vows to do whatever Lila does in every aspect of her going to study Greek at high school in the fall, Lila responds by
life, no matter the danger or the cost. Together, the girls fend asking “What is high school?” One day, while Lila and Lenù stroll
off the violence of their male classmates, watch the women of through the neighborhood, Marcello and Michele Solara pull up
their neighborhood assault one another over their husbands’ in their Fiat 1100 and ask the girls to go for a drive with them.
and lovers’ infidelities, and study hard—but it becomes clear Lila and Lenù refuse, but the boys continue pestering them.
that despite their shared love of books and their desire to get When Marcello grabs Lenù’s arm from the car, snapping her
rich by writing a novel together, Lila and Lenù are on very mother’s bracelet, he gets out to help her pick it up—Lila,
different paths. pulling a knife from her pocket, holds the blade against
Marcello’s throat and threatens to kill him if he touches Lenù
When it is time to take the admissions test for middle school, again.
Lenù, encouraged by her teacher Maestra Oliviero, begins
attending study sessions in preparation. Lila’s parents, who As the weeks go by and the summer fills up with local dance
know they cannot afford to continue sending her to school, parties at the homes of Lila and Lenù’s friends and classmates,
prepare her to go to work alongside her brother Rino in their it becomes clear to Lenù just how many of their male friends
father, Fernando’s, cobbler shop. Shortly before the exam, Lila have fallen in love with Lila. At a dance at the house of Gigliola
tries to get Lenù barred from taking the test by enticing her Spagnuolo, a classmate of Lenù’s whose father works as the
into playing hooky and taking a trip to the seaside—but halfway pastry maker at the Solaras’ bar, Lila dances with boy after boy,
there, Lila changes her mind and drags Lenù back home. Then, lost in the music. Marcello and Michele show up—Marcello
on a rainy August day just before Lenù is due to start middle engages the hedonistic Lila in a dance while Michele has
school, Don Achille is murdered. Lila and Lenù’s friend Carmela Pasquale, Antonio Cappuccio, and several other of Lila’s male
Peluso’s father, Alfredo, a disgruntled carpenter who lost friends kicked out of the party. Lila and Lenù follow their
everything gambling in bars run by Don Achille and the friends downstairs, where Pasquale rails against the loan

sharks and Camorrists who run the neighborhood. After this, Lenù begins seeing Antonio, motivated by the desire to have an
Lila becomes obsessed with learning about the history of Italy older paramour just like Lila. Meanwhile, Marcello begins
and starts taking long walks with Pasquale during which he spreading cruel rumors about Lila, and Pasquale, Enzo, and
explains communism, fascism, and many other political Antonio attack the Solaras and destroy their car. Lenù helps Lila
concepts to her. Lenù, meanwhile, realizes that her childhood with preparations for her wedding, fending off the cruelty Lila
crush, Nino Sarratore, is among her new high school faces from her future mother- and sister-in-law, Maria and
classmates. Previously, Nino’s family was forced to leave the Pinuccia. Lenù becomes more anxious as Lila’s wedding day
neighborhood after Nino’s poet father, Donato, was accused of approaches—she fears losing her friend forever. While Stefano
having an affair with Antonio’s mentally unstable mother, showers Lila in gifts and secures a fancy new apartment for
Melina. them to live in after the marriage, Lenù tries to convince herself
Over the Christmas break, Rino becomes obsessed with that school is her “wealth”—even as she gets into trouble with
amassing fireworks for a New Year’s Eve display that will rival her religion teacher for making a scene in class. Nino offers
the Solaras’ yearly blowout. Lila and Lenù accept an invitation Lenù the chance to publish a polemic against religion in a local
to celebrate New Year’s with Stefano Carracci and his political journal, and Lenù begs Lila for help finalizing the
family—the son of Don Achille, now a grocer, is determined to article, but Lila declares that reading Lenù’s writing and seeing
mend fences with his neighbors in the wake of his father’s how Lenù shines hurts her.
death. At the celebration, Rino and his friends set off a huge A few weeks before the wedding, Stefano and Lila get into a
display of fireworks—but when their display threatens to huge fight when Stefano, desperate to make sure that Cerullo
outlast the Solaras’, the Solaras begin shooting bullets across shoes is able to make money in the neighborhood in the future,
the spaces between their buildings’ terraces, which terrifies offers Silvio Solara an important role in their wedding
Lenù, Lila, Rino, and their friends. ceremony as a show of good faith. Lila is furious, but Lenù
After this incident, Lila and Rino’s relationship suffers further reminds Lila that together, she and Stefano can begin to change
when Rino attempts to show their father they shoes they the neighborhood for the better. Lila agrees to go through with
designed, only for Fernando to lash out in anger at both of them the wedding on the condition that Marcello is not present for
and condemn them for making shoes behind his back. any part of it. Stefano agrees. On the day of the wedding, Lenù
Meanwhile, Lenù returns to school and continues to excel, helps Lila get ready for the ceremony. She is full of fear, envy,
earning the admiration of many of her teachers—even though and even repulsion as she considers that her friend will soon be
Nino continues to ignore her. Marcello Solara begins pursuing a married woman. After the ceremony, at a boisterous
Lila and starts visiting the Cerullo home for dinner each night. reception at a nearby restaurant, Lenù ignores Antonio and
Rino and Fernando welcome him warmly, but Lila hates him as tries to make conversation with Nino—she is devastated,
passionately as ever. Rino puts the shoes in the shop window, however, when Nino casually tells her that the journal didn’t
hoping they’ll sell. Marcello considers buying them but backs have “room” to run her article. As the party becomes more
down at the last minute—though he asks for Lila’s hand in drunken and debauched, the adults present begin fighting. Lila’s
marriage. relatives believe they have received poorer service and worse
food and wine than Stefano’s. Lila is oblivious to the chaos all
At Maestra Oliviero’s suggestion, Lenù heads to stay with
around her—until Marcello Solara enters, sits himself down at
Oliviero’s cousin Nella Incardo at a small boarding house Nella
her and Stefano’s tables, and, upon crossing his legs, reveals
runs on the island of Ischia. Here, Lenù enjoys several weeks of
that he is wearing the prototype of the Cerullo shoes for
sun and relaxation—but she is perturbed when she doesn’t
men—the pair Lila worked hard on for months, “ruining” her
receive an answer to the many letters she sends to Lila, and her
hands in the process of bringing them into being.
vacation takes a strange turn with the Sarratore family shows
up to stay at Nella’s. Lenù pines for Nino—but when she
realizes that she has attracted the attentions of Nino’s CHARA
CHARACTERS
CTERS
lecherous father, Donato, she flees the island in terror and
repulsion. Back in the neighborhood, Lenù realizes that Lila is MAJOR CHARACTERS
hatching a plan to reject Marcello and marry Stefano. Stefano
Elena “L“Lenù”
enù” Greco – The protagonist and narrator of My
purchases the shoes and announces his intention to marry Lila.
Brilliant Friend, Elena Greco is a woman in her sixties looking
Lila herself tells Marcello the news, warning him that if he tries
back on her 1950s childhood and early adolescence in an
to harm Stefano or anyone in her family out of vengeance, she
impoverished neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples, Italy. At
will kill him. Stefano pours money into Fernando’s shop,
this time, she was known as Lenù, and her life revolved around
insisting he hire more workers and begin manufacturing Lila’s
her “bad” but magnetic friend Lila Cerullo. Over the course of
designs for Cerullo shoes. Fernando reluctantly agrees to do
the book, Elena reflects on her and Lila’s entwined but often
so.
divergent paths through young womanhood as they dream of

escaping their violent, insular, and economically-depressed secret jealousy of Lenù’s ability to pursue an education all push
neighborhood. From an early age, Lenù realizes that an her to demand more from life. And yet as Lila surges upward
education is her only means of attaining a better life than the socially and financially, she finds herself reckoning with the
one her miserable, angry mother leads. Though supportive of betrayals, sacrifices, and the physical and emotional acts of
her schooling, Lenù’s father is unenthusiastic about her success violence that the quest for social mobility necessitates. Despite
and he doles out the physical abuse that Lenù’s handicapped Lila’s natural intelligence, it eventually becomes clear that the
mother is unable to inflict. As children, Lenù and Lila bond over titular “brilliant friend” is not Lila, but Lenù—as Lila prepares to
their shared love of language and their desire to write a embark on a marriage to the greedy and power-hungry Stefano
book—but while Lenù admires Lila’s natural intelligence, it is Carracci, Lila begs Lenù to continue in school no matter what.
Lenù who’s allowed to continue past elementary school and By the end of the novel, both Lila and Lenù feel that they’ve
into middle and high school. From that point on, Lenù’s chosen wrong in their attempts at changing their fates.
academic success is a major source of tension in the girls’ Ultimately, Lila realizes that her brand-new marriage is over
relationship, and Lenù feels simultaneously jealous of Lila’s before it has even begun and that her heart is forever hardened
romantic pursuits yet oddly superior because of her own to the optimism which pushed her into it.
schooling. The girls manage to remain friends over the years Nino Sarr
Sarratore
atore – Nino is Donato and Lidia Sarratore’s son and
despite several rough patches and the very different lives they Marisa Sarratore’s brother. He is the aloof, unattainable object
lead as adolescents. During this time, Lenù has a longstanding of Lenù’s affection from her elementary school days onward.
crush on Nino Sarratore which continues into her teenage From the time Lenù is small, she pines for Nino—yet when they
years despite dating Gino and Antonio. Lenù and Nino’s are in primary school and Nino approaches Lenù one day to ask
relationship is complicated, and they never become a legitimate if they can get married when they grow up, Lenù panics and
couple. Despite her demure and insecure nature, Lenù also rejects him. When Nino and his family move out of the
emulates Lila’s strong-mindedness. For instance, she speaks neighborhood after Donato and Melina Cappuccio’s affair
out against her religion teacher and tries (and fails) to get an becomes a public spectacle, Lenù fears that she’ll never see
article published in a journal that Nino writes for. Overall, Nino again. Years later, she is surprised and delighted when she
Lenù’s journey (which is inextricably linked with Lila’s) primarily begins high school in Naples and realizes that the two of them
speaks to the intense nature of close female friendships. As are classmates once again. Nino, however, has grown skinny,
young Lenù gradually learns more about the cruel world of men shabby, and disaffected, while Lenù is too afraid of pursuing him
that she and Lila are doomed to spend their lives moving to break through the walls between them. Nino and Lenù
through, the novel takes on an increasingly ominous air and continue to orbit each other as the years go by—when Lenù
foreshadows the challenges that Lenù and Lila will continue to goes to the island of Ischia for the summer and realizes that
face in friendship and love as they grow, together and apart, Nino and his family are staying at the same inn, she and Nino
into women. have their first real conversations and exchanging a brief but
Rafaella “Lila
“Lila”” Cerullo – Lila Cerullo is Fernando and Nunzia meaningful kiss. But Lenù’s feelings for Nino are complicated
Cerullo’s daughter and Rino Cerullo’s sister. She’s known to her even further when Nino’s father gropes her and kisses her one
family as Rafaella and to most of her friends as Lina—but to her evening; repulsed by Donato and yet full of love for Nino, Lenù
lifelong friend Elena Greco, she is and always has been “Lila.” In flees the island and begins avoiding Nino at school. When Lenù
the present day, decades after the main events of the story, Lila gets in trouble with her religion teacher for speaking out
has mysteriously disappeared from her home without a against the church’s tenets, Nino urges Lenù to harness her
trace—not even her adult son knows where she is. The news of discontent and contribute an article to a journal he writes for.
Lila’s disappearance, which the now-middle-aged Elena writes Lenù is full of hope, believing that perhaps if Nino sees her as an
off as Lila “overdoing it as usual,” is what motivates Lenù to intellectual equal, he might at last fall in love with her—but her
spitefully write the memoir that becomes the narrative of My hopes are dashed when Nino cruelly reports that the journal
Brilliant Friend. Lenù portrays Lila as sharp-witted, steel-willed, didn’t have “room” to publish Lenù’s essay. Lenù and Nino’s
and seemingly fearless—both a troublemaker and an self- burgeoning relationship is complicated and tinged with
taught learner from a young age. Lenù’s narration about her resentment, competitiveness, and cruelty, foreshadowing the
friend also suggests that Lila is intensely angry and self-critical ways in which they will continue to seek to best one another
beneath her withdrawn, stoic exterior. From an early age, Lila throughout the remainder of the Neapolitan Novels.
displays natural academic talent and shares in Lenù’s love of Stefano Carr
Carracci
acci – Stefano is the eldest son of Don Achille and
reading and writing. However, Lila’s parents force her to drop Donna Maria. Several years older than Lila and Lenù, when
out after elementary school, after which she tries and fails to readers first meet Stefano, he is a fearsome bully who
create a line of high-end shoes in her father’s cobbler shop. At threatens Lila after she bests his younger brother, Alfonso, in
the same time, Lila’s entanglement with the cruel but powerful an academic competition. Though just a young teen, Stefano is
Marcello Solara, her adversarial relationship with Rino, and her

already learning that his fearsome father’s influence as the violence and control which rule Lila and Lenù’s world.
neighborhood loan shark extends to him too. Later in the novel, Rino Cerullo – Rino is Fernando and Nunzia Cerullo’s son and
after Don Achille is murdered and the shadow of fear Lila Cerullo’s older brother. Rino is just as ambitious as his
surrounding the Carracci family’s influence over the younger sister, and he, too, hates the way their neighborhood is
neighborhood dissipates, Stefano works alongside his mother run by violence and corruption. He longs to find a way to
Donna Maria, his brother, and their sister Pinuccia in their escape his lowly station as a shoemaker’s apprentice, and when
family’s grocery. When Lenù returns from a summer on the Lila approaches him with an idea for a line of fine men’s and
island of Ischia, she realizes that Stefano and Lila have gotten women’s shoes that will help pull their father’s cobbler
close in spite of the fact that the intimidating, powerful business out of obscurity, Rino is all in. However, Rino
Marcello Solara has been courting Lila for months. Together, approaches his upward climb much differently than Lila
Stefano and Lila hatch a plan to help her escape Marcello’s does—because he is a man who has been raised in a
influence—Stefano, with money to spare from his late father’s neighborhood steeped in a culture of male violence, he believes
wealth, buys the prototype shoes that Lila and Rino have made that in order to prove himself to the wealthy, powerful people
for an enormous sum. He also offers not just to marry Lila, but who run the neighborhood (such as the Solaras), he must use
to pump money into her father’s business so that Cerullo shoes displays of brute force to make himself seen, known, and
can become its own brand. Powerful, controlling, and yet respected. During a New Year’s Eve fireworks display, Rino
beholden to the Solaras’ influence over the neighborhood, attempts to show up the Solaras by launching the
Stefano affects ease and abundance—yet he is tied to the same neighborhood’s biggest light show. His efforts to prove his
rules as the rest of the neighborhood, and he ultimately dominance are met with even more violence from the Solaras.
disappoints Lila when he makes concession upon concession to Amid this process of trying to prove his manliness, worth, and
the Solara family. power, Rino reveals his true self to Lila, who begins to feel that
Marcello Solar
Solaraa – Marcello is the eldest son of Silvio Solara. Rino is just like every other man in the neighborhood: ruthless,
He’s a handsome, swaggering braggart who, together with his cruel, violent, and miserable. A complicated and volatile figure,
brother Michele, patrols the neighborhood in his Fiat 1100 Rino truly seems to long for his family’s betterment—but any
picking up girls and enforcing his father’s stronghold over the time his authority over Lila is questioned or his plans don’t
neighborhood. Marcello takes an interest in Lila after work out the way he wants, he becomes violent and rageful.
witnessing her fiery personality and her disregard for showing Rino’s arc demonstrates the novel’s examination of masculine
him any fealty or respect. Marcello begins courting Lila by versus feminine violence, as well as the demands and sacrifices
showing up for dinner at her family’s apartment each that climbing out of poverty require.
night—Lila, however, has a deep-seated hatred not just of Fernando Cerullo – Fernando is Lila and Rino’s father and
Marcello but of his entire family, and she rejects the many gifts Nunzia’s husband. He owns a cobbler shop in the neighborhood
Marcello brings over and elects to spend as much time as where he mends and makes shoes, a trade he learned as a
possible in her bedroom during his visits. Marcello believes that young man. Fernando is a stern man who takes pride in his
there is no way Lila will refuse him, given his family’s status in work, yet his children seek to rebel against his entrenched ways
the neighborhood—yet he underestimates her complete as they consider how they might help their father’s business.
disregard for the power structures that rule their shared world. It’s implied that Fernando is deeply afraid of what will happen
Marcello is devastated when Lila at last rejects him for Stefano, to his business and his family should he seek too much money
with whom Lila believes she can begin to change the or influence—Fernando is content to make a living and just get
neighborhood’s oppressive financial and social structures. by. He’s fearful of drawing the ire or jealousy of his neighbors,
However, Marcello continues to seek out ways through which or finding himself beholden to the loan sharks and Camorrists
he can remind Lila that he and his family are not going (gangsters) who run the neighborhood. Fernando seems to love
anywhere. At the end of the novel, he shows up at Lila and his children, yet he is more concerned with demanding their
Stefano’s wedding wearing the prototype Cerullo shoes that respect than he is with showing them respect in return. He
Stefano previously purchased in order to demonstrate his seeks to use Lila as a tool in his family’s social advancement—he
willingness to invest not just in Lila but in her father’s business. believes that if Lila marries Marcello Solara, the Cerullos will be
The implication is either that Marcello has purchased the shoes more secure without the risk of seeking advancement through
from Stefano for an even higher price, or that demanded them business or money. Fernando is a complicated man who wants
for free. Either way, this moment—which serves as the novel’s many things at once, yet he is unsure—or afraid—of how to
conclusion—demonstrates the fact that Marcello will always secure them for himself and his family.
have control over not just Lila but over the entire
neighborhood. Cruel, vindictive, and often comically self- Antonio Cappuccio – Antonio is the eldest son of Melina
important, Marcello Solara is one of the novel’s main Cappuccio. Antonio works as a mechanic and is a part of Lenù’s
antagonists and represents the embodiment of the male extended friend group in the neighborhood, though he is a

couple of years older than her. Antonio is protective of his Achille is murdered by an unseen assailant; Alfredo Peluso, a
fragile mother, Melina, and he’s self-conscious and defensive carpenter who lost his livelihood gambling away borrowed
about his family’s abject poverty. He’s also generally sensitive money, is arrested for the violent crime. Don Achille’s death
to the moods and problems of those around him. Antonio is makes room for the Solaras to take control of the
often flirtatious with Lenù during their friend group’s outings, neighborhood—and it demonstrates to Lila and Lenù that not
and during the summer of Lenù’s 15th year, he officially asks even powerful, fearsome men are invincible.
her to be his girlfriend. Antonio is a loyal boyfriend, and he and Pasquale P Peluso
eluso – Pasquale is Alfredo and Giuseppina’s son
Lenù see each other nearly every day during the summer, and Carmela’s older brother. He’s a construction worker and a
exploring each other’s bodies and growing closer—even as Communist who develops a crush on Lila when she and Lenù
Lenù secretly pines for Nino and makes plans to break up with are in middle school. Pasquale is a radical and an agitator—he
Antonio after Lila’s wedding. Lenù uses Antonio to make herself knows the corrupt way things work in the neighborhood and
feel better about Lila’s having found an older fiancé—she the historical reasons for the crime that pervades it, and he is
believes that in emulating Lila’s actions, she herself will be one of the only people willing to call out those in power (for
fulfilled. Antonio suffers as he begins to realize that Lenù is examples, the Solaras) for the ways in which they terrorize their
simply using him for many things—to ward off Donato neighbors. Pasquale becomes instrumental in Lila’s education
Sarratore, who has returned to the neighborhood to profess his after her parents force her to drop out of school—while Lila
love for Lenù; to stave off Lenù’s own complicated desire for can’t learn about books, languages, and religion in a classroom
Donato’s son, Nino; and to compete with her best friend and setting, she finds herself learning a lot about the history of
rival, Lila. Kind, helpful, and yet deeply insecure, Antonio Italy’s politics from the passionate, political Pasquale. Pasquale
becomes an important emotional pillar for Lenù in the second loves Lila intensely and wants to marry her, but Lila insists that
half of the novel—even as she finds that he fails to produce in she only sees Pasquale as a brother figure. After Lila’s rejection
her the romantic feelings she is desperate to feel. of him—and a few months of sour grapes—Pasquale becomes
Maestr
Maestraa Oliviero – Maestra Oliviero is Lila and Lenù’s committed to defending Lila against any threat that comes her
elementary school teacher. A stern but kind woman, Oliviero way.
has a soft spot for Lenù—and especially for Lila, once Oliviero Carmela P Peluso
eluso – Carmela is Alfredo and Giuseppina’s
realizes that Lila has taught herself to read and write on her daughter and Pasquale’s sister. She’s a classmate and neighbor
own. Oliviero attempts to stress to both girls’ parents just how of Lila and Lenù. Carmela is a sweet and fun-loving girl who
important it is for them to continue in school—and when Lila’s works hard to put the pain of her father’s arrest for the murder
parents don’t heed her advice, Oliviero becomes disappointed of Don Achille behind her. Carmela is obsessed with Lila and
and almost pained by the waste of such a brilliant mind. As Lila strives to emulate her speech, her movements, and her
goes to work in her father, Fernando’s, shoe shop and inflections—whenever Lenù spends time with Carmela, she
eventually marries the wealthy and powerful Stefano Carracci, finds herself worrying that she, too, is too preoccupied with
Oliviero’s disappointment in Lila’s failure to live up to her Lila’s favor.
intellectual potential increases—even as Oliverio continues
Nunzia Cerullo – Nunzia is Lila and Rino’s mother and
encouraging Lenù to study, hone her smarts, and explore the
Fernando’s wife. She is often bewildered by reports of Lila’s
world. Benevolent but able to bear a grudge, Maestra Oliviero
brilliance in school and baffled by her daughter’s abilities to
makes a serious impression on both Lenù and Lila—and they
teach herself to read and write without any assistance. Nunzia
make a tremendous impact on her life, as well.
is rarely excited by Lila’s accomplishments, however, as she
Don Achille Carr
Carracci
acci – As the neighborhood loan shark and the knows that she and her husband do not have the money to
“ogre of fairy tales,” Don Achille is a terrifying man who moves invest in Lila’s education. Fretful and aloof, Nunzia struggles to
in the shadows of Lila and Lenù’s neighborhood throughout keep Lila, Rino, and Fernando—all of whom have hot
their childhood. Don Achille is a feared moneylender who has tempers—at peace with one another.
the power to make or break families in the neighborhood—and
Elena
Elena’s’s Mother – Elena’s mother is never given a name in the
because Lila and Lenù know that they should fear Don Achille
novel, yet she is a defining presence in her daughter’s life. A
but don’t precisely understand why, they make him into a fairy-
strict, humorless woman with a wandering eye and a
tale monster in their minds, imagining that he lives in their
pronounced limp, the young Lenù lives in fear of her
building’s cellar, collecting his neighbors’ refuse and using it to
mother—and in fear of becoming her one day, taking on
fashion a grotesque living armor for himself. In a way, the girls’
deformities of her own as she ages into womanhood. Lenù’s
childhood vision of Don Achille is profoundly symbolic—as the
mother alternately disparages and encourages her daughter’s
neighborhood loan shark, Don Achille does take from his
desire to pursue an education. Similarly, she alternately allows
neighbors with impunity and he uses debts and threats of
Lenù to explore feelings of freedom and autonomy (such as
violence to make himself (seemingly) invincible. Ultimately, Don
when she allows her to vacation on the island of Ischia alone for

several weeks) and restricts Lenù’s social life (such as when she Melina Cappuccio – Melina is a desperately poor woman who
attempts to prevent Lenù from spending time with boys like lives in Lenù’s apartment building. She’s Antonio and Ada’s
Pasquale and Antonio). mother, and she’s a distant relative of Lila on Nunzia’s side of
Elena
Elena’s’s Father – Elena’s father, a porter who works at city hall, the family. Melina has an affair with Donato Sarratore, which
is a simple, honest man who wants the best for his family. Lenù’s leads to a vicious feud between Melina and Donato’s wife, Lidia.
father is supportive of his daughter obtaining an education, yet Melina’s mental health deteriorates after the affair falls apart,
he is often unenthusiastic about her academic successes. Since and when Donato and his family pack up and leave the
Lenù’s mother refuses to beat her, she often enlists Lenù’s neighborhood, Melina collapses entirely. Melina soon gains a
father to dole out the physical punishments that she feels reputation as the town lunatic—few people, Lila among them,
Lenù’s infractions at home and in school necessitate. He does defend her against the cruel forces of gossip and isolation that
so begrudgingly, revealing his hatred of the violent culture in infect the neighborhood.
which his family lives. Silvio Solar
Solaraa – Silvio is the owner of Bar Solara, a neighborhood
Donato Sarr
Sarratore
atore – Donato is Nino’s father, Lidia’s husband, bar and pastry shop where gambling, fights, moneylending, and
and Melina’s lover. He’s a railroad worker who moonlights as a Camorrist activities take place in shadowy rooms. As a
poet and journalist. Donato and his family leave the Camorrist himself, Silvio seizes financial control of the
neighborhood when Lila and Lenù are still in elementary school neighborhood in the wake of Don Achille’s death. His sons,
after Donato’s rumored affair with Melina Cappuccio goes Michele and Marcello, are cocky and violent boys who work in
horribly wrong. Later, when Lenù is in high school spending a the bar as their father’s muscle and often go around settling his
summer on the island of Ischia, she finds that the Sarratore debts and grudges throughout the neighborhood. The imposing
family is also staying at the inn run by Nella Incardo. Lenù Silvio serves as speech master at Lila and Stefano’s
begins reframing the things she’s heard about Donato and wedding—Stefano is forced to give Silvio this important,
starts seeing him as an intelligent and sweet family man—but symbolic role as ring-bearer in order to placate him after Lila’s
when he initiates sexual contact with her one night, she flees rejection of Marcello. He does so in order to ensure that
the island and becomes repulsed by him entirely. When Donato Cerullo shoes can be sold in the right places.
shows up in the neighborhood the following year claiming that Donna Maria Carr
Carracci
acci – Donna Maria is Don Achille’s wife and
he’s been unable to stop thinking of Lenù, Lenù enlists the help Stefano, Pinuccia, and Alfonso’s mother. She runs the grocery
of her boyfriend, Antonio—who is also Melina’s eldest son—to store and works alongside Stefano and Pinuccia, and
scare Donato off. Slimy, sleazy, and a relentless womanizer, sometimes Alfonso when school is out. Maria and her daughter
Donato serves as an early example of the ways in which men, at Pinuccia share a dislike of Lila once she and Stefano get
least in Lila and Lenù’s world, often live up to the negative engaged—they accuse her of trying to act like a moneyed lady
rumors that women spread about them. even before the marriage. Together, Maria and Pinuccia try to
Alfonso Carr
Carracci
acci – Alfonso is Don Achille and Donna Maria’s make things as difficult as possible for Lila throughout
son and Stefano and Pinuccia’s brother. He’s a classmate of Lila preparations for the event.
and Lenù, and when the three of them are young (when Don Pinuccia Carr
Carracci
acci – Pinuccia is Don Achille and Donna Maria’s
Achille is still alive), Lila and Lenù feel compelled to show daughter and Stefano and Alfonso’s sister. Spoiled and jealous,
deference and respect to Alfonso for reasons they don’t fully Pinuccia is indignant about Lila’s carelessness with Stefano’s
understand. After Don Achille’s death, however, Lenù begins money after their engagement. Together with her mother,
developing a genuine friendship with Alfonso when the two of Pinuccia attempts to make Lila’s experience of preparing for the
them head to middle school and eventually high school wedding difficult, revealing her selfish and vindictive nature.
together. Alfonso is sweet, quiet, and smart, though throughout Enzo Scanno – Enzo is one of Lenù and Lila’s classmates and
the latter half of the novel, he seems sad and self-conscious neighbors. The class dunce, Enzo has a big crush on Lila yet has
about living in the shadow of his older brother, Stefano. trouble expressing his feelings for her—one moment he gives
Alfredo P Peluso
eluso – Alfredo is a disgraced carpenter who loses his her a bouquet of sorb apples, and the next he lobs rocks at her
tools, his shop, and his dignity to the loan shark Don Achille. in the streets. Enzo eventually grows up into an honorable and
The narrative implies that Alfredo’s gambling problem is behind kind young man.
his fall from grace, yet because Lila and Lenù are children at the Gino – Gino is the son of the local pharmacist. Gino has a big
time of Alfredo’s struggles, they are unable to comprehend crush on Lenù and pays careful attention to her developing
what his downfall really symbolizes about their neighborhood body. He even gives her a share of his winnings in a bet with
and the cruel, cutthroat way in which it’s run. When Alfredo is another boy that Lenù’s breasts are real and not simply a bra
arrested for the murder of Don Achille, he professes his stuffed with cotton. Later, he asks Lenù to be his girlfriend, but
innocence—yet he winds up imprisoned for the crime, and the she rejects him out of hand and coasts high on the feeling of
carabinieri (police) investigate no other leads.

being so wanted. Eventually, in high school, Gino asks Lenù out maker. Gigliola later begins dating Michele Solara.
again, and the two of them date for a short time. Signor Spagnuolo – Signor Spagnuolo is Gigliola’s father and
Maestro F Ferr
erraro
aro – Maestro Ferraro is a teacher at Lila and Rosa’s husband. He’s a pastry maker at the Solaras’ bar and
Lenù’s elementary school as well as the school librarian. He pastry shop.
teaches classes of boys, but as the librarian, he holds a soft spot Rosa Spagnuolo – Rosa is Gigliola’s mother and Signor
for Lila, the most frequent borrower from the school’s Spagnuolo’s wife.
collection. Ferraro even hosts a small awards ceremony in
Giuseppina P
Peluso
eluso – Giuseppina is the kindly wife of Alfredo.
order to honor Lila, who uses her family’s library cards to check
She’s Pasquale and Carmela’s mother.
out as many books as possible at one time.
Assunta Scanno – Assunta is Enzo’s father and the proprietor
Ada Cappuccio – Ada is Melina’s daughter and Antonio’s
of a fruit and vegetable cart in the neighborhood.
younger sister. Ada has a rebellious streak and often spends
time out on the town with the Solara brothers, which earns her
a scandalous reputation in the neighborhood. However, she is
also a concerned daughter who frets over her fragile mother’s
TERMS
wellbeing and mental health. Camorr
Camorraa / Camorrist – A Camorrist is a member of the
Marisa Sarr
Sarratore
atore – Marisa is Donato and Lidia’s daughter and Camorra, an Italian crime syndicate and secret society dating
Nino’s younger sister. After Donato is outed for having an affair back to the 1600s. The Camorra originated in Naples, where
with Melina Cappuccio, Marisa publicly denounces Melina as a My Brilliant Friend takes place, and Camorrists have a
“whore.” However, later on, Marisa seems to be a rather sweet domineering, violent presence in Lenù and Lila’s neighborhood
and sociable young girl who spends time bonding with Lenù in the 1950s. In the novel, Camorrists like the Solaras family
during their shared weeks vacationing on the island of Ischia. tend to take part in illegal or otherwise disreputable activities
Lila
Lila’s
’s Son / Rino – Lila’s son is named after Lila’s older brother, like gambling, exploitative moneylending, and fighting. Small
Rino. The younger Rino is a “small-time crook and spendthrift” business-owners like Lila’s father, Fernando, live in constant
who, in the prologue, alerts the now-middle-aged Elena to the fear of the gangsters’ financial domination and violence.
fact that his mother has been missing from her Naples, Italy
home for weeks. Rino is panicked by this fact, but Elena is
disdainful of worry and feels Rino should know about his
THEMES
mother’s deep-seated, longstanding desire to disappear. In LitCharts literature guides, each theme gets its own color-
coded icon. These icons make it easy to track where the themes
MINOR CHARACTERS occur most prominently throughout the work. If you don't have
Lidia Sarr
Sarratore
atore – Lidia is Donato’s wife and Marisa and Nino’s a color printer, you can still use the icons to track themes in
mother. In spite of the rumors that swirl about her husband, black and white.
Lidia is a woman who prioritizes composure and stoicism in the
face of gossip and scandal. FEMALE FRIENDSHIP
Michele Solar
Solaraa – Michele is the younger of the Solara brothers. Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend is a novel about
Colder and often more violent than his older brother Marcello, many things—community, poverty, violence, toxic
Michele is a flirt and a braggart who dates Gigliola Spagnuolo. masculinity, and education—but at its heart is the
Professor Ger
Gerace
ace – Professor Gerace is a male teacher at profound, complicated relationship between Elena “Lenù”
Lenù’s high school. He praises Lenù’s intelligence and is Greco and Rafaella “Lila” Cerullo. As the two girls grow up
invested in her education. together, they find themselves helpless to resist each other’s
influence—and as they move from childhood into adolescence,
Professor Galiani – Professor Galiani is a controversial they make sometimes bizarre but always impactful choices
professor at Lenù’s high school who is rumored to hold based on their desire to impress each other, to draw each other
Communist beliefs. She supports Lenù in her conflict with the in, or to push each other away. In charting the waxing and
school’s religion teacher. waning of the girls’ bond over the years and demonstrating the
Nella Incardo – Nella is a kind, gregarious cousin of Maestra ways in which Lena and Lenù’s journeys reflect and refract each
Oliviero. She hosts Lenù one summer at her home on Ischia, an other’s opinions, ideas, and decisions, Ferrante argues that
island off the coast of Naples where Nella runs a small inn female friendship has the power to control the course of one’s
catering to local and foreign tourists. life and choices—even if the friends themselves rarely discuss
Gigliola Spagnuolo – Gigliola is one of Lenù and Lila’s this dynamic—because women throughout history have had to
classmates and neighborhood friends, the daughter of a pastry rely on female friendship due to their vulnerable status in their

respective communities. the more sexually experienced Lenù isn’t jealous of Lila
Even as first-graders, Lila and Lenù are both aware of a peculiar reaching the threshold of losing her virginity first. This passage
magnetism between the two of them. Over the years, Ferrante instead suggests that Lenù simply wants to experience what
charts how their closeness, a fact of their lives that they cling to Lila is feeling—whether it is pleasure, pain, degradation, or
for protection and sustenance, morphs from a blessing into a anything else—at the same time her friend is experiencing it out
curse (and back again) at various points in the girls’ lives. The of solidarity. Lenù cannot imagine her friend having an
first major instance in Lila and Lenù’s friendship in which the experience she can’t relate to for fear that it would drive them
girls realize that their choices revolve around one another apart, and so Lenù wants to make sure that she and Lila
comes when, during an afternoon playing with each other’s experience the exact same thing at the exact same moment, for
dolls near a cellar grate, Lila betrays Lenù by throwing Lenù’s as long as they can. At the most vulnerable moment of Lila’s life,
doll, Tina, into the dark grate. Lenù barely hesitates before Lenù wants to make herself vulnerable too, in hopes of
tossing Lila’s doll, Nu, into the cellar as well. “What you do, I do,” symbolically making her friend feel less alone and thus
Lenù says to Lila—and the words take on a vow-like quality as stronger.
the girls continue to grow older. The girls’ paths diverge as they By showing how Lila and Lenù go through life entwined with
grow up—Lenù remains in school while Lila drops out and goes one another out of a desire to be less alone (and to help the
to work in her father Fernando’s cobbler shop; Lila becomes other feel less alone as well,) Ferrante demonstrates how
slender and beautiful in puberty while Lenù grows full-figured female friendship—with its attendant pressures, problems, and
and afflicted with acne; Lila grows sharp, stoic, and aggressive possibilities—can be a force powerful enough to define one’s
while Lenù remains softer, quieter, and more romantic. But life. Though Lila and Lenù often fail to communicate the ways in
Lenù’s thoughts are always consumed by worry and love for which they look to each other for guidance or admit how
Lila, as well as the desire to impress her—and Lila, though often profoundly they depend on each other, they nonetheless circle
inscrutable, works to make something of herself and prove each other, emulate each other, and compete with each other
herself to Lila in a similar way. “In losing pieces of [Lila’s] life,” as their friendship proves itself to be the driving force behind
Lenù later reflects, “mine lost intensity and importance.” In the major decisions of their lives.
other words, without each other, the girls feel that they have no
audience for their triumphs and failures—no rival and no ally. As MASCULINE VS. FEMININE VIOLENCE
both girls’ vulnerability rises alongside their entry into
The world of My Brilliant Friend—set in a poor
womanhood, they feel the need to cling to each other even
suburb of Naples, Italy in the 1950s and 1960s—is
more deeply—even as barriers to their closeness, the
one suffused with violence. As the men of the
consequences of their newfound adolescence, creep into their
neighborhood engage in acts of violence as a means of securing
relationship.
revenge, of defending the honor of their wives or sisters, and of
As Lila and Lenù grow older, their friendship continues to settling debts and slights, Elena Ferrante demonstrates how
influence their individual choices as they seek to confirm their this atmosphere of unending, pervasive male violence trickles
bond in the face of mounting troubles with men. Their down to the women of the community. Ultimately, Ferrante
relationships with men are socially necessary but often leave suggests that even in a culture in which physical violence is
them vulnerable to violence or lack of agency—so Lila and Lenù perpetrated primarily by men, women eventually mirror that
attempt to continue circling each other even as circumstance same violence, replicating in their own relationships with one
pulls them apart. Another major instance in which Lenù reflects another the physical and emotional cruelty to which they bear
on the entwined nature of her and Lila’s fates—a quality which witness each day.
she herself has made sure to imbue their friendship with over
As Lila and Lenù come of age in a small, insular, violent
the years—occurs as Lenù helps wash and dress Lila for her
neighborhood in Naples, they witness violence and even
wedding to Stefano Carracci, their childhood bully and the son
murder—and they are themselves subjected to physical attacks
of the deceased loan shark Don Achille, toward the end of the
from men and women alike. Loan sharks intimidate their
novel. As Lenù imagines, in great and horrific detail, Lila losing
debtors; jilted lovers create scenes in the street; revenge
her virginity on her wedding night, she is full of stark revulsion.
killings and assaults are commonplace. Often, Lila and Lenù’s
She determines that “the only remedy against the pain I was
own parents or siblings are the perpetrators of the violence
feeling […] was to find a corner secluded enough so that [my
against them. As the novel progresses, Ferrante charts how the
boyfriend] Antonio could do to me, at the same time, the exact
pervasive violence committed often unthinkingly or obligatorily
same thing.” This passage is perhaps the most pointed moment
among the men of the neighborhood dulls and normalizes the
in the entire novel related to the ways in which female
relationship that the women of the neighborhood have to
friendship steers one’s impulses and decision-making. Lenù and
physical violence.
Lila have been competitive all their lives, but in this moment,
Even as a child, Lenù is able to intuit the malicious presence in

the neighborhood which ultimately manifests as feminine rage competitive, Lenù begins to feel that the only end the two can
and indeed violence. “I feel no nostalgia for our childhood,” the arrive at is one marked by malice, evil, and indeed danger.
grown-up Lenù—who now goes by Elena—recalls early on in The violence around every corner in the world of My Brilliant
the novel. “The women fought amongst themselves more than Friend is the status quo—it defines how people in the
the men [….] I imagined tiny invisible animals that arrived in the neighborhood talk to one another, respond to one another in
neighborhood […] and entered the water and the food and the times of need, raise their children, run their businesses, and
air, making our grandmothers as angry as starving dogs.” plan (or fail to plan) for the future. By contrasting the violence
Though the young Lenù imagines “tiny invisible animals,” as a committed by men (often in the name of honor or revenge) with
grown woman, she is able to examine the connection between the violence committed by women (often physical but just as
the omnipresent violence perpetrated by the men in the often emotional), Ferrante shows how violence is a learned
neighborhood and the “rage that had no end” which seized the response that’s replicated and disseminated throughout an
women of her neighborhood. Where, for example, the loan entire community. The violence that forms so much of the
shark Don Achille, a frightening, powerful, and wealthy man, is novel’s tension has roots in toxic masculinity and sexism—yet as
murdered in his pajamas by an unseen assailant, the kinds of women adopt the violent tendencies they see perpetrated by
violence women perpetrate against each other are more the men around them each day, they confirm violence’s utility
personal. The disgraced Melina Cappuccio, abandoned by her as an unhappy tool not just of men but of women struggling to
married lover Donato Sarratore, flings household items out of be seen, heard, and respected.
her window as the Sarratore family flees the neighborhood to
move somewhere else, nearly killing the young Nino Sarratore.
Lila and Lenù are both sensitive to the violence all around them,
WOMEN’S WORK
and they are particularly affected by the fear that they As Lila and Lenù come of age in their Naples, Italy
themselves are doomed to be infected by “tiny invisible neighborhood, their paths diverge when Lenù
animals.” remains in school while Lila goes to work in her
father’s shop after her parents refuse to pay for her education.
The violence women perpetrate against one another in the
Elena Ferrante sets My Brilliant Friend in the 1950s, a time
book is often but not always physical—sometimes, it is
emotional in nature. Through examples of the cruelties the when women’s intellectual and professional aspirations were
women in the novel level against one another, Ferrante shows not taken seriously but were on the cusp of a new kind of
how this emotional violence is a direct reflection of the recognition—thus contrasting Lila and Lenù’s wishes for their
rampant (yet casual) physical violence committed by the own futures with the realities of the lives of the older women all
women’s fathers, lovers, brothers, and schoolmates. As Lila and around them. Ferrante explores the different kinds of “work”
Lenù grow older, the violence in their neighborhood morphs both available to and foisted upon women of Lila and Lenù's
and begins to affect them more directly. No longer are Lila and generation, ultimately suggesting that women’s bravery and
Lenù silent, petrified witnesses to the ravings of Melina initiative are too often met with ridicule, cruelty, and even
Cappuccio or the revenge killings involving loan sharks and betrayal due to the entwined forces of capitalism and sexism.
Camorrists (members of an organized crime syndicate). Now, Throughout the novel, Lila and Lenù persist in their struggles to
as young women, they find themselves surrounded by young make themselves known through their work in the face of
men who have learned that violence is the answer to every unimaginable odds. While Lenù focuses on academics, Lila
perceived slight. For instance, men will react violently at an becomes preoccupied with dreams of revolutionizing her
untoward glance another man makes at a sister or girlfriend. father’s shoe business—an idea to which her father, Fernando,
Young men are also determined to show their dominance is deeply resistant. Toward the end of the novel, two climactic
through any means necessary: fistfights, firework displays, fast incidents—the unhappy culmination, for both women, of their
cars, and even shootings. Lila and Lenù internalize these youth’s “work”—underscore how even when women devote
responses and become violent in their own ways. Lila carries a themselves entirely to an idea or a project, the forces of
knife which she brandishes at any man who threatens her (a capitalism and sexism conspire to blunt their initiative and
response learned from the violent men around her), but she render their efforts meaningless. Just as their mothers before
also begins acting cruelly toward Lenù when the two are in them were reduced to roles as wives and caregivers, Lila and
competition with each other in school or in love (a response Lenù are confronted with the smallness of their efforts in the
learned from the spurned, angry women around her). “Lila was eyes of the men who surround them. Lenù, who has devoted
malicious,” Lenù thinks to herself as she realizes that Lila has her life to academics and who has recently, inspired by her
surpassed her not only in smarts but in beauty. “I said to myself: crush Nino Sarratore, submitted a paper criticizing religion to a
she will release something more vicious [soon].” Womanhood, journal in which Nino frequently publishes work, learns that
to Lenù, is synonymous with the release of viciousness and ill her piece has not been accepted for publication. Lenù is
will—as her friendship with Lila grows more intense and more devastated as she reckons with the failure of what she sees as

her life’s work. Since her youth, Lenù has felt academically overlooked. Even though Lenù is narrating from the present
inferior to the preternaturally smart Lila, whose proficiency for day, there is not much optimism in her voice as she recounts the
languages and whose effortless writing style have continued to ways in which she and Lila, as girls, “ruin” themselves time and
flourish in spite of the fact that her parents, unable to pay for time again in hopes of achieving the recognition they deserve.
an education, pulled her out of school at a young age. Lenù’s
academic and ideological work has been the focus of so much of POVERTY, SOCIAL CLIMBING, AND
her life, and as she faces down its failure, she thinks the SACRIFICE
following: “Nothing diminished the disappointment. […] I
discovered that I had considered the publication of those few In the poor suburb of Naples, Italy where My
lines, my name in print, as a sign that I really had a destiny, that Brilliant Friend is set, opportunities for economic
the hard work of school would surely lead upward, somewhere, and social advancement are few and far between. As Lila and
that Maestra Oliviero had been right to push me forward and Lenù scheme throughout their shared childhood and
to abandon Lila.” Lenù’s work has always been meaningful in her adolescence, forever imagining ways to elevate themselves
relationship with Lila—she knows that her continued success in socially, economically, and academically, Elena Ferrante points
academia has made Lila jealous, and when she showed the out the fierce competition that arises between even the best of
piece she submitted to the journal to her friend, Lila admitted friends when matters of self-preservation enter the fray.
that Lenù’s writing made her jealous and sad. Lila has told Lenù Ultimately, Ferrante suggests that for those faced with a
that she is “brilliant” and must continue studying no matter lifetime of poverty and hardship, it’s often necessary to
what—but in the eyes of Nino and the (presumably male) sacrifice emotional health, ideological values, and personal
editors of the journal, Lenù’s work is not worthy. happiness on the road to escaping such dire circumstances.
Meanwhile, the intrepid Lila, barred from attending school, Through the novel, Ferrante highlights several important
tries to make something of herself in other ways, turning to a moments in both Lila and Lenù’s journeys where the
capitalistic approach to attempt to combat the forces of sexism girls—together and individually—seek the advancement of their
that have kept her from an education. When she goes to work social, economic, and intellectual stations. As Lila and Lenù
in her shoemaker father’s shop, she decides to design a line of strive for better social positions for their families, dream of
fancy shoes of her own. Lila believes they will sell for high amassing wealth for themselves, and seek escape through the
prices and allow her father’s business to flourish. Lila’s ideas promises of education, Ferrante demonstrates how both girls
are discounted by her father and her brother Rino—and her are forced, at different moments, to sacrifice their values, their
attempts to make herself heard are often met with physical or dreams, and their hearts’ desires in search of material
verbal abuse. Eventually, the wealthy Stefano Carracci, in betterment. Early on in the novel, Lila and Lenù begin to think
wooing Lila, offers to support her financially in producing the of ways to escape poverty through their achievements. Lenù
shoes. However, in the book’s final lines, Lila realizes that recalls, “In [our] last year of elementary school, wealth became
Stefano has betrayed her not just by inviting her enemy and our obsession. [Lila and I] talked about it the way characters in
former suitor Marcello Solara to the party, but also by giving novels talk about searching for treasure. […] We began to link
him—in an apparent show of fealty and goodwill—the very first school to wealth. […] All you had to do was go to school and
shoes Lila herself made. “Marcello had on his feet the shoes write a book.” Lenù and Lila’s shared the belief that if they
bought earlier by Stefano, her husband. It was the pair she had studied hard and wrote well, they’d achieve fame and fortune
made with [her brother] Rino,” making and unmaking them for as novelists. This passage is the key to understanding a great
months, ruining her hands.” Not only has Lila’s work been deal of the competitiveness that Lila and Lenù engage in
sullied by the hated Marcello, but also her husband has seen throughout their academic careers. Lila and Lenù both see
the work she “ruin[ed]” herself for as nothing more than a tool academia as the one way in which they can differentiate
in a compromise meant to protect himself, his honor, and his themselves from their parents and neighbors and make
business from the wealthy and vengeful Solara brothers. Lila something of themselves—but when school is stripped away
also realizes that her attempt to take on work of her own in from Lila (her parents can’t afford to pay her fees), she begins
order to game the forces of capitalism (which conspire against thinking of other ways to climb the rungs of the socioeconomic
women) has been for nothing. The men in her life do not ladder. Lenù, meanwhile, knows that in continuing school, she is
respect her, and the one to whom she has promised herself for sacrificing a part of her relationship with Lila—the two will
life sees her dreams as things to be bought, sold, and traded. never again be able to bond over schoolwork or books, the
foundation of their friendship, and there will always be a seed
Ultimately, both Lila and Lenù are forced to reckon with the
of jealousy between them. Nonetheless, Lenù takes advantage
ways in which their attempts at making their accomplishments
of the opportunity she’s been offered and pursues an education
known have failed. As Ferrante highlights the disappointments
with vigor and determination.
both girls face, she argues that women’s work will always be
As Lenù continues her studies, Lila goes to work in her father,

Fernando’s, shop and begins to blossom into a beautiful young suggests that a community that fixates on resentments,
woman. Sensing the change in the way men look at her, Lila vendettas, and smallminded struggles will never be able to
begins to see love and romance as a way of advancing her social confront its checkered past or organize together to work
position, given her failure to convince her brother Rino and her toward a future defined by prosperity, neighborliness, and true
father to manufacture a line of shoes of her own invention—as solidarity.
well as the fact that learning and books are off-limits to her. As In a community as insular as the one in which Lila and Lenù
a result, Lila feels compelled to turn to partnership in order to grow up, it would seem that kindness and camaraderie would
live a comfortable life. Using her skills to invent and craft shoes abound—however, the opposite is true. Gossip, betrayal, and
would give Lila a way to make her own money—and her own violence are all a part of life along the main stradone, or avenue,
social impact—while avoiding a painful sacrifice. But ultimately, of the Neapolitan neighborhood. Throughout the novel,
Lila has no choice but to turn to romances with men anyway. Ferrante demonstrates how the divisions in the community
Throughout courtships with the cruel but powerful Marcello make so many things impossible: the pursuits of friendship,
Solara and the wealthy but self-centered Stefano Carracci, Lila economic advancement, or simple neighborly support are
sacrifices her time and attention—and, in Lenù’s view, her drowned out by social posturing, the drive for vengeance, or
dignity—as she abandons books and learning to focus only on plain jealousy. Early on in the book, Lila and Lenù’s elementary
becoming a beautiful and submissive wife. Just as Lenù school teacher Maestra Oliviero tells Lenù about “the
sacrificed something enormous—her kinship with Lila—in plebs”—the lower classes of Ancient Rome who were
pursuing her own advancement through education, Lila, too, represented by the Gracchi, brothers who pushed for social
chooses to sacrifice her relationship with Lila as she pursues reform but failed and were met with execution. Maestra
the economic and social advancement that a good match will Oliviero warns Lenù that “plebeians” still exist, and that “if one
bring to her and her family. Lila rails against her parents’ belief wishes to remain a plebian, he [and his family] deserve nothing.”
that she should marry the corrupt Marcello, perhaps believing Maestra Oliviero tells Lenù this in order to encourage her to
that such a marriage would require too much sacrifice. But “forget [Lila] and think of [her]self only.” In other words, she
even when she takes up with Stefano Carracci, Lila still finds thinks that Lenù should sacrifice anything—even her best
that she must still give up her autonomy, her integrity, and friend—in order to avoid being a plebian. Maestra Oliviero’s
ultimately her dignity to ensure the match is sealed. Stefano’s cruel words represent much of the neighborhood’s view of one
betrayal of Lila at the end of the novel takes place when he another. Rather than uniting and working together in their
invites Marcello to their wedding against Lila’s wishes and even businesses, marriages, and social gatherings, people are
gives him the special shoes Lila worked so hard to make as encouraged as individuals and as family units to “forget” their
proof of her ideas’ worth. In the middle of her wedding neighbors and focus only on themselves. This passage also
reception, Lila realizes that she has sacrificed her values in illustrates the deep-rooted history behind these decisions and
order to secure money, freedom from her family, and the ability influences. In ancient times, the “plebs” failed to unite and
to pursue her own life. better their situation—now, Lila and Lenù’s neighbors feel
In the world of My Brilliant Friend, simply bettering oneself there is no hope for betterment through community, even
intellectually and emotionally doesn’t really translate to the though their frustrations with their individual failures continue
betterment of one’s circumstances, no matter how much the to mount and intensify.
protagonists wish that it would. Pulling oneself up out of Throughout the novel, social divisions related to money and
poverty, according to Ferrante, necessitates a cutthroat power divide the families of the neighborhood even on
competitive streak and a sense of determination. Most occasions which should unite them all in service of their greater
tragically of all, it requires a willingness to renounce one’s community. One of the major instances in which the divisions
happiness and one’s inner world in pursuit of more money, that plague Lila and Lenù’s community is made clear comes
more power, and more security. during a New Year’s Eve celebration. Each year, the wealthy
Solara brothers Marcello and Michele amass a stock of
THE USES OF COMMUNITY fireworks and put on a grand display—but tired of the Solaras’
The neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples, Italy showiness, Lila’s brother Rino becomes determined to put on
in which My Brilliant Friend is set is a small and his own display. Rino sees the Solaras—a family tied to the
insular one in which generations of families have Camorra, a crime syndicate dating back to the 17th century—as
grown—however uncomfortably—alongside with one another. “enemies to be beaten.” Rino is disgusted by his neighbors’
Throughout the novel, Elena Ferrante questions what the uses fealty to the powerful Solaras, and so he decides to take a stand
of a community are when one’s community is divided so against them. Rino, then, begins collecting money from his
profoundly by interpersonal conflict, generational animosity, neighborhood friends and stockpiling fireworks. At midnight on
financial inequity, and, above all, violence. Ultimately, Ferrante New Year’s Eve, a “war” begins as Rino and his friends launch

fireworks in competition with the Solaras, shouting taunts and academics, creativity, or even beauty, but in the measure of
curses as they do. The night culminates in a finale no one male attention they receive over the course of their adolescent
expected yet perhaps should have seen coming: the Solaras fire years. As the girls rotate through a veritable carousel of
gunshots at Rino and the other neighborhood boys. The crushes, boyfriends, and violent or nonconsensual sexual
fireworks incident is just one of many in which the various encounters, they struggle to understand the world of love and
members of the neighborhood—generally the men, but often sex while maintaining their ever-shifting senses of self. As Lila
the women as well—attempt to humiliate and best one another and Lenù chase the attention of the boys and men around them
rather than coming together in unity. Many of the (or, in some cases, halfheartedly submit to it) Elena Ferrante
neighborhood conflicts are rooted in crime and money—but suggests that while romance and passion are powerful forces in
just as many are steeped in honor and hubris, as men try to the formation of one’s identity, they are just as often strategic
defend their sisters and girlfriends from unwanted stares and as they are impassioned and genuine.
provocations, protect their businesses from being bought out Lila and Lenù’s friendship diverges and converges again and
by wealthier neighbors, and prove their families’ superiority. again throughout the novel as the girls’ individual and
The fireworks display is singular in its grandiosity, and it comes intertwined experiences with love, sex, and romance
to symbolize the waste, vanity, and violence of the unfold—and Ferrante demonstrates how there are most often
neighborhood’s power struggles. Through this sequence, highly strategic or otherwise unemotional motivations
Ferrante indicts the divisions and cruelties that keep detached from real passion behind those choices. “In the
communities from coming together in harmony. courtyard [of school] […] only love and boyfriends counted,”
Even during major events, the members of Lila and Lenù’s Lenù recalls of her middle school days. Even as a young teen,
stratified community fail to come together: uneasy alliances are Lenù recalls considering romance and partnership a social
brokered and new partnerships are made as a few of the men in strategy—she is “proud” when Gino, the son of the
the community try to soften things for themselves. But when neighborhood pharmacist, asks to be her boyfriend, but she
these men selfishly seek ease for themselves without rejects him out of hand and enjoys the feeling of power that
considering the needs of their partners, friends, or community, rejection gives her. When Lila begins going steady with a
trouble ensues. Another incident in which Ferrante highlights neighborhood boy named Pasquale, Lenù’s mind becomes filled
the pettiness of the community’s failure to come together with one “single true thought: to find a boyfriend,” desperate
harmoniously—even in times of joy—comes during Lila’s not to lag behind her friend in terms of emotional or romantic
wedding to Stefano Carracci, son of the deceased loan shark experience. As the girls themselves become older, the ages of
Don Achille. Toward the end of the novel, as Lenù looks around the men they attract also become socially strategic factors. For
Lila’s increasingly raucous wedding reception, she realizes in instance, when Lila becomes betrothed to the older and
horror that “The plebs were us. The plebs were that fight for wealthier Stefano, Lenù, too, becomes determined to get
food and wine, that quarrel over who should be served first and herself a man—not a scrawny, poor neighborhood boy. She
better…” As Lenù realizes that there will never be an end to the begins using Alfonso, Stefano’s brother, both to compete with
posturing, fighting, and slights in her community, a sense of Lila and to distract herself from her own longing for the aloof
despair washes over her. She feels that she and her family will Nino Sarratore. While Lila and Lenù enjoy having boyfriends,
never be able to better themselves socially or economically as they are less attached to the men themselves than to the status
long as every other family is seeking its own individual profit, and privileges having a boyfriend allows them: the social
prosperity, and advancement at the expense of their neighbors’ superiority of a well-positioned boyfriend and the idea of a
health, happiness, and dignity. built-in chaperone are more appealing ideas than romantic love
The cruelty, animosity, and envy that pervade the or sexual passion. Though Lenù does secretly harbor genuine
neighborhood of Lila and Lenù’s youth have roots deep in the feelings of love and longing for Nino, she focuses instead on the
region’s history—and deep consequences for its future. By strategy of dating rather than allowing herself the possibility of
pointing out how petty interpersonal or interfamilial fights hold real love, a concept which is considered secondary, in her and
communities back from achieving goals, Ferrante suggests that Lila’s world, to the advantages of a well-made match.
individuals will have to start standing up for their neighbors if Lila and Lenù’s romantic exploits comprise much of the novel’s
they’re ever going to build strong communities capable of real trajectory, yet toward the end of the book Ferrante chooses to
change. center the climactic event of Lila’s wedding to Stefano Carracci
in order to show how the pursuit of strategic, advantageous
LOVE, SEX, AND STRATEGY matches have in fact blunted both girls’ experiences of the
world and, in Lila’s case, thrown their lives off course perhaps
As Lila and Lenù grow from children to young
forever. As Lenù helps Lila get ready for her wedding to
women over the course of My Brilliant Friend, they
Stefano, she reflects on her deep love for her friend—but also
compete with each other not just in terms of

admits to feeling the impulse to “distanc[e] her with words just of men she at worst despises and at best tolerates. As such, the
at the moment of greatest closeness.” Lenù considers the shoes become a symbol of the impossibility of true social
divergent paths their lives are now taking for the first time: “In mobility. Lila’s suitor Stefano Carracci becomes interested in
the end there was only the hostile thought that I was washing the shoes. Though they are too small, he buys them for an
her […] just so that Stefano could sully her in the course of the astronomical sum directly from Fernando—and, in the same
night.” Lenù’s pain in this passage shows her belief that Lila, in breath, he proposes to Lila and promises to invest a grand sum
strategically marrying herself off to Stefano in pursuit of of money in the Cerullo shoes business so that Lila’s designs
wealth, improved social status, and an investor in her father’s can be faithfully made. It seems that every move forward Lila
shoemaking business, has made the wrong decision. Lenù makes has strings attached, and in order to make money for her
aches for her friend, who is soon to be “sull[ied]” forever by a family and establish social security for herself, she must sell
man who does not truly love or care for her. Lenù herself is at herself (and her ideas) to the highest bidder. At the end of the
this point dating Antonio, a boy she doesn’t love, while pining novel, when the hated Marcello arrives at Lila and Stefano’s
for Nino as she has for years. Lila’s decision to marry someone wedding wearing the very shoes Stefano purchased, Lila is full
out of strategy seems to confirm Lenù’s fears as real: Lila’s of rage and sadness—she realizes that even though marrying
decision solidifies the notion that the pursuit of romantic love Stefano has given her the illusion of security, wealth and power
will always be foolish and perhaps even useless. will always rule her neighborhood. The implication is that
Ultimately, Ferrante uses Lila and Lenù’s story of intense Marcello has bought, extorted, or demanded from Stefano the
friendship to underscore the ways in which romantic and sexual shoes Lila made in order to free herself socially and financially.
relationships between men and women are so often strategic Ultimately, then, shoes represent Ferrante’s assertion that for
or calculated. Lila, Lenù, and their classmates see love as a women of Lila and Lenù’s time, there is little room for freedom,
means to an end: security or protection, social or financial advancement, or recognition through work: everything is
advancement, or escape from one’s family or neighborhood. inextricably tied to men, money, and power.
Love is a frivolity or even a waste in this world—a fact which will
have devastating consequences for both Lila and Lenù as they LANGUAGE, LITERATURE, AND
make decisions with their heads rather than their hearts.
WRITING
Language, literature, and writing symbolize the
SYMBOLS complex connection that Lila and Lenù share throughout their
friendship. From the time Lila and Lenù are young children,
Symbols appear in teal text throughout the Summary and their relationship revolves around language. At first, the two
Analysis sections of this LitChart. barely speak—but soon, as both girls’ competitive natures
become evident and as their connection deepens, their
SHOES friendship becomes a way for them to test the boundaries of
spoken and written communication. Throughout the novel, Lila
Shoes are a symbol of hope and financial progress, and Lenù use spoken and written language, their love of
but also of the impossibility of success. When Lila’s literature, and alternating dialects in order to express
parents, Fernando and Nunzia Cerullo, are unable to pay for themselves to one another and the world around them. When
her to continue her education into middle school, Lila goes to Lenù continues in school and Lila goes to work, Lila still tries to
work in her father’s cobbler shop making and mending shoes keep up with Lenù by checking books out from the library
for other families in the neighborhood. Lila, is obsessed with incessantly and eventually reading Lenù’s Greek, Latin, and
finding a way to make money for herself as a means of escaping Italian textbooks alongside her. Throughout their friendship,
the neighborhood, so she begins scheming with her brother Lenù expresses fear that Lila will always be smarter, more
Rino to design a line of fine shoes for men and women that will articulate, and more expressive than she is—yet at the end of
pull their family’s business up out of obscurity and allow them the novel, it is Lila who refers to Lenù as her “brilliant friend.” In
to make real money. In this way, shoes represent a hope for a this way, language represents the strain that living very
better life, a wealthier future, and a happier existence. different lives puts on Lila and Lenù’s friendship, as well as the
However, when Rino gives the prototype he and Lila make to mutual respect and admiration they hold for each other despite
Fernando, their father lashes out in anger, furious that his their differences.
children would attempt to change his business model (and
Throughout the book, language, literature, and writing
likely afraid of how the neighborhood loan sharks would react
continue to serve as important symbols of instances in which
to their money-making attempt).
the two girls are attempting to connect with one another
In the second half of the book, an older Lila realizes that in across the vast distances their friendship weathers. As Lenù
order to make her dreams a reality, she must rely on the wealth continues in school, Lila develops a chip on her shoulder about

what Lenù’s access to education will mean for their friendship.
When Lila begins communicating and having relationships with QUO
QUOTES
TES
older boys, Lenù worries that she herself has chosen wrong in
Note: all page numbers for the quotes below refer to the
dedicating herself to her studies rather than striving to
Europa Editions edition of My Brilliant Friend published in
advance herself through social or romantic pathways instead.
2012.
When the girls exchange written communication, each envies
the other’s writing style: Lenù despairs when she realizes how
easily and naturalistically Lila is able to communicate through Prologue Quotes
letters, and Lila is upset and intimidated when she reads Lenù’s I was really angry.
essay against religion and realizes how good her friend has
We’ll see who wins this time, I said to myself. I turned on the
become at developing strong written arguments all by herself.
computer and began to write—all the details of our story,
In this way, Ferrante uses language, literature, and writing as a
everything that still remained in my memory.
symbol not only of connection, but of competition. The written
and spoken word are external representations of the ways in
which Lila and Lenù idolize each other while simultaneously Related Characters: Elena “Lenù” Greco (speaker), Lila’s
seeking to prove themselves to and, ultimately, best each other. Son / Rino, Rafaella “Lila” Cerullo
Related Themes:
FIREWORKS
Fireworks symbolize fraught the fraught class Related Symbols:
divisions between ordinary and powerful families in
the novel. Each year, the residents of Lila and Lenù’s Page Number: 23
neighborhood put on grand fireworks displays for New Year’s
Explanation and Analysis
Eve. The biggest of all these displays is always that of the Solara
family, who are relatives of Silvio, a wealthy neighborhood loan In this passage, taken from the prologue of the novel, Elena
shark and Camorrist (gangster). Marcello and Michele Solara, Greco sits down at her computer to write down the story of
Silvio’s sons, buy up fireworks from stores all over Naples—and her lifelong friendship with Rafaella Cerullo, whom she has
one year, Lila’s brother Rino becomes determined to put on a called Lila since the girls met as children in 1950s Naples,
display that will rival theirs. As Rino collects money from his Italy. Elena has just learned from Lila’s panicked son that Lila
friends and neighbors in order to purchase fireworks, it seems has gone missing from her Naples home after clearing out
as if he’ll be able to best the Solaras after all—but on New Year’s her closet, cutting herself out of old photographs, and
Eve, as the dueling displays get under way, it becomes clear that generally erasing her entire presence from her family’s
the Solaras’ wealth will always enable them to squash their house. Elena is “angry” because she feels that Lila has taken
neighbors. Their family’s ability to dominate something as her disappearance too far—and as revenge, she decides to
frivolous as this New Year’s celebration reflects their ongoing write down every detail of their lives together. Throughout
domination in more meaningful realms—namely, business, the novel, the ways in which Lila and Lenù use language,
wealth, and positions of power. literature, and writing to prove themselves to their friends,
to their teachers, and most importantly to each other will
As Rino becomes more and more furious and continues setting
become clear. The girls, having grown up in poverty, see
off more and more fireworks, Lila experiences something akin
success in writing and academia as a ticket out and proof of
to a panic attack as the boundaries of those around her and the
their specialness. It’s also a way to connect in the midst of a
landscape of the neighborhood begin to break apart and
culture built upon violence, cruelty, and cutthroat survival
“dissolve,” revealing the rotten core of cruelty, competition, and
tactics. Even into their later years, it is clear that Elena and
male violence at the heart of everything in her life. When the
Lila use writing as a way to one-up, punish, and make
Solaras seem to have run out of fireworks, they begin shooting
themselves seen to each other.
guns at Rino, Lila, and their gathered friends and guests in a
final show of dominance and vengeance. Fireworks, then, come
to represent the futility—and the danger—of attempts on the
part of ordinary families like the Cerullos to combat, disrupt, or
even begin to challenge the indomitable forces of money,
power, and inherited financial and social capital.

Childhood: Chapter 5 Quotes

I feel no nostalgia for our childhood: it was full of violence. Related Symbols:
[…] The women fought among themselves more than the men…
[…] As a child I imagined tiny, almost invisible animals that Page Number: 44
arrived in the neighborhood at night […] and entered the water
and the food and the air, making our mothers, our
grandmothers as angry as starving dogs. In this passage, Lenù realizes that Lila has taught herself to
read and write—she is the first in their elementary school
class who can do either. Maestra Oliviero, the girls’ teacher,
Related Characters: Elena “Lenù” Greco (speaker), Rafaella is proud of Lila and urges her to show off for the rest of the
“Lila” Cerullo class. Lenù feels “weakness” at the realization that Lila has
surpassed her—and because Lila has made her brilliance
Related Themes:
known in the arena of language, reading, and writing, this
passage sets up the idea that the written and spoken word
Page Number: 37-38
will become the realm through which the two girls compete
Explanation and Analysis with each other as their lives continue to unspool. This
As Elena begins looking back on her childhood, she recalls passage shows readers the genesis of Lila and Lenù’s shared
the “violence” that marked the entirety of her childhood. investment in learning languages, becoming expressive
This passage is significant because it introduces the idea writers, and finding ways of making their voices heard. In a
that the generational, physical, retributive violence that community like theirs, such skills are rare (and
marks relationships among men in Lenù and Lila’s underappreciated) gifts, and yet Lila and Lenù will soon
neighborhood also has an effect on how the women relate begin devoting their lives to proving themselves through
to one another. The women in Lenù’s life are just as violent their access to literature and their ability to navigate the
as the men around them—not only that, but Lenù suggests world of language.
that their anger is even more desperate, rabid, and
unpredictable. The “tiny, almost invisible animals” the young
Lenù envisions in this passage speak to the sneaky but toxic Something convinced me, then, that if I kept up with her, at
ways in which violence integrates itself into a community, her pace, my mother’s limp, which had entered into my
infecting people like a virus as its roots spread throughout a brain and wouldn’t come out, would stop threatening me. I
population and draw on old grudges, new tensions, decided I had to model myself on that girl, never let her out of
perceived slights, and ingrained jealousies. The ways in my sight, even if she got annoyed and chased me away.
which violence manifests differently—but just as
dangerously—among men and women will play a major role
Related Characters: Elena “Lenù” Greco (speaker), Elena’s
in how the novel’s plot unfolds. Particularly, it will affect how
Mother, Rafaella “Lila” Cerullo
Lila and Lenù struggle to navigate their own complicated
friendship as well as the demands of staying afloat in such a Related Themes:
cutthroat environment.
Page Number: 46
Childhood: Chapter 7 Quotes Explanation and Analysis

Anyway, however it had happened, the fact was this: Lila In this passage, Elena recalls learning that Lila taught herself
knew how to read and write, and what I remember of that gray to read without any assistance, before any of their
morning when the teacher revealed it to us was, above all, the classmates. In the midst of this, the young Lenù realizes that
sense of weakness the news left me with. in order to avoid turning into her mother (who is miserable
and angry) or becoming tied to a fate similar to hers, she
needs to emulate Lila’s academic success in order to
Related Characters: Elena “Lenù” Greco (speaker), advance and make something of herself. Elena’s mother has
Maestra Oliviero, Rafaella “Lila” Cerullo a limp and a wandering eye—and when Lenù pictures her
older self, she imagines, with horror, turning into her
Related Themes:
mother. Meeting her mother’s physical fate is a fear which
stands in for Lenù’s fear of meeting with her mother’s larger


fate—a fate tied to poverty, dissatisfaction, and violence. As
a result, at an early age, Lenù forms the belief that in order Things changed and we began to link school to wealth. We
to rise above and out of her neighborhood, she must tie her thought that if we studied hard we would be able to write
fate to Lila’s—no matter the cost to either of them. books and that the books would make us rich. Wealth was still
the glitter of gold coins stored in countless chests, but to get
there all you had to do was go to school and write a book.
I merely threw into the cellar her Nu, the doll she had just Related Characters: Elena “Lenù” Greco (speaker), Rafaella
given me. “Lila” Cerullo
Lila looked at me in disbelief. Related Themes:
“What you do, I do,” I recited immediately, aloud, very
frightened. Related Symbols:
“Now go and get it for me.”
Page Number: 70
“If you go and get mine.”
We went together. Explanation and Analysis
In this passage, Lenù describes a change in her and Lila’s
Related Characters: Rafaella “Lila” Cerullo, Elena “Lenù” shared thinking. The girls begin to realize how necessary it
Greco (speaker) is for them to make money if they ever want to escape their
insular, violent neighborhood—and, somewhat charmingly,
Related Themes: they begin to believe that the way to make piles of money to
store in “countless chests” is to write novels. The author’s
Page Number: 55 penname, Elena Ferrante, is an invented pseudonym meant
to suggest that it is truly Elena (Lenù) who has grown up to
Explanation and Analysis write and publish novels about her and Lila’s childhoods. As
In this passage, Lila and Lenù have been playing with their such, this passage operates on a number of levels, some of
dolls near the grate over the cellar of their apartment which lend themselves to the idea of metanarrative or
building. When Lila throws Lenù’s doll into the cellar, Lenù metafiction. Clearly, Lenù has grown up to write books—but
responds by throwing Lila’s doll in rather than crying, whether she has escaped the neighborhood through her
emoting, or admitting how badly Lila’s actions have hurt her. career or through some other twist of fate or drastic action
When Lenù tells Lila that she plans on doing whatever Lila remains unknown. Nevertheless, at this point in the novel,
does—seemingly, for the rest of their lives—a solemn pact Lila and Lenù decide to use their shared proficiency for
between the two young girls emerges. Lila seems to accept language and self-expression to try to pull themselves up
Lenù’s vow, perhaps viewing it as a kind of challenge as she out of poverty. As the girls age, they will continue to use
agrees to descend with her friend down to the cellar language, literature, and writing as a point of connection
together. As the novel progresses, the ways in which Lila and competition at varying points in their lives.
and Lenù’s friendship often involves the two of them making
complicated choices together—or separately, in response to
each other—will repeatedly come to the forefront of both Childhood: Chapter 16 Quotes
girls’ lives. Ferrante demonstrates that while Lila and Lenù
"All they did was beat you?"
often challenge and harm each other, their lives nonetheless
continue to revolve around each other—and this impulse to "What should they have done?"
circle and emulate each other can be traced back to this "They're still sending you to study Latin?"
exact moment in their shared childhoods. I looked at her in bewilderment.
Was it possible? She had taken me with her hoping that as a
punishment my parents would not send me to middle school?
Or had she brought me back in such a hurry so that I would
avoid that punishment? Or—I wonder today—did she want at
different moments both things?

Adolescence: Chapter 8 Quotes

Related Characters: Rafaella “Lila” Cerullo, Elena “Lenù”
Greco (speaker), Nunzia Cerullo, Fernando Cerullo, Elena’s I said no because if my father found out that I had gone in
Father, Elena’s Mother that car, even though he was a good and loving man, even
though he loved me very much, he would have beat me to
Related Themes: death, while at the same time my little brothers, Peppe and
Gianni, young as they were, would feel obliged, now and in the
Related Symbols: future, to try to kill the Solara brothers. There were no written
rules, everyone knew that was how it was.
Page Number: 79
Explanation and Analysis Related Characters: Elena “Lenù” Greco (speaker), Michele
Solara, Marcello Solara, Elena’s Father
Toward the end of the first section of the novel, as Lenù
prepares to take an admissions test for entrance into middle Related Themes:
school, her and Lila’s paths begin to diverge for the first time
in their lives. While Lenù’s parents support her as she Page Number: 113
pursues an education, Lila’s parents, who are poorer than
Lenù’s, declare that there is no money for Lila to continue in Explanation and Analysis
school and they prepare to bring her to work in the family In this passage, Lenù refuses an offer from the handsome,
business at her father’s cobbler shop. Lila, who has for years powerful Solara brothers to take a ride with them in their
been the better student of the two, pretends that she brand-new Fiat 1100—the nicest car in the neighborhood.
doesn’t care about the new direction her life has taken—or, Here, as she explains to her readers the reasons behind her
alternately, she insists that she’ll simply attend middle refusal, Lenù makes a series of pointed observations about
school anyway and get a teacher to pay for her textbooks the nature of generational, retributive male violence, and
and tuition. Of course, of these responses suggest that Lila how acts of vengeance hearkening back years or even
really does care, and that she’s deeply envious of Lenù’s decades control the social, economic, and emotional
ability to continue her education. atmosphere of the neighborhood. Though there are no
As the test nears, Lila suggests that Lenù play hooky from “written rules” about the way violence is perpetrated and
school one day. Halfway through their journey on foot to perpetuated throughout the neighborhood, Lenù is
the sea, Lila becomes nervous and drags Lenù back to town, intimately aware of how her actions in these crucial
where Lenù’s enraged parents reprimand and beat her—but adolescent years will reverberate not just through her own
they don’t tell her that she cannot continue preparations for life, but through the lives of her relatives and descendants
the test. In this passage, Lenù realizes that Lila attempted to as well. This passage, which comes early on in the second
cruelly betray her in hopes of getting Lenù barred from the part of the novel—the part which covers Lenù and Lila’s
admissions test. Her feelings are complicated as she adolescence—sets a dark, foreboding stage for the
processes the idea that her best friend would have sought complicated and indeed frightening world in which the girls
to sabotage her so that they could continue to be will come of age.
together—or simply so that Lenù would not be able to
outstrip the wounded, indignant Lila in terms of her
accomplishments. This dynamic—the desire to keep from I tried to remind her of the old plan of writing novels… […] I
being left behind at any cost—will continue to define Lila was stuck there, it was important to me. I was learning
and Lenù’s relationship as they grow older and experience Latin just for that, and deep inside I was convinced that she
fluctuating “convergences and divergences.” took so many books from Maestro Ferraro's circulating library
only because, even though she wasn't going to school anymore,
even though she was now obsessed with shoes, she still wanted
to write a novel with me and make a lot of money. Instead, she
shrugged… […] "Now," she explained, "to become truly rich you
need a business."
Related Characters: Elena “Lenù” Greco (speaker),

Fernando Cerullo, Rino Cerullo, Rafaella “Lila” Cerullo


Related Themes: I told her in a rush that I was going to the high school. […] I
did it because I wanted her to realize that I was special, and
Related Symbols: that, even if she became rich making shoes with Rino, she
couldn't do without me, as I couldn't do without her.
Page Number: 117 She looked at me perplexed.
Explanation and Analysis "What is high school?" she asked.
Early on in the second part of the novel, Lenù and Lila’s "An important school that comes after middle school."
paths begin to diverge sharply: Lenù continues on in middle "And what are you going there to do?"
school, while Lila, whose parents cannot afford to continue
supporting her education, goes to work for her father in his "Study."
cobbler shop alongside her brother Rino. In this passage, "What?"
Lenù, fearful that Lila is drifting apart from her (and jealous "Latin,"
of the gusto with which Lila has thrown herself into the craft
"That's all?"
of making and mending shoes), attempts to connect with
Lila over the subject which bonded them most closely "And Greek."
together: language, literature, and writing. […]
As the novel continues to develop, the written and spoken She had the expression of someone at a loss, finding nothing to
word will serve as a symbol for the ways in which Lila and say. Finally she murmured, irrelevantly, "Last week I got my
Lenù continue to compete with each other even as their period."
paths diverge, while shoes will come to symbolize the
sacrifices one must make in order to pull oneself or one’s
family up out of poverty in Lila and Lenù’s world. Here,
Greco (speaker), Rino Cerullo
Ferrante contrasts these symbols in a single paragraph to
show that while Lenù clings to the childlike idea that she and Related Themes:
Lila can continue living in a world defined by their smarts
and imaginations, Lila has decided to sacrifice the intimacy
Related Symbols:
of her friendship with Lenù and her love of learning in order
to try to “become truly rich” and game the socioeconomic Page Number: 132-133
system which she feels is rigged against her.
In this passage, as Lenù passes her high school entrance
exam, she finds herself slightly disappointed and lonely
when no one—not even her parents—seem too excited
about her academic success. Lenù decides to go to Lila to
share the good news with her—but Lila, too, is “perplexed”
rather than excited by Lenù’s announcement. As the
passage unfolds, Ferrante shows how Lila uses willful
ignorance and purposefully forces Lenù to consider the
smallness of her achievement and the irrelevance of school
and learning in order to make her feel bad. Lila, who herself
is intensely jealous of Lenù’s ability to continue in school,
feigns an inability to understand the importance of a high
school education. She then tries to one-up Lenù with the
only ammunition she has, which is that she has recently
gotten her period and become a woman—at last catching up
to Lenù, who got her period years ago.
This passage represents just one example of the many times
throughout Lila and Lenù ‘s teenage years in which the girls,
sensing a shifting chasm between them, will alternate


between trying to one-up each other and trying to relate to
each other in order to connect again. Due to the [Rino] had always seemed to her only generously
competitive nature of their relationship, getting closer often impetuous, sometimes aggressive, but not a braggart. Now,
feels like competing with each other—Lila and Lenù will though, he posed as what he was not. He felt he was close to
continue to center their lives and achievements around wealth. A boss. Someone who could give the neighborhood the
each other as they try to remain on the same page in spite of first sign of the good fortune the new year would bring by
their ever-shifting individual circumstances. setting off a lot of fireworks, more than the Solara brothers,
who had become in his eyes the model of the young man to
emulate and indeed to surpass, people whom he envied and
Adolescence: Chapter 15 Quotes considered enemies to be beaten, so that he could assume their
role.
She had begun to study Greek even before I went to high
school? She had done it on her own, while I hadn’t even thought
about it, and during the summer, the vacation? Would she Related Characters: Elena “Lenù” Greco (speaker), Michele
always do the things I was supposed to do, before and better Solara, Marcello Solara, Rafaella “Lila” Cerullo, Rino Cerullo
than me?
Related Themes:
Related Characters: Elena “Lenù” Greco (speaker), Rafaella Related Symbols:

“Lila” Cerullo
Page Number: 166
Related Themes:
Related Symbols: In this chapter, as Rino declares his intention to host a New
Year’s Eve party with a massive firework display that will
Page Number: 141-142 rival that of the Solaras’ yearly blowout, Lila becomes
concerned about the changes she has begun to witness in
her brother. Given the entrenched, immutable social
In this passage, Lila has just bragged to Lenù about knowing hierarchy of the neighborhood, attempts to get “close to
the Greek origins of the word “gramophone.” Lenù is wealth” or act like a “boss” are not just foolish but
devastated to find out that Lila has begun studying Greek dangerous. In attempting to outdo the Solaras, Rino is
on her own over the summer without telling Lenù or inviting making a statement for the whole neighborhood to see
her to study alongside her. Lenù realizes that even though about who deserves to be in charge. The fireworks, which
she herself is continuing on in school while Lila is barred are crucially important to social hierarchy and dominance in
from attending institutions of higher education, Lila will the neighborhood, emerge as a potent symbol of the
always “do the things [she is] supposed to do” first—and struggle to advance socially and economically in the face of
perhaps better. This passage is significant because it entrenched, generational social roles and the constant
demonstrates the ways in which Lila and Lenù feel the need threat of retributive violence. Though Lila worries that Rino
to continually one-up each other and challenge each other’s is being careless in his attempts to outdo the Solaras, Rino is
superiority as they grow up: both girls have a terrible fear of taking an action that is in many ways similar to Lila’s own
being left behind by the other intellectually, emotionally, or attempt to advance through shoemaking or Lenù’s attempt
experientially. Lenù is afraid of a life in which she must to advance through obtaining an education: he wants to
always compete with Lila—and yet without Lila’s influence, “assume [a better] role” and leave his old life behind.
there is a part of Lenù that knows she would not be so
driven to succeed in school.

Adolescence: Chapter 21 Quotes Adolescence: Chapter 22 Quotes

Stefano, according to Lila, wanted to clear away [Lila] was staring at the shadow of her brother—the most
everything. active, the most arrogant, shouting the loudest, bloodiest
He wanted to try to get out of the before. He didn't want to insults in the direction of the Solaras' terrace—with repulsion. It
pretend it was nothing, as our parents did, but rather to set in seemed that she, she who in general feared nothing, was afraid.
motion a phrase like: I know, my father was what he was, but […] We were holding on to each other to get warm, while they
now I'm here, we are us, and so, enough. In other words, he rushed to grab cylinders with fat fuses, astonished by Stefano's
wanted to make the whole neighborhood understand that he infinite reserves, admiring of his generosity, disturbed by how
was not Don Achille and that the Pelusos were not the former much money could be transformed into fiery trails, sparks,
carpenter who had killed him. explosions, smoke for the pure satisfaction of winning.
Related Characters: Elena “Lenù” Greco (speaker), Alfredo Related Characters: Elena “Lenù” Greco (speaker), Stefano
Peluso, Don Achille Carracci, Stefano Carracci, Rafaella Carracci, Michele Solara, Marcello Solara, Rino Cerullo,
“Lila” Cerullo Rafaella “Lila” Cerullo
Related Themes: Related Themes:
Related Symbols: Related Symbols:
Page Number: 171 Page Number: 177
Explanation and Analysis Explanation and Analysis

In this passage, Stefano Carracci—the grown son of the In this passage, Lenù recalls a fateful New Year’s Eve
hated and murdered loan shark Don Achille celebration at the home of the Carraccis. At this party, Rino
Carracci—invites Lila, Lenù, their families, and even the and his friends—with the help of Stefano—set off a massive
Peluso family (the relatives of his father’s alleged murderer) display of fireworks meant to rival the Solaras’ yearly
to come to his house for a New Year’s Eve party. Lenù and blowout and suggest to the Solaras that their position of
Lila are both shocked by Stefano’s unprecedented decision dominion in the neighborhood was not fixed. This passage is
to make peace with an enemy rather than seeking significant because it demonstrates the ways in which male
retribution through violence or extortion. Stefano is violence controls and seeps into every part of life in Lila and
different from anyone else in their neighborhood: he wants Lenù’s neighborhood—even momentous celebrations such
to sever the tradition of generational, retributive violence as this one are easily tainted and warped by the desire of
that defines all relationships in their community in hopes of the neighborhood’s perpetually-warring men to best one
making the neighborhood a better place for all. This passage another. While the violent, terrifying fireworks display
represents a glimmer of hope for Lila and Lenù, who have, escalates in intensity, Lila and Lenù cling to one another not
since childhood, been scheming and plotting ways to escape just out of cold but indeed out of fear. Lila and Lenù are not
their neighborhood. If things seem on the verge of change, without socioeconomic aspirations—like their male
perhaps there is a way forward which will allow the counterparts in the neighborhood, they want better for
community to come together rather than seek individual themselves and their families. Displays like this one,
advancement, vengeance for past slights, and the however, are particular to the strain of violence which
continuation of petty vendettas which define so much of life infects the men in their community. As the girls watch their
for Lila, Lenù, and their neighbors. male siblings and friends light “cylinders with fat fuses” and
set off fearsome explosions, the girls become “repuls[ed]” by
the endless cycles of cruelty, violence, and punitive displays
of force which rule their lives.


Incardo, Maestra Oliviero, Donato Sarratore, Rafaella “Lila”
“What would it cost you to let him see them?” I asked, Cerullo
confused.
She shook her head energetically. “I don’t even want him to Related Themes:
touch them.”
Related Symbols:
Page Number: 226-227
Greco (speaker), Fernando Cerullo, Rino Cerullo, Marcello
Solara Explanation and Analysis
In this passage, Lenù—who is vacationing on Ischia alone at
Related Themes:
the home of Maestra Oliviero’s cousin Nella
Incardo—receives a letter from Lila, who is still in their
Related Symbols:
neighborhood. All summer, Lenù has been writing to Lila but
hasn’t heard anything back—now, as she at last receives a
Page Number: 203
letter from her friend, she finds herself stunned by Lila’s gift
Explanation and Analysis for expressing herself through writing. Lenù has, for years,
come to see her own success in school as one of the few
In this passage, Lila cowers alone in her building’s stairwell
concrete ways in which she can compete with Lila’s more
during one of Marcello Solara’s visits to her family’s home.
natural, ineffable brilliance—and here, Lenù is reminded
The cruel yet handsome and powerful Marcello has been
that though Lila has been out of school for years and has not
courting Lila for months, and no amount of indifference or
studied the books, languages, and concepts that she herself
outright contempt she shows him can scare him away. Her
has, Lila remains gifted and talented in a way that Lenù
parents encourage Lila to accept Marcello, knowing that a
perhaps never will be. Lenù finds herself enraptured by
match between them would do wonders for their social and
Lila’s words—on some level, she is jealous of her friend’s
economic position—not to mention for Fernando’s cobbler
brilliance, but she is also spellbound and heartened by the
shop. Just before this scene, Lila has been sent to fetch a
idea that in spite of being unable to continue in school, Lila
pair of shoes that she and Rino made themselves as a
has not lost her preternatural gift for self-expression.
prototype of a new line of shoes for men. Rather than let
Marcello touch or even see the shoes, however, Lila holds
them in her lap in the stairwell, desperate to keep her work
from being sullied by the odious Marcello. Shoes function as
a symbol of the sacrifices Lila makes throughout the novel What did she have in mind? She had to know that she was
to secure her social and economic advancement—yet when setting in motion an earthquake worse than when she threw
confronted with the prospect of marriage to the hateful the ink-soaked bits of paper. And yet it might be that she wasn't
Marcello, Lila would rather protect herself (and her dreams aiming at anything precise. She was like that, she threw things
for the future) from him than accept the offer of financial off balance just to see if she could put them back in some other
stability and social advancement that a union with him way.
would offer.
Related Characters: Elena “Lenù” Greco (speaker),
Marcello Solara, Stefano Carracci, Rafaella “Lila” Cerullo
Lila was able to speak through writing; unlike me when I Related Themes:
wrote, unlike Sarratore in his articles and poems, unlike even
many writers I had read and was reading, she expressed herself Page Number: 238
in sentences that were well constructed, and without error, Explanation and Analysis
even though she had stopped going to school,
but—further—she left no trace of effort, you weren't aware of In this passage, as Lenù returns home from several weeks
the artifice of the written word. I read and I saw her, I heard her. on the island of Ischia, she realizes that Lila has decided to
begin forming some kind of relationship with Stefano
Carracci—a move that flies in the face of Marcello Solara’s
Related Characters: Elena “Lenù” Greco (speaker), Nella recent courtship and threatens to destabilize the

neighborhood and engender more retributive violence her family’s company before the cruel Marcello Solara could
should Lila refuse Marcello for Stefano. Lenù is familiar with do so. Stefano seems genuinely devoted not just to Lila, but
Lila’s desire to throw things out of balance “just to see” if she to her vision for the future of her family and her father’s
can repair them again in a new, unforeseen way—and company. Lila believes that this will make the sacrifice of
though she has, in the past, been impressed by her intrepid surrendering herself to a wealthy man less painful while
friend’s fearlessness and desire for change, Lenù admits also signaling to the Solaras that they cannot control her.
here that she is frightened about what Lila has put in Unfortunately for Lila, complications are still to
motion. Lenù is aware of the patterns of male violence that come—complications that will destabilize her relationship
pervade her neighborhood—and of how Lila’s actions could with Stefano and dash her hopes for real change in the
set in motion an “earthquake” which violently destabilizes neighborhood.
everything and even puts Lila herself in harm’s way. At the
same time, Lenù is conscious of how Lila is using both men in
her life to advance her own position and serve her own Adolescence: Chapter 42 Quotes
agenda—a risky move, to be sure, but one that could also
I established convergences and divergences. In that period
change the neighborhood for better (and forever) if she is
it became a daily exercise: the better off I had been in Ischia, the
successful in her maneuvers.
worse off Lila had been in the desolation of the neighborhood;
the more I had suffered upon leaving the island, the happier she
had become. It was as if, because of an evil spell, the joy or
Adolescence: Chapter 38 Quotes sorrow of one required the sorrow or joy of the other; even our
Punctually, three days later, he went to the store and physical aspect, it seemed to me, shared in that swing.
bought the shoes, even though they were tight. The two
Cerullos with much hesitation asked for twenty-five thousand
Related Characters: Elena “Lenù” Greco (speaker), Rafaella
lire, but were ready to go down to ten thousand. He didn't bat
“Lila” Cerullo
an eye and put down another twenty thousand in exchange for
Lila's drawings, which—he said—he liked, he wanted to frame Related Themes:
them.
Page Number: 256-257
Related Characters: Elena “Lenù” Greco (speaker), Explanation and Analysis
Marcello Solara, Rafaella “Lila” Cerullo, Fernando Cerullo,
Rino Cerullo, Stefano Carracci As Lenù reckons with the new shifts in her relationship with
Lila in this passage, she admits to her obsession with
Related Themes: tracking the “convergences and divergences” in her and
Lila’s lives in an attempt to understand the mysterious
Related Symbols: connection between their fortunes. Lenù notices that when
things are good for her, things are bad for Lila, and vice
Page Number: 244 versa—she attributes this inverse proportionality to some
kind of “spell” which will keep them bound to each other in
Explanation and Analysis times of “sorrow or joy” throughout their lives. This passage
In this passage, Stefano Carracci visits the Cerullo shoe reflects the novel’s central thematic ideal that female
shop in order to purchase the shoes Lila and Rino have friendships have the power to determine the trajectory of a
made—as well as Lila’s sketches for a line of fine shoes for life (or a pair of lives). Lila and Lenù have made many
men and women—for an exorbitant price. Thus far, Lila and important decisions in their lives based on how they want to
Rino’s shoes have served as a symbol of the sacrifices Lila appear to each other or how they’d like to influence the
has made over the last several years in pursuit of economic other. In this passage, however, Lenù allows for the
and social advancement for herself and her family. Lila has possibility that in addition to the conscious alterations she
given up school to learn the craft of shoemaking—and now, and Lila have made to their lives based on the opinions or
the shoes she has made, as well as her designs for future feelings of the other, there is also some inexplicable force
models, have been sold to the highest bidder. Lila is now tying their fates together as their parallel journeys unfold.
sacrificing her independence in order to pull herself and her
family up out of poverty, yet she has managed to goad
Stefano Carracci into purchasing the shoes and investing in


Related Characters: Elena “Lenù” Greco (speaker), Don
Money gave even more force to the impression that what I Achille Carracci, Stefano Carracci, Michele Solara, Marcello
lacked she had, and vice versa, in a continuous game of Solara, Rafaella “Lila” Cerullo
exchanges and reversals that, now happily, now painfully, made
us indispensable to each other. Related Themes:
She has Stefano, I said to myself after the episode of the
glasses. She snaps her fingers and immediately has my glasses Page Number: 273
repaired. What do I have? Explanation and Analysis
I answered that I had school, a privilege she had lost forever. In this passage, Lenù expresses her surprise when she
That is my wealth, I tried to convince myself. realizes that in spite of the fact that Marcello and Michele
Solara have begun spreading ugly rumors about
Related Characters: Elena “Lenù” Greco (speaker), Don Lila—rumors that she performed oral sex on Marcello each
Achille Carracci, Stefano Carracci, Rafaella “Lila” Cerullo night when he visited her parents’ house for
dinner—neither Lila nor her fiancée, Stefano, plans on taking
Related Themes: any retributive or violent action against the Solaras. Such a
refusal to engage with the status quo is unprecedented in
Related Symbols: Lila and Lenù’s community—and the fact that it comes from
the son of Don Achille, who was once the most fearsome,
Page Number: 259 powerful man in the neighborhood, makes it all the more
shocking. Ferrante uses this passage to demonstrate
Explanation and Analysis Stefano’s hope for a new way of building community—a
In this passage, Lenù struggles with her jealousy over Lila’s hope that is soon to be dashed when he is, through shadowy
newfound wealth. Having recently become engaged to and unseen mechanisms, forced to kowtow to the Solaras
Stefano Carracci, the son of the murdered loan shark Don by including them in his wedding to Lila. Lenù’s hope that
Achille, Lila has found herself with plenty of money to spend there could be a new “skin” for the neighborhood—one that
for the first time in her life—and she has no hesitations Lila and Stefano themselves make—is pure but ultimately
about showing off her ability to do so as she procures gifts doomed.
for herself and takes care of expensive favors for Lenù, even
having her broken glasses repaired at an optical shop in the
city. Lenù is jealous of Lila, but it’s not necessarily disposable Adolescence: Chapter 53 Quotes
income that she wants—she simply wants to never be
When she gave me back the notebook, she said, "You're
behind Lila or out of step with her as they move through the
very clever, of course they always give you ten."
world. Lenù tries to convince herself that she is lucky in
other ways, and that school is her own personal I felt that there was no irony, it was a real compliment. Then she
“wealth”—yet Lenù cannot deny that the lifelong added with sudden harshness:
competitiveness she and Lila have exhibited toward each "I don't want to read anything else that you write."
other has reached new levels in recent months as Lila’s life "Why?"
has changed drastically.
She thought about it.
"Because it hurts me," and she struck her forehead with her
Adolescence: Chapter 46 Quotes hand and burst out laughing.
I didn't understand. The Solaras’ behavior seemed […]
consistent with the world that we had known since we were Related Characters: Elena “Lenù” Greco (speaker), Nino
children. What, instead, did [Lila] and Stefano have in mind, Sarratore, Rafaella “Lila” Cerullo
where did they think they were living? […] They weren't
reacting to the insults, even to that truly intolerable insult that Related Themes:
the Solaras were making. […] Was this her latest invention? Did
she want to leave the neighborhood by staying in the Related Symbols:
neighborhood? Did she want to drag us out of ourselves, tear
off the old skin and put on a new one, suitable for what she was Page Number: 300-301
inventing?

Explanation and Analysis many have likely supposed that the “brilliant friend” of the
title is Lila, here, Lila states that she believe Lenù is her
In this passage, Lenù, hoping to publish an article in a journal “brilliant friend,” destined to be the “best of all.” Lenù
run by her longtime crush Nino Sarratore, shows a draft of realizes that the often-inscrutable Lila must have held her in
her piece to Lila. Lila adroitly proofreads and edits the high esteem all these years—just as the young Lenù made a
article, moving words and sentences around to help Lenù’s concentrated decision to live a life that would revolve
arguments shine through more brightly. After editing the around Lila this passage confirms that Lila, too, has gone
essay, however, Lila stoically declares that she doesn’t want through life feeling bound to Lenù and determined to do
to read anything else Lenù writes—now or ever—because it right by her. Lila has chosen a path which keeps her from the
hurts too much, before striking herself and making herself things she loves—languages, literature, and learning—but
laugh. she still believes that if Lenù completes the studious path
This passage is significant because, for the entirety of the before her, there will somehow be hope for both of them.
novel, readers have been following Lenù as she agonizes Ferrante uses this passage to examine the effects of lifelong,
about being smart enough, good enough, and pretty enough entwined female friendships as well as the sacrifices so
to compete with Lila. Now, readers begin to realize (in the many are forced to make in hopes of elevating their social or
same moment as Lenù does) that Lila, too, has been living economic station and lifting themselves out of generational
her life in pursuit of Lenù’s approval, desperate to keep up cycles of poverty and violence.
with Lenù even as the gap between their lives widens. This
shows that the competitiveness female friends commonly
exhibit is often mutual, and that even bright and talented
In the end there was only the hostile thought that I was
young people like Lila can be made insecure when they’re
washing her from her hair to the soles of her feet, early in
forced to give up on their dreams. Further, Lila’s laughter
the morning, just so that Stefano could sully her in the course of
after her candid plea to Lenù suggests that she is
the night. I imagined her naked as she was at that moment […]
characteristically downplaying her own sorrow in an effort
His violent flesh entered her with a sharp blow, like the cork
to appear self-assured.
pushed by the palm into the neck of a wine bottle. And it
suddenly seemed to me that the only remedy against the pain I
was feeling […] was to find a corner secluded enough so that
Adolescence: Chapter 57 Quotes Antonio could do to me, at the same time, the exact same thing.
"Whatever happens, you'll go on studying."
"Two more years: then I'll get my diploma and I'm done." Related Characters: Elena “Lenù” Greco (speaker), Antonio
"No, don't ever stop: I'll give you the money, you should keep Cappuccio, Stefano Carracci, Rafaella “Lila” Cerullo
studying."
Related Themes:
I gave a nervous laugh, then said, "Thanks, but at a certain point
school is over." Page Number: 313
"Not for you: you're my brilliant friend, you have to be the best
of all, boys and girls." Explanation and Analysis
In this passage, as Lenù helps Lila get ready for her wedding
day, she is full of envy, sadness, and apprehension. Her and
Related Characters: Elena “Lenù” Greco, Rafaella “Lila”
Lila’s lives, which have been so different for so long, are
Cerullo (speaker)
finally diverging in a huge and concrete way as Lila prepares
Related Themes: to marry Stefano. As Lenù washes Lila’s body and makes her
beautiful for her wedding, she has violent and vivid visions
Related Symbols: of Stefano taking Lila’s virginity later that night.
Determined, as she always has been, not to let Lila leave her
Page Number: 312 behind, she becomes convinced that she must find a way to
lose her virginity to her boyfriend, Antonio, later that
Explanation and Analysis night—even though she doesn’t really love him. This passage
In this passage, one of the most significant in the entire demonstrates the ways in which female friendship has the
novel, Elena Ferrante throws her readers a curveball: while power to consume and direct the flow of a pair of lives, and
it also deals with the ways in which women use the men in

their lives for purposes which are often secondary to the leave her friends, family, and neighbors behind.
primary concern of female friendship. Lenù imagines sex
and marriage as yet another realm of life in which violence,
force, and cruelty reign—and even though she hates
Marcello sat down, loosened his tie, crossed his legs.
imagining her friend going through this, she becomes
determined and even desperate to follow Lila into the The unpredictable revealed itself only at that point. I saw Lila
unknown. lose her color, become as pale as when she was a child, whiter
than her wedding dress, and her eyes had that sudden
contraction that turned them into cracks. […] She was looking at
Adolescence: Chapter 62 Quotes the shoes of Marcello Solara.
[…] Marcello had on his feet the shoes bought earlier by
Nothing diminished the disappointment. […] I had
Stefano, her husband. It was the pair she had made with Rino,
considered the publication of those few lines […] as a sign that I
making and unmaking them for months, ruining her hands.
really had a destiny, that the hard work of school would surely
lead upward, somewhere, that Maestra Oliviero had been right
to push me forward and to abandon Lila. "Do you know what Related Characters: Elena “Lenù” Greco (speaker), Stefano
the plebs are?" "Yes, Maestra." At that moment I knew what the Carracci, Rino Cerullo, Marcello Solara, Rafaella “Lila”
plebs were… […] The plebs were us. The plebs were that fight Cerullo
for food and wine, that quarrel over who should be served first
and better, that dirty floor on which the waiters clattered back Related Themes:
and forth, those increasingly vulgar toasts.
Related Symbols:
Related Characters: Elena “Lenù” Greco (speaker), Rafaella
Page Number: 331
“Lila” Cerullo, Nino Sarratore, Maestra Oliviero
Related Themes:
In the final lines of the novel, Lila is horrified to realize that
her new husband, Stefano, has broken his very first promise
Related Symbols:
to her: the promise that her former suitor Marcello Solara
would not be present at their wedding. Not only does
Page Number: 329
Marcello show up at the reception and take a seat at the
Explanation and Analysis newlyweds’ table—but when he does, he reveals smugly
that he is wearing the very shoes which Lila and Rino made
In this passage, Lenù has just received the devastating news
together as a prototype for a line of Cerullo shoes for men.
that her article will not be published in Nino’s journal after
Marcello refused to buy the prototype when it was shown
all—smack in the middle of Lila’s chaotic and increasingly
to him—but Stefano offered an exorbitant price for the
violent wedding reception. She is deeply disappointed by
shoes. Now, it seems as if Marcello, whose family essentially
the news, and as she attempts to process it in such a chaotic
controls all business in the neighborhood and its
setting, she finds words Maestra Oliviero spoke to her years
surrounding areas, has either demanded the shoes from
earlier echoing in her ears. During an elementary-school
Stefano or bought them off of the man at an even higher
lesson about the “plebs”—the lower classes of Ancient Rome
price.
who attempted to unite and better their station, only to
fail—Lenù struggled to comprehend the relevance of the This ominous passage foreshadows the influence that loan
history lesson. Now, though, Lenù realizes that the “plebs” sharks, Camorrists, and predatory men will always have not
are still a part of society—not only that, but she is one of just on Lila and her family but on the neighborhood as a
them. Now that she has failed to publish her article, she whole. Stefano and Lila hoped that they could remake the
fears that all of her attempts to move “upward” in the world rules of the neighborhood by refusing to participate in the
have been for nothing. Lenù fears being trapped, as Lila is, in violence and vengeance contained within it—now, however,
the world of their neighborhood, bound to the same fates as Lila sees that there is no way to rise up against the
their parents—and even worse, she fears that all of her circumstances of her birth. She has “ruin[ed]”her hands for
work to escape those things will serve no purpose other nothing—it seems that no effort or endeavor she embarks
than to expose her sense of superiority and her desire to on will ever truly free her from the control of men like the
Solaras.

SUMMARY AND ANAL

ANALYSIS
YSIS
The color-coded icons under each analysis entry make it easy to track where the themes occur most prominently throughout the
work. Each icon corresponds to one of the themes explained in the Themes section of this LitChart.
PROLOGUE: ELIMINATING ALL THE TRACES

Elena Greco receives a phone call from her friend Lila’s son. He The opening lines of the novel investigate the strange relationship
tells her that his mother has been gone without a trace for two between Elena and her friend Lila. Elena doesn’t seem concerned by
weeks. Elena can tell that Lila’s son is worried by his inability to the fact that Lila is missing, and she is full of nothing but contempt
find his mother, but Elena suspects that the “small-time crook for Lila’s son. Clearly, Elena seems to know Lila better than Lila’s
and spendthrift” hasn’t actually looked very carefully for his own family does—their friendship is mysterious but evidently strong.
mother at all. Lila’s son asks if his mother is with Elena at
Elena’s home in Turin, but Elena scoffs at the idea that her old
friend would ever leave Naples. When Lila’s son begins crying,
Elena tells him to stop looking for his mother and to learn to
stand on his “own two feet.” She hangs up.
Lila’s full name, Elena writes, is Raffaella Cerullo. Everyone has This passage makes the depths of the relationship between Elena
always called her Lina, but Elena has never called her anything and Lila even clearer. The women seem to have something of a
but Lila—she knows that if she were ever to use another name secret language, a friendship that has unwritten rules and unspoken
for her friend, it would signal that their friendship was finished. vows. Elena knows Lila intimately, even though it seems that they
Three decades ago, Elena recalls, Lila told her she wanted to have not seen each other in a while.
“disappear without leaving a trace” and vanish from her life,
never to be found. Elena is not surprised that Lila has found a
way to do so.
As the days go by, Elena looks through her house and realizes As Elena realizes the depths of Lila’s decision to disappear
she has nothing from Lila—not a gift nor a note. She calls Lila’s completely, she becomes nostalgic for the friendship they shared.
son, Rino, and tells him to look in his mother’s closet. Rino stays The prologue suggests that there has been a rupture in their
on the phone with Elena as he opens his mother’s closet: he relationship, as Elena has nothing from Lila anymore.
reports that it is completely empty. Elena encourages him to
look around the rest of the house. He stays on the phone as he
does, reporting that all of his mother’s possessions are
gone—she has even cut herself out of old photographs. The
next day, Rino calls back in a state of heightened distress as he
realizes that all of his mother’s possessions and papers are
truly gone. He asks to come stay with Elena. Elena refuses him.
Frustrated with Lila for “overdoing it as usual,” Elena sits down, This passage introduces the idea of language, writing, literature, and
“angry,” to write all the details of her and Lila’s shared story. storytelling as a central symbol within the novel—and within Lila
and Elena’s own mysterious relationship.
©2020 LitCharts LLC www.LitCharts.com Page 27

CHILDHOOD: THE STORY OF DON ACHILLE, CHAPTER 1

Elena writes that her friendship with Lila began on the day they By interweaving the story of climbing the stairs to Don Achille’s
walked together up the stairs toward the apartment of Don apartment with other scenes of daily life in the neighborhood of her
Achille, a fearsome “ogre” of a man and the neighborhood loan childhood, Elena creates an atmosphere of dread, escalation, and
shark in the girls’ small village on the outskirts of Naples, Italy. terrifying but unspoken power dynamics. She shows that as a young
Elena, who was called Lenù as a girl, remembers watching the girl, she was willing to follow Lila into unthinkable situations—even
intrepid, fearless Lila “test [her] courage” each afternoon by at great cost to herself.
sticking her hand into manholes, jumping from windows down
the street, and sticking safety pins into her fingers. Whatever
Lila did, Lenù did too, desperate to keep up with her brave
friend.
On the afternoon, Lila decides that they need to go to Don This passage makes clear how terrifying the unspoken rules of Lila
Achille’s; Lenù is terrified. She has been taught that Don Achille and Lenù’s neighborhood are. The girls have been taught to fear
must be avoided at all costs—Lenù and her family don’t even Don Achille, but they don’t understand that because he runs the
speak of Don Achille and his family out of a mixture of financial ins and outs of the neighborhood, he is fearsome to their
deference and fear. Lenù pictures Don Achille as a fearsome parents in a way that is much more practical than the “ogre” or
golem “created out of some unidentifiable material”—yet in golem-like fantasies that the girls have made up in their heads.
spite of her fear, she follows Lila up the staircase toward Don
Achille’s door.
On the fourth flight, Lila “unexpected[ly]” pauses and waits for Throughout the novel, Ferrante will examine how Lila and Lenù’s
Lenù to catch up with her. When Lenù reaches her, Lila extends bond is based on a mutual tendency to emulate each other’s actions
her hand. Lenù points to this moment and gesture as the and experiences—this passage is the start of that transactional
moment which “forever” changed things between the two girls, relationship.
solidifying the nature of their friendship.

It is Lila’s fault that she and Lenù are on their way to Don This passage, in which Lila and Lenù mistreat each other’s dolls by
Achille’s. Lila has recently thrown Lenù’s doll Tina down into a casting them off into the cellar, shows that the girls are eager to test
cellar grate. Lenù, a small girl in the first grade, is devastated by the bonds of loyalty and the boundaries of their budding friendship.
the loss of her doll. Her doll knows the same “terrors” she faces This pattern will continue on throughout their lives as they compete
every day—such as Don Achille, whom Lenù constantly pictures with each other, seek refuge in each other, and fight for validation
crouching in their shared apartment building’s dank cellar. from each other time and time again.
Elena recalls playing dolls near the cellar with Lila and her
shabby cloth doll, Nu, one afternoon, when Lila suggested that
they hold each other’s dolls for a while. The young Lenù agreed
to switch—but as soon as Lila got ahold of Tina, she tossed her
into the cellar grate in spite of knowing of Lenù’s fear of the
cellar, Don Achille, and the black bag he uses to collect the
things children drop into the grate.


Elena writes that Lila, whom she met in first grade, was so This passage makes clear the atmosphere of violence and fear in
impressive because of her badness. Lila was always getting in which Lila and Lenù have grown up. While such an atmosphere has
trouble, yet never kowtowed to their teacher Maestra Oliviero. made Lenù timid and fearful, determined to fall in line and follow
Lenù recalls watching Maestra Oliviero fall and hit her head on the rules, it has imbued Lila with a rebellious “bad” streak that
the corner of a desk while walking through the classroom to makes her both dangerous to others and a danger to herself. Lila’s
reprimand Lila one day—looking at the teacher lying prone and desire to flout rules and test the boundaries of the neighborhood’s
unmoving on the floor, Lenù was full of horror but not shock. social and behavioral dictums will continue as she grows older.
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.
One afternoon, Lenù and Lila engage in a rock-throwing fight This passage demonstrates the ways in which, even at a young age,
with Enzo Scanno (the son of Assunta the fruit and vegetable Lila and Lenù must deal with male violence in their daily lives. They
merchant) and some of Enzo’s friends. The girls hurl rocks at must reckon not only with the violence itself, but also with the ways
the boys together, and Lenù, bolstered by Lila’s determination in which they, too, begin to feel compelled to replicate that violence
to win, helps Lila land a blow on Enzo’s leg using a jagged stone. in their own lives.
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.

Lenù thinks about blood: blood is what pours from wounds, but Lenù considers the frightening parts of life she doesn’t yet
it’s also, according to her father, what connects her own understand—she knows that Don Achille is fearsome and feared,
mother to Don Achille through a “very distant relationship.” but not exactly why. As a result of being protected from the reality of
Lenù is frightened by her father’s hatred of Don Achille and the her neighborhood, she makes the situation even more fearful in her
insults he often drunkenly hurls against the man after dinner. own head.
Lenù is afraid that Don Achille, with his “sensitive” ears, will
overhear her father’s insults and murder him.
Don Achille’s “sworn enemy” is Signor Peluso, a carpenter with This passage demonstrates how casually and frequently violence is
a gambling problem. Carmela and Pasquale, two of Lenù’s deployed in Lenù’s neighborhood. As the men around her squabble
classmates, are the children of Signor Peluso. Their family is over money, honor, and perceived slights, blood is often spilt and
poorer than Lenù’s own, and Carmela and Pasquale are always reputations are often ruined. Lenù lives in a violent, dangerous
trying to steal school supplies and toys from Lila and Lenù. world, the effects of which will continue to define the ways she seeks
Carmela and Pasquale’s father blames his “ruin” on Don Achille, to escape it as she grows older.
claiming the man took all his carpentry tools and doomed his
business. When Lila and Lenù are in second grade, a rumor of a
terrible fight between Don Achille and Signor Peluso breaks
out. Apparently, one recent Sunday after Mass, Don Achille
responded to Signor Peluso’s screams by adopting his “most
hair-raising form” and hurling Peluso against a tree, leaving the
poor man spilling blood everywhere.


Elena writes that she feels no nostalgia for her childhood, This passage demonstrates an early investigation into one of the
which was “full of violence” each and every day—violence which novel’s central themes: the idea that women, exposed to prolonged
she, Lila, and everyone in their neighborhood simply took for and continuous violence perpetrated by the men around them, seek
granted. The men, she says, were violent with one another, but to replicate those violent tendencies because they’ve learned that
the women fought even more often than their husbands. As a violence is the only way to survive.
girl, Elena recalls, she imagined “tiny, almost invisible animals”
pouring from ponds and sewers each night and infesting the
bodies of the women in the neighborhood, making them all
“angry as starving dogs.”
When Lila and Lenù are still young, Lila’s mother, Nunzia’s, Female rage and violence is different from male violence in many
relative Melina Cappuccio is suddenly widowed. Donato ways—but it’s also similar, as this case between Melina and Lidia
Sarratore, a railroad worker who lives in the apartment above demonstrates. The violence the women perpetrate against each
Melina’s (in the same building as Lenù and her family) often other is rooted in a sense of honor and vengeance—a desire not to
helps the poor woman with her six children. Melina falls in love lose what they believe is theirs.
with the generous and helpful Donato and seeks to “do battle
against [his wife] Lidia” and steal Donato from her. Soon
enough, an all-out “war” breaks out between the two women as
they sabotage each other by ruining each other’s laundry,
trading insults in the street, and even fighting in the stairwell of
their apartment building. Lenù soon grows frightened of the
women’s rage.
Though Lenù sides with Lidia, the mother of her crush Nino This passage shows that from a young age, Lila seeks to go against
Sarratore, Lila sides with her relative Melina. Lenù attributes the grain and show empathy to those who are not necessarily liked
Lila’s fealty to Melina not just to their status as distant or respected. Lila extends her friendship and care even to those who
relatives, but to the “mean[ness] in [Lila’s] heart.” One are blighted, cast out, or downtrodden—she wants to repair her
afternoon, walking home from school with Nino’s younger broken community, even though she doesn’t quite know how to yet.
sister Marisa Sarratore, Lila and Lenù notice Melina coming
down the street. Marisa taunts Melina, calling her “whore,” and
Lila smacks Marisa to the ground. Lenù runs to Marisa’s side.
When she looks up, she sees that Lila is across the street,
walking determinedly in the path of passing trucks as she goes
to Melina’s aid.

Maestra Olivero recovers from her fall and returns to school The fact that Lila begins to succeed academically in spite of her
after a couple of days. She turns her attention to Lila, but she badness makes her even more mysterious and attractive to Lenù.
praises Lila rather than punishing her each day in class. One Lenù, who has long been her class’s star pupil, begins harboring
morning, Lila’s mother, Nunzia, is called to school. She brings curiosity—and perhaps a degree of jealousy and desire for
gifts for Maestra Oliviero and joins the girls’ class for the retribution—about Lila.
morning. The girls, who are just learning the alphabet, enjoy
showing off for Signora Cerullo. Maestra Oliviero announces to
the class—and to Signora Cerullo—that Lila is the best among
them. Lenù, thinking of Lila’s many infractions and behavioral
incidents, is shocked.

Maestra Oliviero writes the word “sun” on the chalkboard in This passage further explores the idea of language, literature, and
Italian. She asks Lila to read what is written there, and Lila says writing as central forces in Lila and Lenù’s relationship. The ability
“sun” aloud. Nunzia gives Maestra Oliviero a “fearful” look. to express oneself—especially as a woman—in Lila and Lenù’s
Maestra Oliviero calls Lila to the blackboard and asks her to dangerous neighborhood is rare and exceptional, and the idea that
write the word “chalk.” Lila spells the word mostly correctly, Lila has taught herself to read and write at such a young age
missing just one letter. Maestra Oliviero, proud, asks Signora portends both her desire to prove herself and her need for an outlet
Cerullo who taught Lila to read and write. Signora Cerullo says through which she can make herself heard and known.
that she herself did not and adds that no one in the building has
been giving her lessons. When Maestra Oliviero asks Lila who
taught her to do such things, Lila answers, “Me.”

Rino, Lila’s older brother, begins to insist that Lila taught Rino wants to take credit for his sister’s success. Even though the
herself how to read and write by sitting with him each two of them are still young, this pattern will become an important
afternoon while he works on his homework. Rino, six years feature of their relationship as young adults—as Lila seeks her own
Lila’s elder, was taken out of school when he was barely 10 advancement, Rino becomes determined to ride on her coattails.
years old—his father Fernando now takes him to work every
day at his tiny cobbler shop to mend shoes. Lenù doubts that
Rino, who was never studious and who never advanced past
the fifth grade, taught Lila anything. Lenù believes that Lila
really has taught herself how to read and write.
The studious Lenù, who loves school, is full of “weakness” and This passage introduces the idea of how badly Lenù wants to escape
defeat at the realization that the “bad” Lila has surpassed her a fate in which she winds up like her mother. Lenù believes that
academically. Though barely six, Lenù understands that succeeding in school is her ticket out of a life that resembles her
excellence in school is a way to please those around her. Lenù is mother’s miserable existence, and this is likely why her envy of Lila’s
the favorite of her siblings and her father, and she’s desperate academic achievements is so pronounced.
to please her distant, angry mother, whose wandering eye and
pronounced limp make her fearful to Lenù. As such, Lenù
knows that success in school is the only thing keeping her
mother from sending her to work.
Lenù laments that after Signora Cerullo’s visit, she is never Lenù isn’t necessarily angry about Lila having surpassed her—she is
singled out as special in Maestra Oliviero’s class anymore—Lila simply depressed. Lenù becomes more determined than ever not to
is now the one called to sit beside the teacher during lessons as let herself be outstripped by Lila—she knows she needs to keep pace
a beacon to the other students. Lenù feels she has been with Lila if she is to outrun the fate she fears for herself.
demoted. She feels not only jealousy but an intense sense of
doom. She becomes focused on Lila and determined to “model
[her]self on that girl”—she never wants to let Lila out of her
sight.


Lenù attempts to “suffocate[e]” her jealousy of Lila and begins As the months go by, Lenù realizes that her desire to keep pace with
training herself to “accept readily Lila’s superiority in Lila doesn’t necessarily stem from a desire to be the best or to
everything.” After a while, Maestra Oliviero returns some of her individuate herself from Lila or her other classmates. Lenù simply
attentions to Lenù and her classmates Marisa and admires Lila so much that she wants to be like her in all things—she
Carmela—but Lila, sensing she is about to be outshone, doesn’t want Lila to leave her behind.
continues working harder academically and behaviorally. Soon,
Maestra Oliviero is back to praising Lila above all others. Lenù
is no longer focused on being the best in class—all she wants
now is to be seen as being on the same level as Lila.
In spite of her brilliance, Lila remains disliked by all her Lila’s other classmates, both male and female, dislike her for her
classmates. Maestra Oliviero often sends Lila and Lenù smarts. They envy her and take her superiority as a direct slight.
together to other classrooms to compete with other This reaction on the part of Lila’s classmates isn’t so strange, given
classes—the teacher and her colleagues are always competitive the culture of honor, vengeance, and retribution within which they
with one another, and the Maestra is determined to show off are all being raised.
her brightest pupils. Lila does spectacularly in these
contests—she is able to solve complex sums in her head and
spell difficult words in perfect Italian. Lila’s smarts appear “like
a hiss, a dart, [or] a lethal bite” to her fellow students and her
teachers alike.
One morning, Maestra Oliviero brings Lila and Lenù to This passage makes clear that even the children of the
Maestro Ferraro’s class of fourth-grade boys so that the girls neighborhood feel responsible for perpetuating the behavior of their
can compete against Nino Sarratore and Alfonso Carracci (the parents’ generation. They feel the need to show deference to the
third son of Don Achille) in a little competition. Nino and Lenù children of the adults to whom their parents show
struggle to keep up with the difficult questions, and Lila is deference—essentially, they’re bound by an unwritten and unspoken
noticeably reticent to best the son of Don Achille. Enzo Scanno, culture of violence and retribution to behave a certain way. As Lila
however, begins shouting the answers from the back of the begins to push against this unspoken dictum, she surprises those
classroom whenever both students hesitate—Lila out of around her.
deference and Alfonso out of uncertainty. Enzo, the class
dunce, surprises everyone with his participation—and his
shouts bolster Lila, who soon begins holding her own against
Alfonso.
Enzo soon steps in to replace Alfonso, and Enzo and Lila begin Just like their fathers, the young boys in Lenù and Lila’s school feel
an exciting duel of the minds—but Lila quickly bests Enzo, who compelled to assert their dominance through violence—even over
starts shouting “ugly obscenities” at her. This incident, Elena simple matters, such as school competitions and classroom
recalls now, was the impetus behind Enzo and his gang of boys embarrassments.
beginning to throw rocks at Lila and Lenù.


Elena stresses the importance of the contest between Oliviero This passage confirms the fact that Lenù and Lila are compelled to
and Ferraro’s classes. Though she and Lila were not yet good move through the world in a certain way because of who their
friends, she was able to intuit the sense of deference and parents are—and who the parents of their classmates are. This
respect Lila felt compelled to show Alfonso, the son of Don makes Lila’s defiance and insistence upon making her intelligence
Achille—a sense that both girls have inherited from their known all the more remarkable.
parents.
Lenù feels terrible that even her beloved Nino Sarratore must Lenù begins feeling jealous of Lila in ways. As she develops feelings
show the same deference to Alfonso. Flashing back to the for Nino, she begins to doubt her own beauty and seems to believe
moment of the contest, Lenù recoils watching the beautiful, that Nino would prefer Lila. This represents an added layer of
long-lashed Nino “collapse” in the face of the contest with competitiveness that will emerge out of Lila and Lenù’s friendship as
Alfonso. She also has an important realization during the the years go by.
competition: Lila is beautiful, and especially so during moments
of intensity. Lenù feels she is truly second-best in everything.
The day after the contest, the defeated and embarrassed This passage shows how the entanglements and fights that Lila,
Alfonso’s older brother Stefano, who is 14 and an apprentice at Lenù, and their friends get into have reverberations in their parents’
the grocery store owned by Don Achille, shows up at school to world, as well. The children of the men who run the neighborhood
berate and threaten Lila. When Lila shouts back at him, Stefano are determined to maintain their fathers’ dominance—and the
pushes her up against a wall and tries to grab her tongue, parents of those who resist the children of the loan sharks and
threatening to prick it with a pin. The next morning, Lila’s Camorrists who must pay the price.
brother Rino, having heard of Stefano’s cruelty, picks a fight
with Stefano and the two boys beat each other. Donna Maria,
Don Achille’s wife, comes to the Cerullos’ door to shout at
Nunzia. On Sunday, after mass, Fernando Cerullo apologizes to
Don Achille timidly—Don Achille walks past Fernando as if he
has not heard his words.
After Lila and Lenù’s rock fight with Enzo, the older Elena This passage shows that there are small ways in which the endless
recalls, Rino came to school to beat up the younger boy Enzo. cycles of retributive violence in the neighborhood can be broken or
Enzo, however, didn’t mention Rino’s beating to anyone. For a at least stalled—the question is whether the men of the
brief time, Elena recalls, the “feuds” came to a stop because of neighborhood, young and old, can shoulder the humility needed to
Enzo. do so.


After the rock fight, Lila begins subjecting Lenù to “proofs of In this passage, as Lila and Lenù test the boundaries of their
courage” during their interactions at school, in the courtyard, friendship, Lenù openly declares her intention to mold her life
and throughout the neighborhood. One afternoon, while around Lila’s choices. It is a bold declaration that is as vulnerable as
playing with their dolls, Lila pushes Lenù’s doll Tina into the it is assertive. It’s also significant that Lenù’s retributive, mirrorlike
cellar grate. Though Lenù feels “unbearable sorrow” at the loss behavior toward Lila also reflects the ways in which the men of the
of the doll, she holds back her emotions. Lila asks Lenù if she neighborhood seek to replicate one another’s actions as they pursue
doesn’t care, after all, about her doll. Lenù refuses to honor and dominance. Lenù has likely learned such patterns by
answer—she feels that to give the wrong answer and lose Lila witnessing them as they unfold all around her.
would be even worse than losing Tina. In response, Lenù simply
throws Lila’s doll Nu into the cellar. “What you do, I do,” she
remarks stoically, to Lila’s amazement.
The girls resolve to go down to the cellar and fetch their dolls The girls are both afraid of Don Achille, though they believe him to
together. Though terrified of going into the dank space, they be a more literal monster than he actually is. The depth of their
stick together as they grope their way through the dark fears reflects the depths of their community’s fears of Don Achille
crawlspace. Lenù imagines horrible things all around her and and the things he can do with impunity.
startles at the sight of a gas mask, a relic from the war, hanging
on the hook. Lila helps to calm Lenù down, and the girls
continue searching for their dolls but have no luck. As the girls
walk back out of the cellar, Lila announces that Don Achille has
taken the dolls and hidden them away in his black bag. Terrified,
Lenù runs for the light of the courtyard.

Lenù believes everything that Lila tells her—and so Lila’s Lenù’s fears of Don Achille continue to worsen, even making her sick
declaration about Don Achille hits Lenù hard. She becomes as she considers just how powerful the man truly is and how much
frightened to her core and even gets sick with a fever over the his influence “bubble[s]” beneath everything. Again, Lenù’s fears
days that follow. She stays home from school for several days, reflect the fears in her community—but she literalizes them,
and when she returns to the streets and to school, she feels her conceiving of Don Achille as a fairy-tale monster rather than a
neighborhood has changed. She can now see the “underground particularly powerful, violent man of flesh and blood.
air bubble” of the cellar pressing up against the lives of her
family and neighbors above ground.
Around this strange, sickly time, Lenù receives her first In this passage, as Lenù receives a declaration of love from her
declaration of love. One afternoon, while returning home from crush, she balks at the attention and denies Nino—a decision which
buying bread, Lenù realizes that Nino and his brother are will haunt her over the course of the years to come. The fact that
behind her. Nino catches up with Lenù and declares, in proper Nino offers up his declaration in “proper” Italian rather than the
“school Italian,” that he wants to marry her when they are Neapolitan dialect (which he, Lenù, and all their neighbors speak
grown up. He asks if Lenù will be his fiancé. Lenù is filled with day to day) shows again how important a symbol language is. It
longing but answers that she “can’t” and runs away. She begins represents an opportunity to prove oneself, differentiate oneself, and
avoiding Nino, whose declaration, she feels, has come at an gain the attention of others.
impossible moment: in the midst of her grief over losing Tina,
her exhaustion over keeping up with Lila, and her fear over the
threat of Don Achille and the cellar. Soon, Nino begins to avoid
Lenù too. Lenù doesn’t tell anyone about their exchange for
fear of embarrassing Nino.

Lenù flashes forward in time. The Sarratore family is moving As Elena recalls the day that the Sarratore family moved out of the
out of the neighborhood: Donato, Nino, and Lidia load a wagon neighborhood, her wistful sadness at watching Nino leave is
with their household items, drawing the attention of their overshadowed by the terror of Melina’s violence. Melina seems to
neighbors. Though the official reason for their move is that mirror the violence that the men in the neighborhood exhibit, as she
Donato has secured a better house through his job with the spares no one and thinks of no consequences. She exhibits a mixture
railroad, rumor has it that Lidia is forcing Donato to abandon of rage, fury, and desire for vengeance that threatens the very lives
the neighborhood to escape Melina. As the Sarratores ready of her lover’s children.
their wagon to leave, the sounds of crashing and screaming
begin to echo from Melina’s apartment. Her tortured cries
frighten Lenù and Lila. Melina begins throwing objects out of
her window down to the street, shattering them on the ground.
The Sarratores, all packed, begin leaving. Melina throws an iron
out the window—it lands just inches from Nino, making a hole
in the ground.

Though Lenù and her schoolmate Gigliola Spagnuolo receive This short chapter encapsulates the competing superiority and
many more offers of affection from the boys in their class, Lila jealousy that Lenù feels toward Lila. As Lenù and her friends
receives no male attention at all. She is unpopular, mean, and become interested in boys, Lila seems to shirk the idea of
prickly. The only boy who shows her any sort of interest is romance—yet she holds onto the bouquet given to her by Enzo, the
Enzo, who one day brings her a bouquet of sorb apples. Lila very same boy who hurled rocks at her just a short time ago. Love
insists she doesn’t want them. Enzo tells her that in that case, and violence, this passage shows, are inextricable in the world of the
she should take them home and throw them away there. On the novel—and as Lila and Lenù grow up, they’ll have to learn how to
way back to their building, Lenù declares that she likes sorb navigate these overlapping concepts.
apples as a test to see if Lila will give the apples to her. Lila,
however, doesn’t offer them to Lenù and instead brings them
home, where she hangs them prominently in her window.

Sometime later, Enzo asks Gigliola to be his girlfriend, but she This passage shows how male violence infiltrates the spheres of
rejects him and tells everyone about his offer. Enzo, humiliated, women in insidious and frightening ways. In Lenù and Lila’s world,
starts a loud fight with Gigliola in the courtyard and threatens when male honor is threatened, there is often violent, punitive
her. Soon after, Enzo drops out of elementary school, enrolls in retribution not just against other men but against women as well. To
trade school, and begins work at his parents’ produce cart. Lila Lenù and Lila, the prospect of attaining an education seems like an
and Lenù, meanwhile, face down the prospect of continuing on escape from this vicious cycle.
in school. Maestro Oliviero summons Lila and Lenù’s parents as
well as Gigliola’s and tells all three pairs that the girls should
pursue an education. Lenù’s mother is against letting her
daughter continue studying Latin, seeing education as a
pointless thing—Lenù’s father, however, advocates on Lenù’s
behalf, and soon her mother agrees to allow her to take the
middle school admissions exam.
Lila’s parents reject the idea that she might continue on in This passage shows how the men of the neighborhood control the
school out of hand. Her father, Fernando, will not hear of it, and lives and fates of the women around them. Despite Lila’s academic
even hits Lila’s brother Rino when he sticks up for her. Maestra talent, it seems that her father will never see her work in school as a
Oliviero summons Nunzia to school to beg her to see Lila’s worthwhile pursuit.
brilliance—but Nunzia, controlled by her husband, cannot yield.

The day after Nunzia’s visit to school, Lila and Lenù are walking Lila refuses to believe that she will not be allowed to continue in
to class when Lila declares that she is planning on taking the school—and Lenù, inspired by Lila’s strength and determination,
test to enter middle school anyway. Lenù believes without a shares in Lila’s optimism.
doubt that Lila will do so. Lenù knows that “in the end,” people
always give in to Lila.

Lila is forbidden to do is to approach the home of Don By again weaving in the story of approaching Don Achille’s
Achille—but she nonetheless leads Lenù up the stairs toward apartment, Lenù shows how Lila’s ironclad will makes things
the man’s apartment a few days after the girls lose their dolls in possible for her that would be frightening or unthinkable to others.
the cellar. The girls are determined to make Don Achille give
them the dolls back. Presently, looking back on the climb up the
stairs, the older Elena can still feel Lila’s hand in hers.
At Don Achille’s door, Lenù feels her heart pounding in her As Lenù begins to realize that Don Achille is an actual man rather
chest. Lila fearlessly rings the doorbell. Donna Maria answers than a monster, she feels her fears relax—yet her amazement at
the door and begins calling for Alfonso, believing the girls are Lila’s bravery is as powerful as ever. Lenù is able to see how even
there to see him. Instead, Lila demands to see Don Achille. ordinary men can become fearful through the power they possess
Maria shouts for her husband, and soon the large man lumbers and the control they’re able to exert.
toward the door, a cigarette in his mouth. Lila introduces
herself as “the daughter of the shoemaker,” and introduces Lila
as the oldest daughter of Greco, a city hall porter in Naples.
Seeing Don Achille for the first time, Lenù is shocked to realize
that he is a man of flesh and blood—not an ogre made of all the
things he’s stolen and hoarded from his neighbors over the
years.
Lila demands the dolls back, but Don Achille is confused. Lila This passage shows that Don Achille truly is a man—a man who is,
tells Don Achille that he took them from the cellar. Don Achille because of the power and influence he possesses, rarely confronted
shouts into the apartment, asking if any of his children stole the with what that power really means. Now, as he realizes that Lila and
girls’ dolls. His children shout back that they don’t know Lenù believe him to be a monster capable of magical feats, there is
anything about them. Again, Lila firmly tells Don Achille that he “pain” in him as he understands what even the young people in his
is responsible for taking the dolls and keeping them in his “black neighborhood believe of him.
bag.” With something “unexpectedly pained” in his voice, Don
Achille repeats Lila’s words, confused.
Donna Maria calls for her husband—dinner is ready. Don Don Achille gives the girls money to buy new dolls—but he urges
Achille reaches into his pants pocket and pulls out a wallet. He them not to forget that he has done them a favor. Lenù continues to
gives Lila some money and tells her to go buy herself and Lenù show Don Achille the respect she has been taught he deserves, even
new dolls—and to remember that the dolls are “gift[s]” from as Lila wordlessly denies it to him.
him. Lila grabs Lenù’s hand and begins to pull her down the
stairs. Lenù turns around, wishes Don Achille a good evening,
and tells him to enjoy his dinner.


Lenù and Gigliola begin attending private study sessions at Lila is in denial about her inability to attend middle school and thus
Maestra Oliviero’s house in order to prepare for the exam. Lila, secure a path to a better life for herself through education. She is,
whose parents have refused to pay for such lessons, does not however, as determined as she’s even been to continue educating
accompany them—but she remains insistent upon taking the herself.
admissions exam. She declares that if she gets into middle
school, she’ll simply use Lenù’s books rather than pay for her
own.
With the money from Don Achille, Lila buys a copy of Little Lila and Lenù continue to use language, literature, and writing as a
Women instead of a new doll. Lila has already read the book point of connection and competition as their friendship evolves.
several times—it is her favorite. The girls begin meeting in the
courtyard to read and reread the book over the next several
months. Lila doesn’t feel she can keep the book at home
without incurring Fernando’s wrath, so Lenù keeps it at her
home instead.
Many arguments about Lila’s academic future continue to Rino wants Lila to have the opportunities she deserves—he clearly
unfold at home. Rino, who is about 16, defends her each time, loves and believes in his sister. Their violent father, however, is able
but his own fights with his parents about their failure to pay to control Lila’s fate regardless of how hard Rino fights for her.
him for his work in the shop discredits him and draws his
parents’ ire. Rino wants money so that he can pay for Lila to go
to school. Fernando thinks it is preposterous for a girl to attend
school, and Lila never speaks out against her father—she seems
to sagely understand his reasons for keeping her home, even if
she remains determined to go to school anyway.
Wealth becomes Lila and Lenù’s “obsession” throughout their Lila and Lenù have internalized the unspoken fact that the only way
last year of elementary school. They dream of being rich ladies to escape their neighborhood is by amassing a great amount of
when they grow older, and they think of ways to amass a great wealth. Because language and literature have helped Lila attain the
amount of wealth and glittering treasure. Lila believes that if recognition of her teachers, the respect of her classmates, and even
they write books, they will become rich. She suggests the two Lenù’s friendship, she sees writing as a way of rising above her
of them write a novel together—but when Lenù is distracted station and pulling herself up out of poverty, too.
with preparations for the exam, Lila, bursting with energy,
writes a novel on her own. When she shows the book, which is
called The Blue Fairy, to Lenù, Lenù is deeply impressed with the
depth and complexity of the work. Lenù suggests Lila give it to
Maestra Oliviero to read, but Lila refuses.
One day, at Maestra Oliviero’s house, Lenù gives the teacher Maestra Oliviero’s cruel words in this passage reflect her anger with
Lila’s copy of The Blue Fairy and excitedly tells her how great it Fernando and men like him—men who prioritize their own vanity
is. The teacher replies that Lila should be studying rather than and power above that of the betterment of their children. Lenù
wasting her time with fanciful novels. Lenù is confused by takes Oliviero’s sharp words to heart—they will continually inform
Maestra Oliviero’s attitude—and she’s upset when Maestra her understanding of the world as she grows older, though Lenù will
Oliviero still has not read the book after several days. Maestra have a hard time not thinking about Lila’s wants and needs.
Oliviero asks Lenù if she knows what the “plebs” are. Lenù says
she does. The teacher replies that if a man “wishes to remain a
plebian, [then] he, his children, and the children of his children
deserve nothing.” Oliviero urges Lenù to forget about Lila and
focus only on herself.

In the aftermath of writing The Blue Fairy—and learning of Oliviero’s anger with Lila in this passage stems from the fact that
Maestra Oliviero’s failure to read it—Lila becomes reserved she is despondent over her brightest student’s inability to continue
and disheartened, yet determined to write another, better in school. Oliviero knows that Lila has a great mind and could do
book one day. At the final class competition of the year, Lila great things with it, but unable to help her as she is, she decides to
beats out both Lenù and Gigliola—but during the last question, cast her out and distance herself from the girl who was once her star
she falters and declares that there is a problem with the pupil.
equation. Maestra Oliviero becomes angry with Lila and scolds
her in front of the entire classroom.

Just before the final test of elementary school, Lila encourages Lila’s spontaneous suggestion that the girls play hooky excites
Lenù to skip school and leave the neighborhood for the Lenù—Lenù never stops to think that her friend might have a hidden
afternoon. Lenù has never, within living memory, left the desire or ulterior motive behind her request. Lenù thinks Lila simply
neighborhood. Lila devises a plan to tell their mothers that wants to celebrate the end of elementary school, which speaks to
Maestra Oliviero is hosting an end-of-year party for her her blind trust in Lila at this point.
students so that they won’t worry when the girls aren’t home
from school right away. Lenù tells her family about the “party,”
and they all believe her lie—just as Lila predicted they would.
The night before the excursion, Lenù is so excited she can
barely sleep. She dreams of seeing the sea and glimpsing the
nearby Mount Vesuvius.
Lenù and Lila meet early in the morning, as if they are going to Every small adventure that Lila and Lenù have embarked on
class. Rather than head to the school, however, they turn together so far—from rock fights with Enzo and the other boys to
toward the tunnel which separates their neighborhood from climbing into the cellar to confronting Don Achille—have been
the countryside beyond. They hide their smocks and tinged with male violence and fear. Skipping school is the first thing
schoolbags in some nearby bushes and enter the tunnel hand- they’ve done independently that is just about them and their
in-hand. They marvel at the echoes their voices make, and they freedom—and yet there is still an undercurrent of uncertainty and
laugh and shout as they head toward the other end. Lenù is foreboding.
elated by the idea of several hours of freedom alone with her
beloved Lila. Unlike their other adventures to the cellar or Don
Achille’s, this adventure fills Lenù with happiness rather than
fear.
As the girls exit the tunnel and continue heading down the Lenù senses a change in Lila—but she doesn’t ever consider that her
road, they hold each other’s hands and walk side by side—Lenù friend could be feeling guilt. Lenù believes the best in Lila and
is comforted, since Lila is usually “ten steps ahead” of her on idolizes her profoundly. She doesn’t imagine that her friend could be
their adventures. After a while, the girls get tired and thirsty. capable of the jealousy and retribution exhibited by the boys and
Lenù starts to notice Lila looking at her strangely, and she feels men around them.
Lila’s palm begin to sweat. Lila keeps looking back over her
shoulder and stops talking—at first, Lenù attributes all of this to
hunger or tiredness, but soon, she grows suspicious.

Lenù notices that the sky is darkening—a storm is approaching. The storm makes a journey forward impossible and a journey
Soon, she can hear thunder. She turns to look at Lila, who is backwards miserable. In this way, it’s an external symbol of the way
wearing a “new” kind of expression. Lenù realizes that Lila is Lila is feeling about her education. She knows she cannot continue
afraid—she has never seen her friend exhibit fear before. As the on, and that she must endure misery and regret as she watches
first raindrops begin to fall, Lila suggests they head back. Lenù herself move “backward” by entering the working world and shirking
is reluctant, but Lila is “agitated.” She reaches for Lenù’s hand her studies.
and begins dragging her back in the direction of home.
As the storm breaks, the girls begin running for home. By the Lenù is taken aback by the events of the afternoon. Her and Lila’s
time they reach home, they are soaked to the bone and grand adventure turned into something miserable and
shivering. They surreptitiously collect their schoolbags and put frightening—she is trying to understand what went wrong and at
on their smocks, but as they enter the neighborhood square, what point things took a turn, but she can’t yet figure out what
Lenù sees her mother limping around with an umbrella in hand, motivated Lila to stop their journey halfway.
searching the streets for her. Lenù runs to her mother, who
slaps and hits her with the umbrella. Lila runs home. That night,
Lenù’s mother orders Lenù’s father to beat Lenù. Lenù,
however, feels faraway and disconnected from her father’s
blows. She is still trying to figure out what happened to her and
Lila’s plan.
The next day, when the girls encounter each other at school, In this passage, as Lenù realizes that Lila deceived her in an attempt
Lila asks how Lenù’s parents punished her. When Lenù replies to prevent Lenù from attending middle school—thus evening the
that she was beaten and shows Lila her bruises, Lila is surprised playing field between them and tying their fates together even more
that that’s “all they did.” She is incredulous that Lenù’s parents inextricably—she is shocked by Lila’s unrepentant boldness more
are still allowing her to attend middle school. Lenù realizes that than she is hurt. If Lila can’t move forward, she doesn’t want Lenù to
Lila tricked her—Lila got her in trouble in hopes that Lenù’s either; this dynamic will come to define their relationship
parents would punish her by keeping her from school. To this throughout their lives, and Lenù will eventually find herself in Lila’s
day, Elena still wonders if Lila changed her mind halfway position, too.
through their adventure in hopes of helping Lenù avoid the
very punishment she’d hoped her friend would suffer.

Lila and Lenù sit for their final elementary school exit exams. Lila copes with her jealousy and resentment of Lenù by distancing
Lenù gets straight 10s—Lila, however, gets only nines and herself form her, leading Lenù to feel miserable and lonely. At the
eights. After this, Lila distances herself from Lenù and begins same time, however, Lenù can sense the severe sadness and distress
hanging out with Carmela Peluso. Lenù, however, will not let that Lila is feeling—emotions that are leading her to adopt a stance
herself be abandoned—she joins the girls and together they of denial to protect herself from her own despair and her
form a kind of trio, even though Lenù often feels Lila classmates’ judgment.
purposefully trying to leave her out of jokes and games. Lenù
notices that Lila seems to be going through her days in a kind of
“daze”—she continues talking about attending school next year,
even though both Lenù and Carmela know she did not sit for
the admissions test, as Lenù did recently. Lila insists that she is
going, “test or no test.”

As the weeks go by, Lila seems back to her old self—but Lenù In the depths of her despair, Lila begins lashing out at her
can sense that she is still suffering under the surface. Lenù father—the person who has told her she cannot pursue an
notices that Lila has started picking fights with her family: on education—in an attempt to provoke from him a physical
days when they meet up in the courtyard, Lenù can hear Lila manifestation of the emotional violence he’s done to her by denying
shouting horrible vulgarities at her parents. One afternoon, her the chance to advance in school. Though Lila’s brawls with
when Lila doesn’t show up to play, Lenù goes to her window and Fernando result in her bodily (and no doubt emotional) harm, she
starts shouting for her—and soon, she hears Fernando’s bears her wounds with pride and defiance.
agitated voice and the crash of a broken object. Lenù realizes
that Fernando and Lila are having a shouting match. A few
seconds later, Lila flies through the air—Fernando has thrown
her out of the window. Lenù rushes over to Lila, who insists she
isn’t hurt in spite of her visibly broken arm.

That summer, Lila is in a cast, and Fernando will barely even As violence between the men of the neighborhood ramps up
look at her while it’s on. Lenù thinks that Fernando’s violence throughout the summer months, Lenù paints a portrait of the many
toward Lila is “small” compared to the violence happening tensions escalating throughout the neighborhood and foreshadows
elsewhere throughout the neighborhood as the temperatures a major shift in the neighborhood yet to come.
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 customers who ask for loans or
can’t pay for drinks; he enlists the help of his teenage sons
Marcello and Michele in doling out violence as well.
In the middle of the summer, Don Achille is murdered on a rainy Lila becomes obsessed with telling the story of Don Achille’s murder
August day. Don Achille had just gotten up from a midday nap because she’s preoccupied with the idea that a powerful man—who
in order to open the kitchen window—as he did, someone controlled the fates of so many—has been vanquished. In spite of
plunged a knife into his neck, spraying blood all over his kitchen her youth, Lila has put together the fact that her fate and the fates
and killing him. Lila becomes fascinated with the story of Don of her friends are dictated by the actions of a few powerful men, and
Achille’s murder and repeats it over and over again, each time she relishes imagining these men’s ends.
focusing on new details. Lila claims to know secret details of the
murder and keeps Carmela and Lenù both rapt yet terrified
with each new repetition. In each retelling of the story, Lila
imagines the murderer to be female.
Many days that summer, Lila and Lenù play at Carmela’s house. Though Alfredo Peluso professes his innocence to his family as he is
Carmela’s mother is a cheerful, kind, welcoming woman, and dragged away by the police, he certainly had motive for killing Don
Lenù enjoys being at the Peluso house. One morning, as the Achille. Lenù is tremendously affected by the grief now facing the
three girls play checkers, there is a knock at the door. When Peluso family—only Lila, who delights in the dismantling of the
Signora Peluso opens the door, she begins screaming—the neighborhood’s power structures, stoically stands by.
carabinieri (police) begin dragging Alfredo away. Alfredo
screams to his wife and children, professing his innocence—he
declares that he was not responsible for the murder of Don
Achille. As the Pelusos begin to weep, Lenù joins them—only
Lila does not cry.

Lenù remembers this event as the “most terrible thing” she Lila and Lenù’s very different reactions to Don Achille’s
witnessed in her childhood—but now, as an adult, she murder—and Alfredo Peluso’s arrest—demonstrate their differing
remembers that Lila was strangely unaffected by it. Elena views on the structures of power and violence that define their
recalls Lila comforting Carmela by stroking her hair and gently neighborhood. Lenù feels terrified and helpless as she confronts
telling her that if her father was the murderer after all, he’d them, while Lila seemingly believes in change.
done the right thing in killing Don Achille.
ADOLESCENCE: THE STORY OF THE SHOES, CHAPTER 1

On December 31st of 1958, Elena writes, Lila would have her This passage pushes to the foreground an event that will take place
first episode of “dissolving margins”—a term she uses to later on in the narrative. Including it here allows Ferrante to
describe “those occasions the outlines of people and things foreshadow both the secrets Lila and Lenù keep throughout their
suddenly dissolved.” Lila won’t tell Elena about the episode, lifelong friendship as well as the turbulent times soon to come their
however, until November of 1980, when both women are 36. way.
Elena describes the evening of December 31st, 1958. Lila and In relaying the details of Lila’s “dissolving margins” episode—an
Lenù, teenagers, sat on the roof terrace of an apartment experience which may or may not be, a panic attack—Lenù shows
building shivering in the low-cut dresses they wore to attract how fragile the world around her and Lila truly is. As both young
the attention of the boys around them. According to Lila’s later women confront the “boundaries” of their neighborhood, their
account, as the fireworks started going off, she began to sweat families, and their friendship with each other, Elena implies that
and feel nauseous—she started to believe that “something they will experience a breakdown of their separate understandings
absolutely material which had been present around her […] of the “nature” of the world.
forever” had suddenly revealed itself. Lila’s heart rate increased
and she began to feel that the people and things around her
were “poorly made.” Lila tried to calm herself, but her efforts
failed as the sounds of nearby gunshots mingled with the noise
of the fireworks. Most frighteningly of all, Lila felt she could
perceive “unknown entities that broke down the outline of the
world and demonstrated its terrifying nature.”

Several months after Fernando pushes Lila out of the window, Lila’s refusal to attend the special school to learn trades tailored to
Lila’s cast is removed and her arm is fully recovered. Lila begins young women represents both her staunch personality and her
going to a specialized school to learn stenography and home ongoing despair at being barred from attending real school. Lila is
economics, but she starts skipping classes frequently. Lila is not over the slight that has been done unto her—and she won’t be
stricken by a terrible flu—when Lenù sees her friend out on the anytime soon.
street for the first time in weeks, she is shocked by how
ghostlike Lila seems. In spite of her ghastly appearance, Lila
soon recovers, and Lenù is relieved. At the end of the year, Lila
fails out of her special school and does not return.

Lenù, too, does poorly in her first year in middle school. She is Lenù’s struggles in school make her long for Lila’s presence—with
grateful that Lila is not in class with her to witness her struggle Lila around, she never felt mediocre and always felt pushed to aspire
to keep up. Lenù and Gigliola commiserate about their to more. Here, though, in this strange new environment, Lenù is
difficulties with the lessons, but Lenù feels that her and uncertain about her future and her present capabilities alike.
Gigliola’s mediocrity has them mired in a “swamp.” Lenù feels
that without Lila, she will never be “the best.” Alfonso, the
young son of Don Achille, also attends Lenù’s middle school.
Lenù ignores him whenever she sees him, but she soon realizes
that he is among the smartest students in school. At the end of
the year, Lenù barely passes—her teacher suggests to her, at a
meeting with her mother, that she begin taking private lessons.
Lenù’s mother believes she should drop out, but her father
insists that since she has passed, she should continue.
Lenù spends much of the summer alone. Her distance from Lila When big changes happen in Lenù’s life, Lila is the only one she
depresses her. One afternoon, upon waking up from a nap, wants to tell. Lila, however, perceives any experience that Lenù has
Lenù discovers that her underpants are stained with blood. without her as a direct slight or even an attack. Lila expresses
Terrified, she runs out to the courtyard to find Lila. She tries to disgust rather than empathy for what Lenù is going through, and
confide in Lila about what’s happened, but Carmela, who is with she tries to make her own situation seem enviable by comparison.
Lila as she always is lately, insists on listening in. Carmela
reassures Lenù that what’s happening to her is normal and will
recur each month along with some minor aches. Lenù is
relieved, but Lila, who doesn’t have her period yet, meanly
declares that “anyone who has it makes [her] sick.” She turns to
leave, but before walking away, tells Lenù that she failed school
on purpose so that she can do “whatever [she] want[s]” from
now on.
Lila stops socializing with both Lenù and Carmela. Lenù spends Lenù doesn’t like the idea of sharing Lila with anyone—she wants to
a lot of time with Carmela, though she doesn’t like her very believe their friendship is special. As a result, when she sees Carmela
much. Lenù notices that Carmela has tried to absorb and emulating Lila, she feels as if her relationship with Lila is cheapened
replicate Lila’s gestures and cadences, a fact with “repulse[s]” by Carmela’s desire to be so close to the magnetic Lila. Lenù feels
Lenù. Carmela is intensely dramatic and often tells stories of lonely, overwhelmed by the changes happening around her, and
how a mysterious creature, rather than her father, killed Don annoyed by the undesirable friendships that are available to her in
Achille. Carmela confides in Lenù that she is in love with lieu of Lila.
Alfonso, Don Achille’s son. After Carmela tells Lenù this great
secret, Lenù feels slightly more attached to her. When school
starts again in the fall, however, Lenù feels she has no time to
listen to Carmela’s wild passions and fanciful tales.

Lenù’s body begins changing. She grows plump, develops Lenù fears that her changing body signals she will one day wind up
breasts and acne, and sprouts hair between her legs and exactly like her mother. Throughout the novel, Lenù’s fears of
beneath her arms. She begins feeling sad and anxious all the adopting her mother’s physical traits externalize her deeper fears of
time, and her struggles to keep up in school continue. When falling victim to her mother’s social and economic
looking in the mirror, she feels she cannot recognize herself circumstances—Lenù doesn’t know how to voice it yet, but she
and she fears changing even more—she doesn’t want to doesn’t want to be relegated to life as a wife and mother in an
develop and limp and wandering eye like her mother. impoverished neighborhood.

One afternoon, Gino, the pharmacist’s son, follows Lenù home Lenù’s first experience with male sexual attention takes her by
from school and tells her that his classmates have accused Lenù surprise—but rather than become overwhelmed or frightened, she
of stuffing her shirt with cotton. He says that he’s made a bet channels Lila in order to maintain control of the situation. This
her breasts are real, and promises to give her 10 lire, half of the passage shows how Lenù’s close friendship with Lila has
winnings, if she can prove she doesn’t stuff. Thinking of what emboldened her to be stronger—even though they are on the outs
Lila would do, Lenù brazenly demands Gino hand the money right now, Lenù still turns to Lila as she makes decisions about her
over first. Gino scampers off and brings back another boy who day-to-day life.
has bet against him. Again, Lenù demands the money. Gino
gives it to her. She takes the boys to the top floor of an empty
building and lifts her shirt to show them her breasts. The boys,
stunned, run away. Lenù is pleased with how well she was able
to mimic Lila in a moment of crisis—yet she fears she’s being
like Carmela in her desire to emulate Lila.

Lila’s brother Rino tries to get her to reenroll in the specialized In this brief chapter, it becomes clear that Lila has decided to
school, but Lila again refuses to go. She begins spending her change tack and act as if she is wholly devoted to the work that’s
time helping Nunzia around the house and working in being thrust upon her. She does so in hopes of inspiring jealousy in
Fernando’s shoemaking shop. When Lenù and Lila see each Lenù—and her plan works. Lenù begins to doubt her own choices in
other, Lila doesn’t ask about school and instead talks at length life and reconsider everything she knows about her friendships,
about how much “admiration” she has for her father and interests, and pursuits outside of Lila—evidence of how such
brother’s work in the shop, drawing Lenù into the story of her absorbing female friendships as Lila and Lenù’s often have the
family’s work. Lenù begins to feel that school is “pointless,” and power to dictate the course of one’s life.
she envies Lila’s “magical” world of work. When Lenù spends
time with Carmela, she finds herself talking about shoes with
Lila’s same passion—she is “embarrass[ed]” by her behavior and
saddened to realize that she does not have any real interests of
her own.

Lenù starts to feel that only the things Lila does have any Lenù continues to feel hurt each time she realizes that Lila is going
importance. One Sunday, Lenù sees Lila duck into the about life without her—and she is especially wounded when she
elementary school building, and she sneakily follows her inside. realizes that Lila has been going on reading without inviting Lenù to
The only open door in the building is the door to the library, join her. Writing and literature are, again, major centers of
which is run by Maestro Ferraro, but Lila is not in the room. connection for Lila and Lenù.
Lenù wonders why Lila keeps abandoning her—and why Lila is
taking out books without sharing them with her.
Lenù continues developing. Her mother takes her to buy a bra, This passage shows how, in even an early experience with sex and
but her breasts are still noticeable to her male classmates, who romance, Lila encourages Lenù to think about a relationship with a
“besiege” her and ask to see her breasts, having heard about man as a transaction and consider what she can get out of it before
what Lenù did for Gino. Lenù begins staying inside and studying accepting to a man’s terms. Lila and Lenù will go on to treat most of
hard during every spare moment. One morning in May, while their future romantic relationships like trades or transactions, often
Lenù is on her way to school, Gino asks her to be his girlfriend. sacrificing certain elements of happiness for having other needs
She rejects him, feeling angry and embarrassed—yet she is met.
proud to have been wanted. When news of Lenù’s rejection of
Gino reaches Lila, Lila asks why Lenù would turn him
down—Lila suggests Lenù tell Gino she’ll be his girlfriend if he’ll
buy ice cream for Lenù, Lila, and Carmela all summer. Lenù
takes this proposition to Gino, who refuses her out of hand.

Lenù believes that Lila’s sharp, witty advice marks a new Lenù wants Lila to be all hers—she doesn’t want to have to share her
chapter in their friendship, one in which they can talk about friends with the other neighborhood girls. Lenù continues hoping
grown-up things like love and boys—but instead, Lenù finds that she and Lila will experience a revival of their friendship even as
that because Carmela has told all of their friends about Lila’s she fears that others might take Lila away from her.
advice, Lila has become more popular with the girls of the
neighborhood than ever. She has several new friends who seek
her advice—every time Lenù sees Lila out with these girls,
dispensing relationship advice, she “suffer[s]” inside.

At the end of the school year, Lenù does poorly on her Latin Lenù is desperate to stay in school—she knows that dropping or
exam and is told she’ll need to retake the test. Her father failing out will resign her to a life like her mother’s, and she will do
becomes angry with her and suggests it’s pointless for her to anything to avoid that fate.
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.
One morning, while Lenù is studying, Lila calls her out to the In this passage, Lila admits that she feels Lenù is the only one of her
courtyard. Lenù goes out to meet Lila and talk with her, friends or former classmates who “answers” the questions she has
reluctantly admitting that she is studying to retake the exam. and the topics she wants to discuss adequately. This makes Lenù
As the two gossip about school, Carmela and Alfonso, and the feel proud—because language has been a point of connection
things Carmela has told Lenù about Don Achille’s murder, Lila between the two of them for so long, she feels proud and gratified to
is pained to realize that Carmela believes everything she realize that she is the only person Lila really enjoys talking to.
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.
The girls continue to stroll and gossip, and Lenù feels joyous. At As Lila and Lenù reconnect, their friendship circles back—as it
one point, Lila asks Lenù if the two are still friends. Lenù always does—to writing, reading, and studying. Lila knows that Lenù
answers that they are. Lila asks if Lenù will do her a favor. Lenù needs help, and because she herself misses school so much, she
says yes, privately thinking that she would do absolutely decides that the two of them could mutually benefit from an
anything for Lila. Lila asks if Lenù will meet her once a day in the arrangement in which they study together.
public gardens and bring the Latin schoolbooks along. Lila
wants to study with Lenù as Lenù prepares to retake the exam.


Lila and Lenù’s middle school years are a time of great but As Lenù describes the changes that take place in her neighborhood
gradual change. The Bar Solara expands and becomes a pastry as she and Lila themselves undergo the changes of adolescence, it
shop where Gigliola Spagnuolo’s father, a baker, makes the seems as if there is hope for change in the neighborhood in terms of
pastries. Marcello and Michele, the sons of Silvio Solara, buy a both its physical layout and its social atmosphere. Going forward,
fancy new car—a Fiat 1100. Alfredo Peluso’s old shop is now a Ferrante will show how these changes influence the girls’ lives and
grocery run by the Carraccis. Don Achille’s death has removed decisions.
the “shadow” of fear from the whole Carracci family, and their
business is booming. Enzo runs his parents’ fruit and vegetable
stand. New businesses open and old businesses join forces,
and renovations and beautification projects are under way.
Lenù observes that everything and everyone in the
neighborhood is trying “to show a new face.”
Lenù and Lila continue studying Latin together, and Lenù is Though Lenù is the one who has stayed in school, this passage
surprised to realize that Lila already knows a great deal about makes it clear that Lila has not given up on her education. She is as
the language. Lila reveals that she has been taking Latin intrepid and determined as ever, and she has even surpassed Lenù
grammar books out of the library for a long time; she has four in some of Lenù’s own coursework.
library cards, one in the name of each member of her family, so
that she can take out multiple books each week. Lila assigns
Lenù translation homework and helps her come up with more
intuitive ways to translate complicated sentences in Latin. Lenù
finds that Lila’s tips help her greatly.
In September, Lenù passes the exam with barely a single This passage makes clear the fact that Lila no longer care about
mistake. After getting her grade, Lenù hurries to the gardens to tangible measurements of success. She wants to learn and
meet Lila. When she tells Lila of her success and asks if they can “understand” the things Lenù is learning not out of a desire to best
study together the rest of the year, Lila is dismissive; “I’ve her friend in academics, but simply to share in the world of
understood, that’s enough,” she says, and tells Lenù that she has academia with Lenù.
something more pressing to work on with Rino.

Lenù continues to succeed in school over the course of the This passage shows how fraught every interaction is as Lenù grows
year, and she continues filling out as well. One day, she attracts older and begins attracting the attention of boys and young men.
the attention of Marcello and Michele Solara, who try to take Lenù knows that how she responds to advances from young
her for a ride in their 1100. Lenù refuses and heads to the men—especially powerful ones like the Solaras—will have a bearing
gardens to meet Gigliola—she knows if she were to ever get in not just on her own future reputation, but on how her family
the Solaras’ car and if her father were to find out, her little members conduct themselves in the years to come. Lenù and Lila
brothers would feel obliged to kill the Solaras once they were try to prepare themselves to fend off such advances—while also
grown up. One day, the Solaras succeed in dragging an older recognizing that offending their suitors could lead to serious social
girl, Ada Cappuccio, into their car. When Ada’s brother, strife and a new outbreak of retributive violence.
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.

One day, Lila confides in Lenù that she and Rino are working on This passage represents a significant turn in Lila’s fate. Lila decides
a plan: they want to persuade Fernando to make a fancy line of to shift her attentions away from academics and instead focus on
shoes that will sell well in the center of town, on the Rettifilo in revitalizing her father’s business. Shoes will, over the course of the
Naples. Their father, however, believes in quality over novel, come to symbolize the sacrifices Lila makes as she seeks to
appearance and in handmade shoes over factory-made ones. advance her social and economic position. In turning her attention
Lila and Rino are nonetheless determined to show their father to shoes, she’s already giving up her study sessions with Lila and her
the way of the future. One day, Lila shows Lenù some aspirations of becoming a novelist.
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.
Lila points out that the Solaras run the neighborhood because Though Lila is young, she already has a deep understanding of the
they have money. They only mess with poor girls, she points cycles of violence, cruelty, and wealth that run her
out; as a result, she suggests, the only way to protect oneself neighborhood—and she is determined to stand up to them, no
from the Solaras and others like them is to make money. Lila matter the cost.
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.

At the end of middle school, Lenù passes her exams with the This passage shows that in spite of Lenù’s belief that doing well in
best grades in the entire school—even better than Alfonso. Her school will open up new avenues for her, her academic successes
father praises her greatly, and even her mother congratulates actually mean little to those around her. “Love and boyfriends” are
Lenù by letting her wear one of her nice silver bracelets out one the currency of the neighborhood—and Ferrante will go on to show
day. In the courtyard, however, no one is impressed by Lenù’s how Lenù and Lila respectively adapt to that fact.
grades or her bracelet—the only thing that matters there, Lenù
says, are “love and boyfriends.” Lila isn’t particularly impressed
by Lenù’s grades, and Lenù knows that Lila is indignant because
if she had been allowed to continue in school, she would have
surpassed even Lenù with ease.
Lila’s indifference makes Lenù feel sad and pathetic. When The changes Lenù feels happening in her body reflect the changes in
Lenù’s parents begin talking about getting her a position in a her friend group’s concerns and ideals. Lenù is uncomfortable with
local shop, she feels even worse. As she looks at herself in the both—and resentful of always feeling one step behind.
mirror that evening, she is disgusted by how her body has
changed, how her hair has turned from blonde to brown, and
how her face has sprouted clouds of acne.

One Sunday, Lenù receives an invitation in the mail from As Lenù attends the ceremony at the library, it becomes clear to her
Maestro Ferraro summoning her to the library. When she just how devoted Lila still is to educating herself. Lila has gamed the
arrives, she sees that a small crowd has gathered—the principal system which allows residents of the neighborhood to take out just
and Maestra Oliviero are among the families and students. one book at a time—as a result, she is the biggest borrower from the
Lenù learns that Ferraro has had an idea for a ceremony to library (and, Lenù realizes, likely even more well-read than she
honor those who borrow the most frequently from the library. herself is.)
The winners of the ceremony are called out: Rafaella Cerullo,
Fernando Cerullo, Nunzia Cerullo, Rino Cerullo, and, in fifth,
Elena Greco—Lenù herself. Lenù receives a book as a prize. She
offers to take the Cerullos’ books with her to give to them
herself, as none of them are in attendance.
Pasquale Peluso, Carmela’s older brother, is also in attendance. In this passage, Ferrante shows how Maestra Oliviero remains an
He jokes with Lenù about the Cerullo family’s devoted reading important presence in Lenù’s life—and an important force in the
habits and asks to come along with her as she delivers the continuation of her education. Maestra Oliviero is invested in
prizes. Lenù is flattered by the attention. When Maestra making sure that Lenù chases down the opportunities available to
Oliviero calls Lenù over, she chats with her old teacher. her and doesn’t become sidetracked by young men who will keep
Maestra Oliviero asks what Lenù is doing now that middle her from her dreams.
school is over. When Lenù says she is going to work, Maestra
Oliviero tells Lenù that she must go on studying instead, and
she even volunteers to speak to the Grecos herself. Lenù
thanks her teacher, but as she starts to walk away, Maestra
Oliviero warns Lenù not to “waste” her time with Pasquale, who
is a construction worker and a Communist whose father was
responsible for the murder of Don Achille. However, this only
makes Lenù more excited about Pasquale.
Lenù rejoins Pasquale and walks with him down the street. This passage shows that Lenù is investigating her romantic
They make a plan to visit Lila at Fernando’s shop the next day prospects—as drawn as she is to Pasquale, she knows there is
and bring her all the books she won. Pasquale also asks if Lenù something to be said for Maestra Oliviero’s prediction that settling
would like to come to Gigliola’s house for a little dance the down with the wrong boy could sideline her dreams. Still, Lenù is
following Sunday—he suggests she bring Lila along. Lenù asks grateful for the attention—and seemingly willing to risk everything
Pasquale if he’ll always be a construction worker; he tells her he for more of it.
will. She asks if Pasquale is a Communist; he tells her he is. She
asks if he visits his father in prison; he says he goes every
chance he gets. Lenù bids Pasquale goodbye.

That same afternoon, Maestra Oliviero shows up at the Greco Maestra Oliviero continues to show that she is invested in the
house and forces Lenù’s parents to promise they will enroll her continuation of Lenù’s education. In urging Lenù to tell the
in the nearest classical high school—she even offers to buy hotheaded, jealous Lila about her plans, Maestra Oliviero hopes to
Lenù’s books herself. She also tells them that Lenù has been make Lila jealous and contemptuous enough to pursue an
seen with Pasquale Peluso, and they reprimand Lenù. Before education even in the face of her parents’ resistance.
leaving, Maestra Oliviero urges Lenù to tell Lila that she is
going to high school to study Greek.

That evening, shouts from the stairwell interrupt Lenù’s Lenù has been having doubts about the value of education and
arguments with her parents over school and Pasquale. They about her own ability to surpass Lila as a reader and writer.
open the door to find that Melina is having “a new crisis of However, upon realizing that someone she knows has written and
madness.” Her daughter Ada is shouting for her to stop jumping published a book, she begins to believe that there is hope for her as
on the bed. Lenù’s mother goes out to find out more details and a writer—and thus hope for the childhood dreams she and Lila used
comes home reporting that someone has delivered to Melina a to share.
book of poems written by Donato Sarratore—he has inscribed
the book for her and pointed out the poems she inspired.
Melina’s impassioned shrieks of joy continue all night. Lenù is
amazed by the fact that someone from her neighborhood,
someone she knows, has written and published a book. She
feels a renewed sense of possibility about getting rich through
writing.

The next day, Lenù goes to meet up with Pasquale against her Lenù was bolstered by Pasquale’s attention the other day—now,
parents’ wishes. She tells him about the drama with Melina and though, as she sees him and Lila in the same room together, she
Donato, embellishing their “tragic love” and Donato’s poetic realizes that Pasquale has simply been using her to get closer to Lila,
gifts. Lenù soon realizes that Pasquale is not very invested in who is the true object of his affection. This inspires a new kind of
the conversation. He begins to ask her questions about Lila, competitiveness in Lenù: she realizes that just as Pasquale has used
which she is all too happy to answer. As they arrive at the shop her, there is room for her and Lila to use male attention as a
and begin talking and joking with Rino and Lila about the many measure of a new kind of success.
books Lila has won, Lenù notices that Pasquale is stealing many
furtive but intense looks at Lila. When Rino and Pasquale step
outside to talk, Lenù tries to figure out what has changed in her
friend to make her attractive to Pasquale—Lila hasn’t gotten
her period or grown breasts, yet something is different.
Lila takes Lenù to the back and pulls Donato’s book, Attempts at As Lenù, rapt, listens to Lila’s take on the situation between Melina
Serenity, from a shelf. Lila reveals that Antonio brought it over and Donato, she finds herself feeling intensely jealous of her friend
to get it out of his mother’s hands. Lila says that Donato is a on several levels. In one sense, Lila and Lenù are closer than they’ve
scoundrel for sending the book—now, she says, Melina expects ever been—in another, there are deeper divisions opening up
him to come back to the neighborhood, and when he doesn’t, between them than they’ve ever had to reckon with.
she’ll just continue suffering. Lenù is amazed by Lila’s ability to
“intensif[y] reality as she reduce[s] it to words.” Lenù hopes that
she herself has the same ability. She feels completely in awe of
Lila, and she tries not to be too distracted by the realization
that it’s Lila, not herself, in whom Pasquale is interested.

Pasquale and Rino return to the shop. Pasquale says he has to Lenù is disheartened once again as she realizes that Pasquale is
get back to work at the construction site, but he invites Rino truly only interested in Lila—and that Lila is perhaps truly only
and Lila to Gigliola’s on Sunday before he goes. Rino says they’ll interested in the work she and Rino are doing together. Lenù feels
think about it. Pasquale looks longingly at Lila, who is not alone, isolated, and unwanted.
paying any attention to him. Lenù begins to feel irritated. She
tries to distract herself by talking some more with Lila about
the Melina and Donato situation, but Rino reminds Lila that
they must get back to work.

Rino pulls from beneath the counter a wooden form, several As Lila and Rino tell Lenù about their shoemaking project, Lenù
pieces of leather, and some tools. Lila tells Lenù that they are at finds herself flattened and saddened by how low Lila has aimed her
work making a man’s traveling shoe, only able to make progress sights. Lenù, like Maestra Oliviero, believes that Lila should be
for a few minutes each day while their father is upstairs putting her mind to use—not sacrificing her future in pursuit of some
napping. Rino makes Lenù swear she won’t tell anyone what the vague sense of security.
two of them are up to. Any attempts to bring up the idea of
making new fancy shoes rather than just fixing up old ones
sends Fernando into a rage. Lenù feels happy that Rino and Lila
have a project, but she is disheartened by the fact that Lila is so
enchanted by such a simple pursuit.
At the door of the shop, Lenù tells Lila that Maestra Oliviero In this passage, Ferrante shows how, when Lila and Lenù feel
has convinced her parents to let her continue on to high school. threatened, they seek to one-up each other. When Lenù tells Lila
Lila, in response, asks: “What is high school?” Lenù explains that about her plans for high school, Lila pretends not to know what high
she is going to study Greek. Lila looks as if she is “at a loss.” She school even is—and then she offers Lenù a new piece of information
hesitates a moment before declaring that last week, she got her about her own personal advancement.
period.

Lenù, mystified and vaguely threatened by the change in Lila—a Lenù is continually realizing that there are new arenas in which she
change she didn’t sense, but should have—tries to start taking and Lila can compete—and as she tries to better herself, she always
better care of herself and making herself prettier. She begins compares herself to Lila.
taking secret pleasure in seeing Lila around the neighborhood
looking skinny, bedraggled, and disheveled as ever.
One afternoon, as Lila and Lenù walk through the In this scene, Lila makes good on her threat to hurt the Solaras if
neighborhood talking about high school, the Solaras pull up they should try to mess with Lenù. This moment represents the
beside them. Marcello begins to joke with the girls, trying to beginning of a toxic and difficult dynamic between Lila and
cajole them into the car. Lila ignores them, but Lenù politely Marcello—one which Lila doesn’t yet realize will come to steer her
apologizes and says they can’t join the boys. Marcello life in unforeseeable ways. Lila is trying to signal to the Solaras that
compliments Lenù’s bracelet and reaches out, from the moving they don’t control the neighborhood in the ways they think they
car window, to grab her arm. As she pulls away, the bracelet do—a move that will likely only embolden them to try to expand
breaks. Lenù is upset. Marcello opens the door and gets out of that control.
the car, trying to comfort Lenù by touching her arm again. Lila
pushes Marcello against the car and holds her knife against his
throat.
Marcello tells his brother Michele that Lila doesn’t have the Though Lila tries to scare Marcello off, it is clear from the end of this
“guts” to hurt him. Lila offers the boys to push her further and scene that he is drawn to her. She is the only one in the
find out if she does or not. Lenù begins to cry. Michele tells neighborhood who stands up to him and his brother—and her
Marcello to apologize and get back into the car. Lila removes irreverence is new and exciting to him.
the knife from Marcello’s throat. He stoops to pick up Lenù’s
bracelet. He hands it back to Lenù—but he only offers an
apology to Lila.


One morning, Lenù’s father takes her on the route she’ll have to Lenù is entranced by her first real visit to Naples—she sees the city
travel to commute out of the neighborhood to her new high as a place of possibility, openness, and civility. Realizing that there
school. Lenù feels full of love for her father and excitement are such places outside of her neighborhood makes her even more
about the fading boundaries of the neighborhood—she is determined to do whatever it takes to make her way out one day.
thrilled to be in the city. Her father excitedly shows her off
around town, bragging to everyone about her good grades and
bright future. As her father shows her around Naples, Lenù
begins to wonder if her neighborhood is the only one plagued
by violence and ugliness.
Toward the end of the day, Lenù’s father takes her down to the The experiences Lenù has in life aren’t as full without Lila—yet in
sea to glimpse Mount Vesuvius. Standing near the ocean with this passage, she realizes that the more experiences she has on her
her father, Lenù wishes that Lila were with them. Returning to own, the further apart she and Lila will drift. Lila can attempt to
the neighborhood that evening feels strange to Lenù, but she is imagine the things Lenù is going through, but there will always be a
nonetheless excited to tell Lila all about her excursion. Lila fundamental gap between their experiences of the world. Lila tries
listens “without curiosity,” and Lenù is offended, but soon she to remind Lenù of experiences they can have together, which shows
realizes that Lila is trying to focus on making the images of the that she is still invested in making sure they have common ground.
bustling city and the beautiful ocean come alive in her
mind—and failing to do so, since she knows nothing of the
world beyond the neighborhood. Lila responds to Lenù’s story
by stating that they need to accept Pasquale’s invitation for
Sunday.
Over the summer, Lila begins going to more and more little Lila begins outshining Lenù socially—and, as she reveals that she
dance parties at the Pelusos’. Lenù is shocked by Lila’s has knowledge of Greek, she haughtily shows that she has the
newfound interest in dancing, but soon, in accompanying her, power to outshine her intellectually, too, even though she is no
finds that she likes to dance herself. At one party, while dancing, longer in school.
Lenù discusses listening to music on a gramophone with Rino.
Lila approaches them and tells Lenù that “gramophone” is a
Greek word.

Lenù is frustrated: Lila has clearly begun to study Greek on her Once again, Lenù finds herself needing to rely on Lila’s help and
own before Lenù herself has even gotten to high school. Lenù is guidance in order to prepare for school. Lenù is grateful for Lila but
upset that Lila will always do the things she herself is supposed resentful of the idea that even when Lila isn’t in school, the things
to do “before and better.” Lenù tries to go get a copy of a Greek Lenù is learning (or preparing to learn) in her classes come so
grammar book from the library—but she finds that the Cerullos naturally to the brilliant Lila.
have it checked out. Lenù goes to Lila and begs Lila to teach her
some Greek before the start of school. Lila happily obliges, but
Lenù’s sense of inadequacy does not abate even as she learns
more and more from her friend.
Lenù continues to feel inadequate during the dances at the Lenù continues to be hammered by instance after instance in which
Pelusos’ too. As she watches Lila whirl around the room with she is reminded that she and Lila will always be in competition with
Rino, she realizes that Lila has begun to change. She has a new each other—she is full of envy and awe.
“feminine figure” and a decidedly womanlike energy. Lenù
realizes, very suddenly, that every boy in the room is watching
rapturously as Lila dances with her brother.


Over the summer, Lila is not the only one who is As everyone’s dreams become bigger, they seek to expand their
changing—Rino, too, is becoming more confident and more social lives and their experiences of the world by venturing beyond
outspoken. He boasts about becoming richer than the Solaras, the confines of the neighborhood. Lila and Lenù are not the only
but he reels himself in around Lila. One evening, Rino, Pasquale, ones who aspire to more—their friends, too, want to expand the
and Antonio take Lila and Lenù out into the city. Lila is clearly boundaries of their insular existences.
excited to be in Naples, and she spends a lot of time observing
every person, every shop, and every small scene she
encounters.
At a pizzeria, Antonio flirts with Lenù, and Pasquale flirts with Pasquale feels bound to defend Lenù’s honor. He uses violence to try
Lila. At one point in the night, Rino says he believes that the to protect her—and, as he does, he makes clear that the violence
pizza maker is making eyes at Lila. Pasquale becomes enraged. that defines their neighborhood is not confined to it. Lenù believed
He walks behind the counter and begins assaulting the pizza for so long that in escaping her neighborhood she could escape its
maker. After leaving the restaurant, Lenù feels that the people violence—now, she knows that even if she makes it out, she will
are less glamorous, the glittering lights less inviting, and the always have to contend with the effects of male violence.
streets less exciting. She is disheartened to realize that things
are the same everywhere else as they are in her neighborhood.
Over the course of the summer, Lila continues attracting Even an innocent compliment made by a family man draws the
attention from men. One day toward the end of August, while desire for violence and retribution out of the men who orbit Lila and
out with in a group, Lenù, Carmela, Pasquale, Rino, and Antonio Lenù—they feel they are duty-bound to assert their ownership of her
notice a man staring at Lila. He comes over to their table and and her destiny.
explains that he was just telling his wife and sons that Lila will
grow up to be as beautiful as “a Botticelli Venus.” Lila begins
laughing, but Rino grabs the man by the collar, drags him back
to his wife and children, and screams at them all.
At a party for Gigliola’s name day, a religious celebration tied to Lila’s love of dancing is innocent and fun—but at this party for
the festivals of the saints, all of Lila and Lenù’s friends from the Gigliola, the arrival of the Solaras portends conflict and perhaps
neighborhood are present. There is lots of dancing, both to even violence. No space is safe from the entrenched, retributive
traditional music and rock and roll songs. Enzo pulls Lila onto male violence that runs Lila and Lenù’s neighborhood.
the dance floor, and she is so excited to dance that she barely
seems to notice her partner as he moves. Lenù notices that
Stefano, who once threatened to prick Lila’s tongue, stares at
Lila as if she is a “movie star.” While she’s still dancing, the
Solaras arrive. They, too, are captivated by Lila.

As the music continues, Lila dances with Pasquale. The Solaras Lila, so caught up in dancing that she doesn’t even realize whom
taunt Stefano for letting Lila dance with a lowly construction she’s partnered with, finds herself unwittingly arousing Marcello’s
worker. Lenù gets nervous, sensing the possibility of a brawl. interest yet again. The Solaras use their ironclad influence over
Michele continues trying to stir up trouble while Marcello everyone in the neighborhood to seize control of the party and
heads for the dance floor to steal a dance with Lila. Lenù’s eliminate all other potential romantic competition—Marcello clearly
anxiety increases, and she is shocked when Lila grabs has his sights laser-focused on Lila.
Marcello’s hand and begins dancing with him. Pasquale,
offended, goes to whisper to Michele, who himself is
whispering to Stefano. The music stops and Lenù tries to pull a
reluctant Lila off the dance floor. Lila insists on dancing with
Marcello. As Lenù senses tensions in the room continuing to
mount, she begs Lila to leave with her. Lila at last agrees. When
Marcello stops her and begs her for another dance, she looks at
him strangely, as if she didn’t even realize who she was dancing
with all along.
Outside, Lila and Lenù find Pasquale raving to Antonio, This passage shoes just how sheltered and isolated Lila and Lenù’s
Carmela, Ada, and anyone else who will listen. He rails against neighborhood truly is. Lila knows nothing of her country’s dark
the Solaras and their establishment, a place for “loan sharks history or the mechanisms of crime, power, and control which fuel
from the Camorra.” He accuses Don Achille of being a “Nazi every aspect of life in the neighborhood and in the world more
Fascist” and claims Stefano runs the grocery using money from broadly. Lila wants to learn more about her country and her place in
the black market. He shouts that his father was “right” to kill it.
Don Achille and threatens to kill Stefano and the Solaras
himself. When he rounds on Lila, Antonio defends her. Enzo
tries to urge everyone to go home. Lenù, Lila, and the other
girls burst into tears. At last, at the sight of Lila crying, Pasquale
agrees to go home. As they walk down the street together, Lila
asks Pasquale what Nazi Fascists are and what the black
market is.

Lila is “moved and altered” by Pasquale’s explanations of the Lila’s social and political awakening marks a new chapter in her
darker systems which move society. Lila becomes obsessed life—she has long harbored a desire to stand up to injustice and
with naming people in the neighborhood who were rumored to imbalances of power, but now she has a greater understanding of
be Fascists during the war, with calling out whose cars and how these systems might be singled out or even dismantled.
homes have been purchased with dirty money, and with the
shadowy presence of the Camorra.
Though Lila credits Pasquale with teaching her all these things Lila has always taken her education into her own hands—and now,
about the world, she soon becomes uninterested in him. She she does what she has always done and focuses on teaching herself
begins devouring library books about World War II, the Allies, the things she wants to know. Lenù feels removed from Lila during
and Italian history. She tries to figure out who in the this period, showing that just as books, language, literature, and
neighborhood is a Communist, who is a Camorrist, and who is a knowledge are often a point of connection for the two of them, such
fascist. Lenù feels that this newfound knowledge “enclose[s]” things are just as often a source of division and difference.
her in the terribleness of the world, with no escape. Soon, Lenù
observes, it is Pasquale who hangs on Lila’s every word. Lenù
believes that the two of them will get married and will “always
be talking about these political things.” As school starts, Lenù is
sad to have less time for Lila—but she’s relieved to not have to
think about “the sum of the misdeeds and compliances and
cowardly acts” for which her neighbors are responsible.


Lenù has a hard time in high school. Her class is large at 42 Even though Lenù’s new life in high school affords her time away
students, and it’s one of the rare mixed-gender classes. Lenù from the neighborhood and chances to expand herself socially and
studies hard, makes few new friends, and answers Lila’s daily intellectually, she remains tied up in competition with Lila.
probing questions about what Lenù and her classmates are
working on in their lessons. Lenù has noticed Lila continuing to
change as the months go by. Lenù sees that Lila and Pasquale
are spending more time together and becomes
determined—desperate, even—to find a boyfriend of her own.
One day, Lenù notices a new student at school. He is handsome In this passage, Lenù finally discovers something that she wants to
and yet there is something familiar about him. As Lenù keep separate from Lila. She has been sharing knowledge and stories
observes him, she realizes the young man is Nino Sarratore. with Lila each day—but Lenù feels the information about Nino is too
Nino, however, does not appear to recognize Lenù. On the way delicate and precious to share. Lenù clearly feels threatened by Lila
home that day, Lenù wants to tell Lila about Nino’s presence at even as she tries desperately to stay close to her by sharing parts of
school, but decides not to—she’s afraid that if Lila goes to her new life with Lila.
school to try and glimpse Nino, Nino will fall in love with her.
In spite of some academic setbacks at the beginning of the year, Lenù begins succeeding greatly—but she can’t take credit for her
Lenù soon begins to excel in school. She draws the attention successes on her own. She feels that without Lila, she would not be
and praise of her teacher, Maestro Gerace. Lenù attributes her the star pupil that she is—she attributes her every achievement to
success in Greek to her studies with Lila. Lenù’s Lila’s influence, and, to some degree, she is right.
classmates—even the ones who have known her since
childhood, like Alfonso and Gino—begin calling her Greco or
Elena out of respect. Gino once again asks Lenù to be his
girlfriend, and this time Lenù accepts him.
During Christmas vacation, while catching up with Lila, Lenù Lila, driven by a desire not to be left behind by Lenù, continues
learns that Lila has been teaching herself in her spare time not pursuing knowledge and learning even more fervently than ever
just Greek but also English. Lenù is taken aback—she herself before. She doesn’t want to become less valuable to Lenù, and she
knows nothing of English. Lila excitedly talks to Lenù about the wants to remind Lenù that even though she’s not in school, she still
books she’s reading—she has read the Aeneid in just days while has the capacity to expand her worldview on her own.
Lenù has taken months to get through it. Lenù distracts Lila
from talking about school and literature by telling her about
Gino. Lila taunts Lenù for having “given in” to love. Lila begins
talking about Melina and the hardships the poor woman is
facing—Melina has become more erratic than ever, all because
of her love for Donato.

Lenù decides to tell Lila about Nino and Lila urges Lenù to tell Lila and Lenù’s relationship reaches new levels of closeness as the
Nino what’s happening with Melina so that he will tell his girls bond over new developments in their separate lives. They have
father. Lila declares that she will never fall in love no matter clearly missed each other—and yet the events of this passage give
how many men fall in love with her. Lenù asks if Marcello is still each of them hope that they can continue to grow closer even as
“after” Lila. Lila admits that he—and many other boys—are certain parts of their lives diverge. Lila’s contempt for male
indeed pursuing her, but she insists that things with Pasquale attention—and her ongoing hatred of the Solaras—speaks to her
are simply platonic; he is still educating her about the world growing anger over the deep-seated imbalances in justice and
“before” their generation. Lila is incredulous and outraged over power that make life for her, Lenù, and all the women of their
how their parents’ generation attempts to willfully forget neighborhood more difficult.
“before” and kowtow to men like the Solaras. Enchanted by
Lila’s new knowledge, Lenù hangs on her every word. The two
spend Christmas vacation together talking for hours every day
about matters large and small.

Between Lenù’s renewed friendship with Lila, her success in Lenù struggles with her feelings of superiority toward Lila, even as
school, and her relationship with Gino, Lenù begins to feel their friendship reaches new peaks of closeness and security. Lenù
strong and confident. She notices that when Lila talks to her feels uncomfortable being the one who is ahead in terms of tangible
about Greek and literature, Lila seems to be trying to prove success—she feels as if Lila is scrambling to keep up with her for the
herself to Lenù and demonstrate that she is still Lenù’s “equal,” first time. Lenù feels almost guilty about her success and how it has
a dynamic which also makes Lenù feel superior. Lila and Rino motivated Lila not just to study on her own, but to throw herself so
show Lenù their continued work on their fancy shoes—though entirely into the shoe project, believing it will afford her the same
they are proud of their efforts, Lenù is confused by the opportunities that Lenù’s education is affording her.
frivolous shoes. Lenù often watches Lila and Rino work on their
model and test the leather against scratches and water—it is
clear to her, through Rino and Lila’s passion for their project,
that the shoes mean everything to them.

As New Year’s Eve approaches, Rino becomes determined to Rino’s motivations in launching a huge fireworks display are
set off the biggest fireworks display in the complicated—he wants to show his dominance over Marcello
neighborhood—bigger, even, than the Solaras’ yearly show. Lila Solara, who threatens his sister’s independence, but he also wants
confides in Lenù that she believes Rino has begun to count on to use the fireworks to signal to everyone, not just the Solaras, that
the idea of making money from the shoes “too heavily.” Lila the Cerullos are moving up in the neighborhood. Lila worries about
notices that an aggressive, braggadocious side of Rino's Rino contributing to the cycles of violence and shows of dominance
personality has begun to emerge. Lila blames herself for that already rule their neighborhood.
planting a "fantasy" in her brother's head, but Lenù points out
that Rino is probably trying to make a show of strength
because Marcello has been hanging around the shop lately.
Fireworks have long been tied to displays of wealth in the Fireworks are a symbol of Rino’s desire for social mobility—but they
neighborhood—the wealthiest families can afford to set off are also a symbol of the entrenched social rules of the neighborhood
grand shows, while families like Lenù and Lila’s usually just buy and those rules’ resistance to change.
some sparklers. Rino begins collecting money from neighbors
and friends to put toward his own display, caught up in a “frenzy
for grandeur”—but the Solaras continue amassing fireworks of
their own, and Lenù and Lila know that Rino will never catch
up.

After visiting the Carracci’s grocery store together one day, Lila and Lenù are anxious about Rino’s attempt to change the
Lenù and Lila are surprised when Stefano follows them out of neighborhood’s rules—or at least flout them—by setting off a grand
the store and invites Lenù to come celebrate New Year’s at his fireworks display. They believe his plan will never work. However,
family’s house—Alfonso, his younger brother and Lenù’s when they realize that Stefano is also trying to change things they
schoolmate, will be “pleased.” Lenù says that she is going to begin to wonder if there is really hope for a change in the status quo.
Lila’s, so Stefano invites Lila’s family as well. Lila retorts that the
Pelusos are coming over too, knowing that the son of Don
Achille will not invite the family of his father’s suspected
murderer. Stefano surprises them, however, by offering to host
the Pelusos happily. Lila tells Stefano she’ll talk to her brother
about it—if Stefano plans to supply a lot of fireworks.

Back at Lila’s, she and Lenù tell Rino about Stefano’s proposal. In this brief chapter, Lila and Lenù urge others to see that unlikely as
He doesn’t like the sound of it and refuses to go. One it may seem, there are people in the neighborhood who truly want
afternoon, Lila reports to Lenù that Stefano also wants to insult to end the cycles of violence, retribution, and cruelty that have
the Solaras by making peace with the Pelusos and gathering a defined relationships between families over the years. Soon, a
huge number of people together to put on a big fireworks tenuous hope has gripped several families—they believe that
display. Lila is amazed by the gesture, one that “no one would perhaps if they really do come together in good faith, change could
make here in the neighborhood.” The girls, moved by Stefano’s be possible.
desire for peace, go back to Rino and explain what’s happening.
They beg him to unite with the Carraccis and the Pelusos
against the Solaras. Soon, everyone is convinced that going to
the “hated home of Don Achille” to ring in the New Year as a
united front is the only thing to do.

On New Year’s Eve, Lila and Lenù, along with their families, Lenù believes that having an older boyfriend (rather than her
arrive at the Carracci home. Lenù has a bit of a crush on current boyfriend, Gino) will allow her to feel more mature and
Stefano, who is seven years older than her and Lila. She wants powerful. She continues to imagine how she can use male attention
an older boyfriend like Stefano, Pasquale, or Enzo. Lenù hopes to improve her own life, confidence, and circumstances.
to attract the attention of an older boy, but all night, all of the
young men are focused only on the fireworks and their “war of
men.”
At midnight, Lenù can hear the whizz of neighboring fireworks The fireworks displays, usually so joyous, quickly turn violent this
displays. Up on the roof, she helps the children present light year as the Solaras realize that a group of other families, led by Rino,
their sparklers while the boys haul up crate after crate of are attempting to outdo them (and thus symbolically unseat their
fireworks. Watching them prepare, Lenù feels her power in the neighborhood). It seems as if everyone’s collectives
neighborhood is on the verge of a “civil war.” As the fireworks hopes for an end to the cycle of violence and power-grabbing are
display starts in earnest, the Solaras, too, continue shooting off dashed.
bursts of explosives. The neighboring terraces light up again
and again, back and forth, as the warring groups of boys
become more careless with their rockets and accidentally—or
intentionally—begin launching them at one another’s roof
decks.

Lenù looks over at Lila, who is “absorbed by the spectacle” of In the moment, Lenù doesn’t understand what Lila is going through.
the fireworks. Later on in life, Lila will describe watching the By providing context from years in the future, however, Elena uses
boundaries of Rino’s outline break apart—for the first time, this moment to describe a major shift in Lila’s understanding of the
she’ll tell Elena years later, she was able to see “what he was world. Lila, so full of hope for her and her family’s ability to pull
truly made of.” At last, the Solaras’ display is done. Rino and the themselves up out of poverty and change their fates, points to this
others cheer, believing they’ve won—but then loud pops and horrific moment as one in which she became more aware than ever
flashes from the Solaras’ terrace makes them believe that the of the inescapable, crushing nature of male violence.
display is starting up again. Only Enzo recognizes the sounds
for what they are: gunshots. He rushes everyone inside as Rino,
undeterred, leans over the edge of the rooftop and shouts
insults at the Solaras.

Though Lenù was unaware of what was happening inside Lila’s Lila’s whole attitude about the possibility of change in the
head during the fireworks display on New Year’s, in the days neighborhood—or, in the absence of change, at least an escape—has
that follow, Lenù becomes aware of a pronounced change in changed. She is despondent and miserable, unable to imagine that
Lila as her friend becomes lazy and lethargic. When Lenù meets there will ever be a situation in which money benefits her life rather
her at the shop one day to help her open up, Lila arrives late than hampering or destroying it.
and unmotivated—when Lenù tries to cheer her up by asking
about the fancy shoes, Lila claims to no longer have interest in
them. Lenù suspects that to Lila, money is no longer a life
vest—it is “cement.”
Rino is eager to show the finished shoes to Fernando, but Lila Lila’s new sense of despondency extends to her and Rino’s venture
believes the shoes are full of flaws—she wants to throw them with the shoes—she believes there is no point in continuing on with
away and start over. Rino, however, is impatient. He and Lila them now that she has seen the true, terrible, unchangeable nature
begin fighting as their differing opinions drive a horrible wedge of the world. Rino, however, is determined to continue on the war
between them. The climax of their fight comes on January 5th, path—and as he does, he carelessly drags Lila into his conflict with
the day of the Befana—in Italian folklore, the Befana is an old their father.
woman who delivers gifts to children. In the morning, Lila
wakes up and finds a sock full of coal by her bed. She knows
Rino has left it for her. Lila goes out to the kitchen and sets the
breakfast table for everyone but Rino. When he arrives in the
kitchen, she hurls coal at him. The two fight, but they pause
their quarrel when Fernando enters the kitchen with a box
containing the shoes.
Fernando pretends to like the shoes, complimenting them and Lila responds to the outbreak of male violence in her house by
praising the “Befana” for her craftsmanship and thoughtfulness. retreating into herself, protecting her precious shoes from the men
Only Lila can hear the vitriol in her father’s voice. Soon, who do not understand their true significance. Lila is disappointed
Fernando begins kicking Rino and hurling insults at him. Rino in the turn things have taken and feels barred from the simple,
fights back until both men wear themselves out. When the men pleasant work of shoemaking—and from the possibility of making
go back to work together, they don’t talk to each other—and money from her hard work and advancing enough to escape her
Lila doesn’t join them in the shop. Rino begins acting cruelly terrible home environment.
toward Lila, berating her for doing a poor job of the housework
and frequently unleashing insults and cruelties at her. Lila lets
Rino’s insults roll off her back. She has hidden the shoes in her
room, and often takes them out to admire them when no one
else is looking, lamenting all her “wasted work.”


Lenù returns to school after Christmas break. Classes are hard, As Lenù confesses the loss of a partnership to Lila, Lila brags about
and many of her classmates drop out. Gino and Alfonso the offers she’s received. She has turned down both Pasquale and
struggle to keep up, and when Gino laughs at Alfonso for crying Marcello—for very different reasons—and seems to feel, in the
out of frustration during class, Lenù breaks up with him. When depths of her misery about the state of the neighborhood, that there
Lenù tells Lila about the breakup, Lila confesses she’s received is no point in having a relationship anyway.
two declarations of her own: one from Pasquale, who declared
his love for her in the street and begged her to marry him, and
one from Marcello Solara. Lila turned down Pasquale, thanking
him for teaching her so much about Italian history—the good
and the bad—but insisting she only loved him like a brother. Lila
responded to Marcello’s declaration (in which he told her he’d
dreamed of asking her to marry him and rejoicing as she
accepted) by retorting that only in a dream would she ever
consent to marry him.
Lenù is impressed by Lila’s impassioned refusal of the cruel Lila is playing with fire—not only has she humiliated Marcello in
Marcello—but she also worries for her friend and warns her rejecting him, but also has she begun flaunting his embarrassment
not to tell anyone that she treated such a powerful man so all over town. In a world dominated by retributive violence, Lila is
badly. Nevertheless, Lila begins telling every girl in the tempting fate—but she forgets that this quality is exactly what
neighborhood about rejecting Marcello in great detail. Lenù Marcello likes about her.
warns Lila she’s made trouble for herself, but Lila insists she’s
going to be fine.

Lila’s interest in books, languages, and learning drops off. She The despondency and lethargy Lila began feeling after the night of
never studies with Lenù anymore and insists that reading gives the fireworks infects every aspect of her life—she no longer has any
her a headache. Reading and studying are different for Lenù interested in books, languages, or learning, because she feels they
now, too; she sees reading not as an adventure, but rather the will ultimately get her nowhere.
only thing she really knows how to do anymore. Still, she
continues to excel in school. Maestro Gerace praises Lenù’s
intelligence and introduces her as his star pupil to other
teachers at the school.
Professor Galiana, a woman who is rumored to be a Lenù continues attributing all her smarts and ideas to Lila alone.
Communist, stops Lenù in the hall one day to talk to her about She has trouble accepting ownership of her own intellectual
one of her papers for Gerace’s class. Lenù is proud to have growth—she can’t see that while motivated by Lila, her ideas are
been noticed by Galiana, but as her reputation for cleverness indeed her own.
begins to grow, she feels oddly empty—all her intelligence
proves is how “fruitful” all of her study sessions with Lila have
been.

Lenù becomes distressed when her new reputation and good Both Lenù and Lila are mired in parallel but connected periods of
standing with the teachers doesn’t even get Nino Sarratore to self-doubt and confusion. Lenù feels that without Lila’s enthusiasm,
notice her. She feels there is no “energy” in her learning there is no point to her work—Lila, however, feels that whatever she
anymore. Lenù urges Lila to start going back to reading and does inspires the worst in people, unable to see the ways in which
studying again, but Lila is uninterested in doing so. She reveals she’s positively impacted Lenù.
that Marcello Solara is continuing to pursue her. Lila worries
that Marcello’s attention will soon lead to fights in the
neighborhood—“I make people do the wrong thing,” she says
sadly, citing Rino’s “mania” for money and power as an example.

One April Sunday, Lenù and Lila go out into the city with When confronted with the wealthy, luxurious lifestyle others live,
Carmela, Pasquale, and Rino. Lila suggests visiting a wealthy Lila and Lenù have opposite reactions: Lenù becomes jealous, bitter,
and trendy neighborhood. As they walk down the street, they and depressed, while Lila becomes invigorated and motivated.
hear honking and turn to see the Solaras in their
1100—Gigliola and Ada are in the back of the car. Lenù is full of
“bitterness”—she wishes that she and her friends had a car of
their own. She feels poor and sad and wants to go home, but
Lila’s desire to continue wandering, laughing, and having fun
makes her feel a bit better.
As the group arrives in the wealthy, trendy area, Lenù feels as if This passage examines how Lenù and the rest of her friend group
she is “crossing a border.” All of the young, beautiful, well- react to encountering an area of extreme wealth—and other young
dressed men and women seem as if they have come from “some people like them who have access to luxury and refinement, who
other planet.” Rino and Pasquale grow sullen, and the girls soon have never known the burdens of poverty and scarcity that they
pick up on their energy. All of them start to mock the fancy have. Rino and the others have contempt for these posh mirror
dresses and shoes worn by the wealthier teenagers. Their images of themselves—and as Rino lashes out in anger at them, it
laughter escalates and they become bolder in their statements. becomes clear that the male violence of the neighborhood, which
When Rino insults a ridiculous bowler hat worn by the seeks to dominate anything in its path, has given Rino false hope
girlfriend of a young man in a white pullover, the boy insults that he can somehow use his anger to bend fate to his will.
Rino back. Rino punches the boy and knocks him to the ground.
The group’s laughter turns to fear as the girls pull Rino and
Pasquale away from the burgeoning brawl. Rino yells at Lila for
bringing him to such a neighborhood and orders her, Carmela,
and Lenù to head home.
Lenù, Lila, and Carmela start for home, but as they walk In this passage, Lila and Lenù realize that they will never be able to
through the piazza, they see a group of boys with sticks heading truly outrun the male-dominated violence of their
for where they’ve left Rino and Pasquale. They follow the boys neighborhood—even if they make it elsewhere in the world, the
with sticks and find them already beating Rino and Pasquale. shadows of their past will follow them wherever they go.
The girls scream for help, but no passerby come to their aid.
Soon, the Solaras’ 1100 pulls up. Marcello gets out and throws
himself into the fight right away. Michele pulls a crowbar from
his trunk and joins the fray, too. Soon, the well-dressed Naples
men are beaten off. Rino asks the Solaras to bring the girls
home.

Jammed in the backseat, Lenù feels as if her neighborhood has This passage represents yet another significant blow to Lila’s
expanded and begun “swallowing all Naples.” Lila is sullen the previously-held belief that money could fix anything—she now
entire car ride and ignores Marcello’s attempts to talk with her. realizes that those with money are just as corrupt and violent as her
Back at the entrance of their building, a shaken Lenù remarks impoverished neighbors, schoolmates, and friends.
to Lila that rich people are “worse” than them by far. Lila doesn’t
answer. Lenù adds that the Solaras are “shit,” but that the
brothers at least came to Rino and Pasquale’s aid when they
needed it. Lila simply shakes her head.

Lenù advances in school and gets a scholarship. Gino fails out Maestra Oliviero remains invested as ever in Lenù’s success. She
of school, while Alfonso is told he’ll need to take his qualifying knows that the road to education is a marathon, not a sprint, and
exams again in the fall. Lenù goes to Maestra Olivero to tell her she wants to ensure that Lenù looks after her physical and mental
the good news and to thank the woman for her initial interest in health so that Lenù can keep going.
helping Lenù continue in school. During the visit, Maestra
Oliviero suggests that Lenù, who looks pale and unwell, spend
the summer with a cousin of Oliviero’s on Ischia, a nearby
island. Lenù is excited by the idea but knows that her mother
will never let it happen.
Lenù decides not to tell Lila about the offer to vacation on Normally, Lenù likes to tell Lila about the exciting or new things that
Ischia—Lila is having a hard time. Marcello has stopped happen to her—but Lenù knows that things for Lila are particularly
following her around, but after the incident in Naples, he came dire lately, especially the worrisome ways in which Marcello has
by the house to check on Rino, a visit which “perturbed” begun to orbit Lila and attempt to get to her through her family.
Fernando because of the honor it demanded in return. After
the visit, Fernando complimented Rino on his wide decision to
make friends with Marcello at last. Over the last few weeks,
Marcello has continued trying to make peace with the Cerullos
by patronizing the shoe shop, inviting Rino for a drive, and
other shows of goodwill. Lila is perturbed by how easily Rino
has been “seduc[ed]” by the dangerous Marcello.
One evening, Rino brings Marcello to dinner. Fernando is Even though Marcello is attempting to charm his way into Lila’s life,
honored, and so is Nunzia. Lenù comes over to help Lila she remains resistant to him. Lila and Lenù know that there are
prepare for the dinner and warns her that Marcello is coming ways to use love, sex, and partnership for their own designs—but
to ask for her hand in marriage. Lila threatens to put insecticide Lila hates everything Marcello stands for and does not want to
in the food—she says she will never accept a proposal from indebt herself to him in any way.
Marcello.

At dinner, the Cerullos are overly pleasant to Marcello, unsure Marcello and Rino have clearly been talking about the shoe
of how to behave in the presence of their powerful guest. business—and it is possible that Rino believes Marcello has the
Marcello and Fernando talk about business, and Marcello ability to make or break their family’s business. Lila, however, is
tacitly suggests Fernando consider expanding his shop. He completely unwilling to even give Marcello the chance to get close
begins praising the idea of making new shoes. Rino becomes to the shoes.
visibly uncomfortable. Marcello says he knows that Rino and
Lila have made a pair of shoes in his exact size. He asks to see
them. Rino sends Lila to get them. Lila reluctantly does so, but
after she disappears to the other room to fetch them, she
doesn’t return. Nunzia goes to look for her and comes back to
report that Lila is gone. Marcello leaves and Fernando and Rino
grow furious, threatening to kill Lila when they find her.
Lenù leaves to go home. Out on the landing, she hears Lila call Lila wants to protect the shoes—the one thing in her life she’s
to her—Lila is huddled at the top of the stairwell near the made—from Marcello. The shoes are a symbol of her desire for
terrace entrance. She clutches the shoes to her chest and more, and she wants to protect her heart’s desire from corruption,
declares that she doesn’t want Marcello to touch them or even violence, and cruelty no matter the cost—even when it becomes
look at them. Lenù encourages Lila to go home and even clear that her parents will punish her for her refusal to help them
accompanies her to the door, hoping her presence will make through a good match.
Lila’s parents go easier on her—but Fernando scolds and beats
Lila just the same. Lila cries and declares that Fernando and
Rino have become “mad beast[s].” Lenù slips out of the
apartment and goes home.

Every time Lenù sees Lila over the next several days, she has a Lila’s spell of deep disenchantment and resignation continues—she
new bruise from Rino. Lila seems “resigned” to the treatment. feels powerless to escape her situation. It is Rino who suggests that
One day, Lila tells her about taking a walk to the shop with Rino. the shoes the two of them have worked so hard on don’t have to be
Once there, he points out that if they can get Marcello to like wasted work—their father takes Marcello’s approval so seriously
and buy the shoes, their father will let them start making more that if Marcello buys them and markets them, Fernando will get on
and selling them. The Solaras, he assures her, will market the board. Lila must now weigh whether her hatred of Marcello is more
shoes and make sure they sell well. Lila insists on bringing the important than her dream of making and selling her shoe designs.
plan to Fernando. That night at dinner, they tell him—he agrees
to put the shoes in the shop. If Marcello wants to buy them, he’ll
let Rino and Lila keep working on their designs.
A week goes by and no one shows any interests in the special Lenù points out that Marcello—and everyone else—calls Lila “Lina”
shoes in the window—not even Marcello. Eventually, Rino as a way of implying that Lenù is the only one who truly knows Lila.
drags Marcello to the shop and forces him to try them on. Marcello is a pretender—he doesn’t really care for Lila. If he did,
Marcello does so, but he doesn’t compliment the shoes, and he Ferrante suggests, he might have purchased the shoes.
hurries from the shop when he’s done. Rino is devastated.
Marcello returns minutes later and tells Fernando that he
wants to marry Lila—whom he calls “Lina.”


Rino comes down with a violent fever and, soon after, begins Rino’s agitated mental state reflects the heaviness of the bargain he
sleepwalking each night. Lila and Nunzia must drag him back to has made—he has essentially sold his sister to the most powerful,
bed from the front door of the apartment. Fernando tells Lila violent man in the neighborhood in exchange for a chance at
that Marcello’s proposal is important and he urges her to financial success.
accept it—he tells her she won’t have to get married right away.
Lila quietly replies that she’d rather drown herself in a pond.
Lenù is stunned by the news that Lila, not even 15, has received
an offer of marriage. She encourages Lila to go to “war” against
her father if she has to, promising to support her.
In the middle of July, however, Lenù arrives home one The decision to go to Ischia and the preparations for the trip are a
afternoon to find Maestra Oliviero sitting in the living room, blur in Lenù’s mind, and she relays the days leading up to her trip
talking with her mother. Oliviero brings news that her cousin in very rapidly. Her first extended trip out of the neighborhood fills her
Ischia invited Lenù to come spend the rest of the summer with such excitement and indeed relief that she barely even thinks
through the middle of August on the island for free, in exchange of the troubles of those she’s leaving behind as she makes her way
for help around the house. Lenù is shocked that her mother out to sea.
agrees Lenù should spend some time resting on the island. Two
days later, Lenù’s mother takes her to the ferry, buys her a
ticket, and sends her off. As a goodbye, she warns Lenù that if
she drowns in the sea, it will be her own fault. As the ferry pulls
away, Lenù feels the troubles of the neighborhood—including
Lila’s—vanishing.

On Ischia, in the home of Oliviero’s cousin Nella Incardo, Lenù Lenù’s happiness on Ischia is diminished slightly by the fact that
blossoms. She sleeps in the kitchen on a makeshift bed and while she writes Lila letters every single day, Lila never writes her
helps out around the house as Nella cares for her paying back. Even while Lenù has the time of her life relaxing and enjoying
guests—but otherwise, Lenù is free to swim, take walks, and the sun and sea, she misses Lila and longs to stay connected to her.
read. She writes to Lila every single day and swims in the suit
Nella sews for her. Lenù’s first time in the water is incredible.
Her mother has long told her that she used to take Lenù to the
sea when she was small—now, finding she can swim quite well,
Lenù finally believes her mother. Lenù eats well, practices
English with Nella’s guests, and feels a sense of happiness and
wellbeing she has never known.
The only thing Lenù misses about home is Lila. She has her “old Lenù misses Lila terribly. Her desire to stay connected to her verges
fear” that in losing pieces of what’s happening in Lila’s life, her on need—she is anxious when she doesn’t hear back from Lila,
own life is losing “intensity and importance.” Lila doesn’t answer fearing that their lives are diverging in irreversible ways. Especially
any of Lenù’s letters. At the end of July, after the English family when she gets the news about the Sarratores, Lenù wishes she had
departs, a Neapolitan family is due to arrive. Nella shows Lenù Lila to talk to, gossip with, and seek guidance from.
a book that the head of the family himself has written—it is the
book of poems by Donato Sarratore.


Lenù writes to Lila about her feelings surrounding the prospect Most of Lenù’s experiences with boys, love, and sex has been based
of seeing her beloved Nino. She imagines all they’ll do together in utility—in the past, a boyfriend has been a way for Lenù to feel
on Ischia and believes they’ll finally become a couple. When self-satisfied, attractive, or superior to Lila. Now, though, Lenù longs
Lenù goes to meet their bus in town, however, she realizes that for Nino in a genuine way and is nervous to do or say anything that
all of the Sarratores except Nino have arrived. Marisa embraces might push him away or make him believe she’s unavailable.
Lenù excitedly and reintroduces Lenù to her family. Lenù feels
depressed by Nino’s absence. While the rest of the family
settles in, Marisa and Lenù walk down to the beach. They
gossip, and Marisa tells Lenù that she has a secret boyfriend.
She asks Lenù about Gino, but Lenù quickly tells her that she
and Gino have been over for “ages.”
Marisa reveals that Nino won’t come to the island until his Even though Lenù knows of the strife Donato caused in the
father leaves—he cannot stand Donato. Nino, she says, has no neighborhood, she finds him to be a kind and alluring presence.
real friends and cares nothing for their family. That evening, Lenù is drawn to Donato because he represents escape from the
Lenù eats dinner with the Sarratores—none of them mention neighborhood—just as Nino does. The fact that none of the
anything about the past or ask any questions about the Sarratores ask Lenù any questions about their shared past or old
neighborhood. Lenù finds Donato warm and kind, more neighbors shows that they have chosen to forget the part of their
paternal than even her own father. Over the next several days, lives involving the neighborhood and the community of people who
Lenù is heartened by how open Donato is and how quick he is live there.
to help his wife with caring for their children and completing
simple tasks—unlike any other men she knows from the
neighborhood. When Donato leaves the island to return to
work for a while, Lenù is just as sad to see him go as the rest of
his family is—yet she immediately begins looking forward to
Nino’s arrival.

Nino arrives in the evening but shows “not the least emotion” The way Lenù feels around Nino mirrors the way she often feels
upon seeing Lenù—Lenù believes Marisa must have called or around Lila. She wants to impress him—just as she wants to impress
written to him to tell him that she was there. Over the next few Lila. She spends a lot of time reading into the tiniest details of her
days, Nino is quiet and introverted. One night, when Lenù falls and Nino’s interactions for clues as to the inscrutable Nino’s
asleep reading, she wakes up with the light off and the book feelings, just as she often tries to understand what’s going on in
closed. Lenù believes Nino has tucked her in—she feels a “flare Lila’s head.
of love” for him. The two begin talking slowly and sparsely over
the next few days, but Lenù is often tongue-tied around Nino,
whom she wants to impress with conversations about books
and reading.
One evening, Nino confesses to Lenù that when they were Nino’s complicated confession in this passage disheartens Lenù and
young, he envied her relationship with Lila—he was jealous of makes her angry at Lila—she feels that Nino, like Pasquale and so
their close friendship yet never had the courage to try to make many others, has only ever wanted to use her to get close to Lila. In
friends with them. He admits that as a young boy, he liked Lenù reality, what Nino is saying is much more complex: he is speaking
“a lot” and thought that they’d be engaged one day. Lenù openly about his awe and admiration for Lila and Lenù’s special
blushes. When Nino asks about Lila, Lenù’s answers become friendship and expressing desire to have such a relationship—a
short and clipped as she tells him about Lila working in her luxury rarely afforded to young men.
father’s shop. Lenù stops writing to Lila after this
conversation.

One evening in August, Nino joins Lenù down by the beach Nino knows who his father is—but Lenù, who has seen facility with
after dropping Marisa off with her friends in town. He sits writing and language as a mark not just of intelligence but of moral
beside her and starts telling her about his hatred of his father. rightness all her life, is unable to heed Nino’s warnings about
He cites Donato’s cruel treatment of Melina—and the façade of Donato. Lenù’s idealism and innocence will soon be put to the
a family man Donato adopts around his own wife and test—and Nino will not be there to offer her warnings anymore.
children—as his reasons for loathing the man. Donato, Nino
reveals, is constantly unfaithful and always taking on new
lovers. Lenù tries to defend the “passion” Donato and Melina
shared. Nino tells Lenù that she doesn’t understand him, but
Lenù insists that she does. Nino kisses Lenù gently and tells her
he’ll be leaving in the morning, before his father arrives.
Together they walk back up to the house.

Lenù stays awake crying all night and doesn’t fall asleep until The bookmark Nino leaves behind is reminiscent of books, language,
dawn. When she wakes, she realizes she has missed saying and literature—symbols throughout the novel of Lila and Lenù’s
goodbye to Nino. The days that follow are sad and difficult. competitive friendship. Lenù experiences a similar relationship with
Lenù finds a paper bookmark Nino has left behind and takes to Nino as she does with Lila—one that’s steeped in competition and
kissing and licking it each night as she weeps. ideas.
When Donato returns for his two-week holiday, Lenù finds Rejected by Nino and feeling further away from Lila than ever
herself calmed by his reassuring, gregarious presence. At night, before, Lenù decides to make use of the community around her and
Donato plays guitar for his family and Marisa’s friends. Lenù is throw herself into her relationships with the Sarratores. Lenù feels
struck by how different Nino is from his father: Donato is abandoned by both Lila and Nino—so she stops writing Lila letters,
outgoing and warm whereas Nino is cold and withdrawn. As perhaps in hopes of inspiring in Lila the same isolation she herself
Lenù begins to enjoy Donato’s presence more and more, she feels.
sees him as a balm not just against Nino’s aloofness, but against
Lila’s as well. Lenù writes one final letter to Lila, lamenting the
fact that she hasn’t heard from her all summer, and then throws
herself into her devotion to the entire Sarratore family,
imagining that she’s one of them.
Donato shares articles he’s written with Lenù, and she begins Lenù has spent her whole life in academic competition with Lila and
to admire him even more for his “high-flown sentences” and has used language, literature, and writing to get closer to her friend.
great feeling as a writer. Lenù has an increasingly difficult time As such, she sees Donato’s success as a writer not just as a mark of
reconciling Nino’s words about his father’s cruelty and intelligence but of moral goodness.
betrayals of Lidia with the man she has come to know. Lenù
understands Melina a bit better—she now sees how Melina’s
“fragile mind” failed to adjust to the “rough normality” of life
without her lover. Lenù continues clinging to her love for Nino
and her sadness over missing him.


On the 25th of August—Lenù’s 15th birthday—two important Language and writing are so often points of competition for Lila and
things happen. The first is that she receives a letter from Lila Lenù—but just as often, they are points of connection. In this
early in the morning, which she devours, struck by Lila’s passage, Lenù finds herself in awe of Lila’s natural way with
beautiful writing and the naturalistic way she is able to “speak” words—but her joy at hearing from Lila is tinged with jealousy over
through the written word in a way that Lenù has never Lila’s proficiency with language and shame over her own halting
encountered before. There is “no trace of effort” or artifice in past communications.
Lila’s letter, and Lenù is “ashamed” of the “childish” letters she
herself has been sending all summer.
Lila’s letter states that she hasn’t written so as not to spoil As Lila relays to Lenù the story of being wooed by the frightful and
Lenù’s beautiful vacation with her “terrible stories”—but now odious Marcello Solara, it becomes clear that Lila’s parents—who
she feels compelled to tell Lenù what’s been going on at home. have already thrown her life off course by barring her from
She writes that after Lenù’s departure, Marcello began coming school—are now seeking to use Lila and her potential union with
to the Cerullos’ for dinner every night with pastries and Marcello to advance their own stations.
chocolates in tow. Lila never touched a single thing he brought
and tried to act like he wasn’t there at all. One morning,
Marcello and a large man arrived with a big box containing a
television: a gift for Lila and her family.
Lila incurred wrath from all sides: from Rino for leaving him to As Lila resists Marcello’s advances, she becomes a target for
labor in the workshop while she pursued life as a lady and from violence from all the men in her life. Lila, having learned that the
her father for being hostile to Marcello. She even drew ire from only way to fight violence is with more violence, readies herself by
Marcello himself, as he felt that he was Lila’s fiancé already and carrying a weapon at all times.
he grew increasingly frustrated each day Lila ignored him (and
even taunted him by telling him about her “nonexistent
boyfriends”). Marcello threatened to kill Lila if he found out she
liked someone else. Lila, terrified, could do little but continue
carrying her trusty knife with her at all times.
Lila writes to Lenù of the “good and evil […] mixed together” Lila is clearly beginning to fear for her life. Based on her penchant
throughout the neighborhood. Though Marcello is a good for telling fanciful stories in the past, it’s unclear whether the story
match, the good “taste[s] of the bad and the bad […] of the about the pot is an exaggeration—or whether a warning shot was
good.” Lila closes her letter by including an anecdote: a few fired into her apartment to frighten her. Either way, it is clear that
nights ago, she writes, while washing dishes, she heard a loud Lila feels profoundly threatened and unable to enjoy her life as long
noise. She turned to face the wall and realized that a copper pot as Marcello’s influence confuses and alienates her.
hanging there had exploded—seemingly of its own
accord—leaving a hole in the middle and the structure
“deformed.” Lila signs off by stating that she hopes Lenù stays
on Ischia forever and that she never has to return to the
neighborhood again.


Lenù is disturbed by Lila’s letter. She struggles to write Lenù is sad for her friend—but she also feels threatened by the idea
back—she feels her language is insufficient and that she cannot that Lila, in spite of a lack of formal education, is a better writer and
capture her feelings about the Sarratores or about her worry thinker than she is. Being the center of attention on Ischia among
for Lila. Nella and the Sarratores try to rouse Lenù’s spirits, but the Sarratores makes Lenù feel better about herself.
she tells them that her friend is in trouble and that she may be
returning home the next day. When everyone fusses over Lenù
leaving and begs her to stay, she feels her birthday becomes
“even happier.”
That night, as Lenù gets into her bed in the kitchen, she stares Nino was right about his father all along—Donato is a predatory
at the pots on the wall and thinks of Lila. She rereads her philanderer with no allegiance to his wife and family. Even though
friend’s letter and clutches Nino’s bookmark. After a while, she Donato’s advances are nonconsensual, there is a part of her that
hears footsteps. Donato enters the kitchen. Lenù pulls up the feels a repulsive kind of pleasure. In a world where male attention of
covers and pretends to sleep. Donato speaks: he says he knows any kind represents so many conflicting things, it makes sense that
Lenù is awake, and he entreats her to stay. Lenù insists she Lenù has a response to Donato’s lechery that confuses even her.
must return home to her friend who needs her, but Donato
replies that he is the one who needs Lenù. He approaches her
bed and begins kissing her. Lenù, “immobilized,” lies still as
Donato caresses her breasts and moves his fingers against her
underwear. Lenù is horrified by Donato’s behavior—and by her
own pleasure. Donato tells Lenù he loves her and asks her to
take a walk on the beach with him the next day before bidding
her goodnight and leaving the kitchen.
Lenù lies in bed, distressed over her failure to heed Nino’s As Elena, narrating from the future, steps in to admit that she has
warnings about his father. Full of disgust for both Donato and never shared the story of Donato’s abuse with anyone, it becomes
herself, Lenù lies awake all night. At first light, she collects her clear that she harbors great shame about what’s happened to
things, makes her bed, writes a note of thanks to Nella, and her—and that in light of what is going to happen when she returns
leaves for the ferry. As the boat pulls away, she begins thinking to the neighborhood, she won’t want to share that shame even with
of how she will tell Lila about what’s happened. From the her closest friend.
future, Elena writes that she never told Lila about the
incident—this is the first time she has ever put what happened
between her and Donato into words.

When Lenù returns to the neighborhood suddenly, her mother Lenù has consistently gauged her beauty and maturity against
asks her if she’s done something to get thrown out of Nella’s Lila’s—now, as she returns from Ischia, she feels the rare sensation
house—her father, however, is thrilled to see her and that they are both on the same page at the same time. Both of them
compliments her on how good she looks. The sun has tanned have changed over the summer, each becoming more beautiful and
her skin, lightened her hair, and dried up her acne. Lenù hurries mature.
out to find Lila as soon as she can—as the two embrace in the
courtyard, Lenù notices that Lila has changed in just a month.
To Lenù, Lila seems to have become a woman—a woman of
“unusual beauty” at that.

Lila takes Lenù with her on a walk toward Stefano’s grocery. As Lila fills Lenù in on what she’s missed, it becomes clear that Lila’s
She tells Lenù that things are getting worse each day—just last situation has grown increasingly precarious. Not only does she face
night, she says, Marcello came over and gave her a ring. She the threat of retributive violence from Marcello, should she refuse
accepted it in front of her parents, but before Marcello left, she him—her brother Rino also seems to be harboring an intense,
threw it back at him. He threatened and yelled at first, but soon potentially violent sense of anxiety. Though Lenù and Lila have both
he dissolved into tears. Fernando and Nunzia cruelly berated tried to escape the omnipresent threat of male violence, they have
Lila for damaging their futures by refusing a Solara—only Rino ultimately found themselves in greater danger than ever.
defended Lila. That night, Nunzia found Rino in the kitchen in
the middle of the night, lighting matches and passing them in
front of the gas valve. Lila tells Lenù that she needs to get out of
her current situation but has no idea how—she begs for Lenù’s
help. Lenù promises to do whatever she can.
Arriving at the grocery, Lila shows Lenù Stefano’s new car Lenù has clearly missed more than she realized while on
which is parked outside—it is even nicer than the Solaras’ 1100. Ischia—Stefano has turned his attentions to Lila, and just like
Stefano, seeing the girls, peeks out and greets Lenù. He tells Marcello, he’s attempting to essentially buy her affection.
her she looks well and reports that he himself was in Ischia
recently; though he looked for her, he couldn’t find her. Stefano
notices Lenù staring at the car. He tells her he’s bought it for
Lila, but that Lila doesn’t believe him.
Stefano offers to take the girls for a ride. He heads inside to put In this passage, it’s clear that Lila has been waiting for Lenù’s return
his apron away. While he’s gone, Lila confirms that Stefano so that she can use her friend as a buffer—and an excuse—in her
recently told her that he bought the car “just for [her.]” He has dealings with Stefano. Lenù knows Lila well enough to see how her
been begging her to take a drive with him—but she has insisted unpredictable, irreverent actions will reverberate throughout their
upon waiting for Lenù’s return. Lenù tells Lila how dangerous it neighborhood—and have potentially devastating consequences for
is to run around with Stefano given everything that’s happened both Lila and Stefano.
with Marcello, but Lila insists that with Lenù present,
everything will be fine. Stefano returns and welcomes the girls
into the car. Lila sits in the back while Lenù takes the front. As
they take off on their drive, Lenù feels calm and exhilarated by
the wind—but soon begins to worry that Lila, in spite of the
buffer of Lenù’s presence, is setting an “earthquake” in motion.
Stefano drives the girls out of the neighborhood and into town. Lenù is very out of the loop—but she’s catching up fast. It’s clear
As the three of them drive around, Lenù overhears Lila and from this passage that Lila sees Stefano as her only chance of
Stefano having furtive discussions about Lila’s situation with escaping a future with Marcello, and she is encouraging him, in spite
Marcello—Lenù wonders what she has missed on Ischia and of Marcello’s power over the neighborhood and penchant for
how many conversations like this one Lila and Stefano have had violence, to pursue her wholeheartedly. As Stefano speeds through
already. Lila jokingly reminds Stefano of the time he tried to the streets to buy the shoes, it becomes clear that he is ready to
prick her tongue—he laughs and insists it was another time. As commit himself to Lila—no matter the cost.
the car returns to the outskirts of the neighborhood, Stefano
asks about the shoes in the window, which he says are
beautiful. Lila challenges him to buy them. Stefano asks how
much they cost, and Lila says he should ask Fernando. Stefano
makes an abrupt turn and steers the car toward the Cerullos’
shop.


Stefano, Lenù, and Lila head into the shop. Fernando and Rino Stefano’s interest in buying the shoes symbolizes his interest in
are looking at them with strange, “sullen” curiosity. Stefano asks buying Lila’s affections. Lila willingly allows—and even
if he can try the shoes on. When Rino brings them out, Stefano encourages—Stefano to do so, believing that if she winds up with
asks Lenù what she thinks of them, and Lenù says they’re him, she will have a better fate than if she winds up with Marcello.
“handsome.” Stefano asks to see the designs for the other shoes The shoes continue to function as a symbol of the things that Lila is
Lila and Rino plan to make, and Lila runs to fetch them. willing to forgo in order to climb out of poverty.
Stefano tries on the shoes, stands up, and walks around. The shoes’ tightness on Stefano’s feet is a bad omen signaling that
Stefano’s face becomes worried—he announces that the shoes what he and Lila are doing together is dangerous or not quite the
are too tight. Fernando offers to widen them on a special right fit—nevertheless, Stefano remains committed not just to
machine, and Stefano says he’ll take them. Rino warns Stefano buying the shoes but also to investing in Lila’s family’s business
that the shoes are expensive, but Stefano insists he’ll take them wholeheartedly.
no matter what. He asks how long they’ll take to stretch; Rino
tell him three days. Stefano promises to return in three days
and purchase the shoes. He asks if he can take the drawings
with them in the meantime, and Lila “coldly” agrees.
As Lila follows Stefano out of the store, she warns him not to What Lila and Stefano are doing is an intricate dance of wits and
make “fools” of her and her family. Stefano says he’s a wills. They know that to be together is to fly in the face of the
businessman—Lila’s designs are “unusual,” and he wants to Solaras’ control of the neighborhood on many levels—as such,
think about him for several days. Lila tells Stefano that Marcello Stefano wants to make sure he’s making the right move, and Lila
already tried to buy her once—no one, she says, will ever be wants to protect her honor even as she attempts to sacrifice her
able to buy her the way he tried to. Stefano tells Lila that he freedom in exchange for the protection Stefano provides.
doesn’t spend a single lira if he doesn’t think he’ll be able to
make a hundred more. Lenù realizes that the drive was a way
for Stefano and Lila to come to a much-sought-after
agreement.

Lila’s life begins to change rapidly. Lenù accompanies Lila on Lenù knows how dangerous Lila and Stefano’s plan is, but she finds
frequent trips to visit Stefano at the grocery over the next herself caught up in the giddiness of the drama the arrangement
several days. On their walks there, they gossip endlessly about inspires. There is a part of Lenù that is fascinated by such
Stefano and Marcello, plotting out the minutia of how to “make complicated plans and machinations—a part of her that is afraid of
things come out right.” Lenù realizes that Lila’s plan is not just to being left out of Lila’s life as she creates a new future with Stefano.
help her family’s business by goading Stefano into buying the
shoes, but to secure a marriage proposal from Stefano in order
to escape the hated Marcello.

Three days later, Stefano returns and purchases the too-tight The Cerullos, who very recently believed that Lila’s marriage to
shoes. Stefano pays 25,000 lira for the shoes and another 20 Marcello was a surefire way to improve their financial and social
for Lila’s drawings, announcing his intention to have them prospects, quickly begin to realize that Stefano is actually a better
framed. A few days later, he informs Fernando that he has suitor not just for Lila but for all of them. The Cerullos are just as
rented the space next to the shop; if Fernando wants to expand, desperate to game the system as Lila is—so much so that they even
Stefano says, all he needs to do is say so. Lila privately tells her begin neglecting their esteemed guest at the risk of offending him.
father and brother that Stefano is prepared to invest in a
workshop for making Cerullo shoes. In all of the hubbub
surrounding the possibility of expansion, the Cerullos begin
behaving somewhat distractedly toward Marcello when he
arrives for dinner each night.
Eventually, Rino convinces the uncertain Fernando to accept This passage makes it clear that Stefano has effectively taken
Stefano’s offer. Fernando calls Stefano to the shop and tells him control of the Cerullos’ business. His offer to marry Lila—and take
that if Stefano puts up the expenses, he and Rino will begin her away from Marcello’s influence—comes with strings: he wants
production on the shoes right away. Stefano says he’ll pay two the chance to build a fortune using Lila’s ideas as a jumping-off
or three workers to join the shop and start immediately. point.
Fernando is hesitant, insisting on employing himself the craft
he has learned from his father—but Stefano insists upon having
Lila’s exact designs made at once. When Rino asks skeptically if
Lila knows about and has agreed to all of these terms, Stefano
replies that nothing can ever be done if Lila doesn’t agree with
it.

That night, Rino taunts Marcello about Stefano’s new car—and As the Cerullos collectively become more disdainful of
the fact that Stefano purchased the shoes for 25,000 lire. Marcello—and bolder in venturing to show that disdain—Marcello
Marcello laughs the provocations off. Over the next several attempts to tighten his control of Lila. He has caught wise to what’s
nights, Rino continues looking for ways to insult Marcello, while going on and still believes that his influence—and the threat of the
Lila takes to avoiding him by staying in her room during his violence his family is capable of—is enough to reign her in.
visits. One night, Marcello asks Nunzia if Lila likes someone
else. He says Lila has been spotted at Stefano’s grocery a lot,
and Nunzia points out that it’s the only grocery in town.
Marcello says Lila was spotted in the car with Stefano and
Lenù—Nunzia insists Stefano is interested in Lenù. Marcello
tells Nunzia not to let Lila spend time with Lenù anymore.
When Lila reports this conversation to Lenù, Lenù throws her While observing the courtship between Lila and Stefano, Lenù has
support behind Stefano. Lenù tells Lila that Stefano is rich—and seen Lila’s pursuit of him as purely a strategical maneuver. Now,
as she does, she realizes that her childhood dreams of wealth though, Lenù begins to understand that Lila does actually care for
have been reconfigured to accommodate the idea that wealth Stefano—whether that care is motivated by what he can give her or
is about what kind of ease money can bring to the everyday. whether it comes from a deeper place of gratitude and hope for
The more Lenù considers this idea, the more depressed she change in the neighborhood.
becomes. She reminds Lila of how Stefano tried to prick her
tongue when she was small. Lila insists that Stefano was just a
child then, and, in her voice, Lenù hears a great deal of emotion.
Over the next few days, Lenù observes how deeply Lila really
does appear to care for Stefano and the “pact” they are making
together. Desperate not to be excised from Lila’s life, Lenù
clings to Lila as she and Stefano plot and plan.

One day, as several workers and apprentices arrive to begin Over the last several days, Stefano has stacked the deck
renovating the shoe shop and start work on some new indisputably in his own favor. He has essentially taken over the
products, Stefano arrives at the shop with a package wrapped Cerullo family business, making Fernando beholden to
in brown paper—he has framed Lila’s designs, and now asks Stefano—and thus to Lila, as Lila is essentially controlling Stefano
Fernando permission to hang them on the wall. Once the with her beauty and wiles. These complicated social maneuvers
pictures are hung, Stefano asks for Lila’s hand in marriage. demonstrate the complex and sometimes dangerous ways in which
Fernando, frightened, “weakly” states that Lila is engaged to the community members make use of one another.
Marcello. Stefano replies that if she is, she doesn’t seem to
know it. Rino, too, says that Lila hates Marcello. Stefano looks
around the shop knowingly. He urges Fernando to let Lila
decide for herself—if she wants him, he says, Fernando must
give her to him.
During all of this, Lila and Lenù have been waiting outside. Lila is aware that in marrying Stefano and rejecting Marcello, she is
Stefano calls them inside the shop. Stefano tells Lila that he rocking the status quo of the neighborhood and putting herself—and
loves her “more than […] life” and asks her to marry him. Lila her future marriage—in jeopardy. However, if there’s anyone who
says she will. Fernando gasps and almost immediately asks who believes they can stand up to the Solaras’ wrath, it is the stony,
will tell Marcello the news—Lila and Stefano are offending “all intrepid Lila.
the Solaras.” Lila insists that she will be the one to break the
news.

Two nights later, during Marcello’s nightly visit, Lila asks him to Lila dismisses Marcello quickly, efficiently, and indeed brutally. She
take her out for ice cream. Marcello is excited—but as soon as is unafraid of retribution—or at least she affects a mask of bravery in
they are outside, Lila says she doesn’t love Marcello and is hopes that it will keep Marcello from acting rashly. Lila is taking a
planning on marrying Stefano. Marcello threatens to kill them huge gamble, the effects of which will not make themselves known
both, and Lila tells him to try it. Marcello begins crying and says until later. While Marcello may not strike back with decisive
he that loves Lila too much to do it. Lila warns Marcello that if violence, there are still opportunities for him to make Lila’s life
anyone in his family—or anyone connected to them—tries to miserable in other ways.
hurt Stefano or her family, she will kill Marcello herself.
Marcello sobs and walks away. Lila calls out for him to send
someone to come collect the television—her family, she says,
has no need of it.

Lila is happy: in less than a month, she has gotten rid of Lenù sees how happy Lila is, and she attributes Lila’s newfound
Marcello, found a way to move forward with her shoe designs, comfort and happiness to the ways in which Lila has strategically
and become engaged to a wealthy young man. Lila has used Stefano to escape her situation with Marcello. Lenù attempts
everything, and as Lenù returns to school she is full of dread to emulate Lila’s canny strategy by using Alfonso to escape from
and boredom. She begins to see Lila less and less—but she sees Nino. This is yet another situation in which Lenù mirrors Lila’s
her fellow student (and Stefano’s brother) Alfonso more often. behavior in an attempt to replicate her friend’s actions—and
Lenù finds her friendship with Alfonso “soothing”—they don’t achieve similar results for herself.
talk very much, but just being around him is nice. She begins to
use him to “escape” from Nino, who has, since the start of the
school year, been attempting to talk to Lenù. Lenù avoids Nino
at all costs, unsure of how to handle her feelings for him.
Though she’s still consumed with passion for him, she cannot
look at him without seeing (and feeling) Donato.

One day, while walking home with Alfonso, Lenù spies Donato Lenù is a sentimental person—she’s very invested in the ideas of fate
on the railway embankment in his conductor’s uniform. When and destiny. She feels there is something cosmic or predetermined,
she does a double take to see if it is really him, though, he is then, in the idea that because her and Lila’s friendship began in
gone. In the midst of this “confusing” time, Lenù seeks Alfonso’s earnest with a visit to the fearsome Don Achille’s apartment door, it
company more and more often—but she is careful not to give is only fitting that his sons, in his absence, have taken responsibility
him the impression that she’s attracted to him. It would be for the two of them. Lenù is grateful for Alfonso because of how
“humiliating,” she feels, to be with the little brother of Lila’s their friendship keeps her tied to both Lila and Stefano—but at the
fiancé. Nevertheless, she feels it is somehow right that the same time, she doesn’t want to get too close to him and be seen as
journey the two of them began when they first climbed the desperate to keep pace with Lila through any means necessary.
stairs to Don Achille’s apartment has ended with the man’s
sons taking care of each of them.

Lenù becomes obsessed with making connections between her This passage is significant because it shows how Lenù truly thinks,
life and Lila’s, pointing out the “convergences and divergences” at this point in her life, about the connection between her and Lila.
in their paths. She notes that the better off she was in Ischia, Though their lives are barely recognizable to each other, Lenù
the worse off Lila was; the happier Lila has become in the last remains devoted to the belief that their fates are still somehow
month, the worse off Lenù has been. Lenù feels that even the intertwined in spite of it all.
physical realm is affected by this inverse proportion: though
she felt tan and beautiful on Ischia, she now feels plain and dull;
Lila, however, has become even more beautiful.
Things worsen when Lenù begins to have trouble seeing the This passage illustrates how different Lila and Lenù’s lives are
board in school and finds herself needing glasses. Lenù hates now—their paths have definitively diverged. Lenù must still contend
the glasses—yet when she accidentally breaks them at school with the everyday struggles of poverty and uncertainty, while Lila’s
she begins to cry, knowing her parents will not be able to pay to life has been smoothed over by wealth and comfort.
replace them. When she tells Lila what has happened, Lila takes
the glasses. A few days later, Lila brings them back—Stefano
took them to the city to have them fixed and he paid for
everything. Lenù says she’ll never be able to pay Lila back. Lila
says there’s no need to—now, she does whatever she likes with
money.

Lenù begins to feel more and more depressed about Lila’s good Lenù knows that she and Lila have chosen different paths. Lila has
fortune. She tries to convince herself that school is her “wealth” found wealth and the opportunity to elevate her social position
and begins clinging to her every success in class, large or small. through marriage—Lenù, though, knows that her only option right
In spite of her attempts to make herself feel better, she realizes, now is to continue in school in hopes of achieving the same end
at the end of the day, she has no one to talk to about the books through different means. However, Lenù’s self-confidence has taken
she’s reading or the topics she’s learning. She takes issues with a decisive hit—she feels she has chosen the wrong path.
the idea of the Holy Spirit as it’s taught to her in religion
class—and she wishes she could discuss and debate it with
Nino or Lila.

Every time Lenù tries to talk about school with Lila, though, Lila Lenù feels that Lila has surpassed her for good. Lenù was always
interrupts her or changes the subject. Lila accuses Lenù of concerned about falling behind Lila in terms of intellect or
“wast[ing her] time” with silly thoughts and quickly tries to talent—now, though, Lenù realizes that Lila is living a kind of life she
redirect Lenù’s attention to the beautiful gifts of dresses and herself may never get to, a life that has nothing to do with books or
jewelry she’s gotten from Stefano. Lenù tries to get excited learning.
about Lila’s new life, but when Lila encourages her to try on the
beautiful things, Lenù becomes “depressed” to realize they
don’t suit her as they do her friend.

Lila’s role as Stefano’s fiancée makes her the subject of envy Lila takes to her new life with ease. While others think that she is a
and ire throughout the neighborhood. Stefano’s mother Maria ruthless social climber, the truth is far more complicated: Lila simply
and his sister Pinuccia especially begin to treat Lila with wants to be shielded from Marcello and helped to make her father’s
suspicion and dislike. They don’t like the amount of money business flourish. Lila doesn’t mind going to work—just as when she
Stefano spends on Lila, or the fact that Lila doesn’t work only wanted to study to learn, she only wants Stefano (and money)
now—but when they ask her to come to work in the grocery for certain purposes.
store and she readily agrees to, they don’t like that answer
either. Stefano begins buying Pinuccia presents too, and soon
she and Lila are in competition for Stefano’s affection. The
other neighborhood girls also begin competing with Lila by
trying to dress up and act like ladies—but Carmela, Ada, and
Gigliola’s attempts to catch up with Lila fail.
One night, Stefano tells Lila to invite her friends out to dinner. Lila’s new life alienates her from her friends. Even when she tries to
The dinner is held at a big restaurant—Lenù, Antonio, and Ada bring her two worlds together, she fails to unite her past and her
have never been to a restaurant and worry about how they’ll present—she is moving up and out of the neighborhood, just like she
pay for the many dishes Stefano orders. They don’t enjoy the always wanted to, and she cannot bring her friends with her.
meal—and at the end, when Stefano pays for everything, they
feel foolish. Antonio takes offense at being treated like a
“pauper” while Lenù and Ada, intimidated by their newly-
glamorous friend, feel Lila is “unsuited” to the simple ways they
live, dress, and get around.
As Lila becomes more and more glamorous and develops an Lenù feels that her Lila is changing too much and too quickly. She
even more beautiful, voluptuous shape, Lenù begins to feel that barely recognizes Lila anymore—but she also senses that the
the Lila she knew—the Lila who wrote The Blue Fairy and the changes Lila is going through are purposeful, meant to shield her
beautiful letter to Lenù in Ischia, who loved books and from the fear she felt when being pursued by Marcello.
languages so intensely—has disappeared. Lenù realizes that
she and Lila are moving through two vastly different worlds.
Lenù cannot stop thinking of the image of the exploded,
deformed pot—she believes that Lila cannot be contained and
will, sooner or later, “break everything again.”


Lenù begins developing a crush on Antonio, who has been This short chapter shows how Lila’s decisions send ripples of
“discreetly” courting her for weeks. Lenù stops seeing Lila and tension, violence, and cruelty throughout her friend group, inspiring
Stefano very often—but Lila remains the central topic of Lenù’s profound rancor among the young men she knows. Pasquale
gossip sessions with her other friends. Pasquale, still wounded especially, but also to some degree Enzo and Antonio, feel some
by Lila’s relationship with Stefano, nevertheless jumps to the directive to protect Lila’s honor—they feel that in getting engaged to
Cerullos’ defense when he hears that Silvio Solara has Stefano, she has become an unrepentant social climber obsessed
threatened to squash Fernando’s shoe business before it even only with money and control. The men don’t take into account the
begins. Lenù tries to defend Lila’s relationship with Stefano and nuanced reasons behind Lila’s decision—and the sacrifices she has
her newfound love of shopping and glamour, but when had to make in order to pursue a better life after being denied an
Pasquale accuses Lila of taking advantage of Don Achille’s education.
black-market fortune and profiting off the “blood of all the
poor” of the neighborhood, it creates a rift in their friend group.
Pasquale implies that Lila is a “whore” for getting engaged to
Stefano, an accusation which drives a wedge between him,
Antonio, and Enzo.

Lenù feels triumphant about Lila’s good fortune—and her own Lenù is both envious of Lila’s good fortune and nervous that it will
part in securing it. The shoe shop is busy at work making soon come to an end. There is a part of her that is truly happy for
Cerullo shoes, even as Fernando and Rino clash over the finer Lila’s dreams to begin coming to fruition—and a part of her that
points of bringing Lila’s vision to life. Stefano encourages both yearns for more on Lila’s behalf.
men to work as hard as they can to reproduce Lila’s designs
faithfully. Lenù admires how Stefano, out of plain love for Lila,
has moved so many people to do the things she wants—but at
the same time, she is waiting for something bad to happen.
However, Lenù is surprised (and, admittedly, “disappointed”)
when she realizes how easily Lila is settling into life as a fiancée.
Gigliola, who is dating Michele, begins spreading rumors that Lenù is continually surprised by Lila and Stefano’s failure to engage
Lila performed oral sex on Marcello every night that he came in the provocations of the Solaras. She begins to realize that the two
over to her parents’ house. Lenù becomes nervous about what of them really believe change is possible—and because Lila believes
will happen if these rumors reach Stefano. Soon, though, Lenù it, Lenù begins to believe it, too.
discovers that both he and Lila aware of the rumors and find
them laughable. Lila tells Lenù that while both she and Stefano
want revenge, they have mutually decided to rise above both
the Solaras and the “logic of the neighborhood” by refusing to
retaliate. Lenù is astonished by Lila and Stefano’s benevolent
behavior. Lenù begins to wonder if Lila is somehow trying to
“leave the neighborhood by staying” and changing things from
the inside out.


When the rumors about Lila and Marcello reach Lenù’s friends, It is obvious that Pasquale, Enzo, and Antonio take decisive action
Enzo, Antonio, and Pasquale are more indignant than Stefano against the Solaras—but the Solaras, for whatever reason, choose
himself. Pasquale is particularly outraged, threatening to take not to pursue revenge against the three boys (at least not yet). This
revenge against the Solaras on Lila’s behalf himself. The next passage confirms that even as Lila and Stefano work to change the
day, the Solaras’ 1100 has been demolished and the Solaras neighborhood, vicious cycles of male violence will continue to
have been badly beaten. Both brothers report being attacked proliferate and threaten everyone.
by 10 men from “outside the neighborhood,” but Carmela and
Lenù believe that Pasquale, Enzo, and Antonio are behind the
attack. The girls wait for a reprisal from the Solaras—but there
is none.
As Lenù takes her end-of-year exams upon finishing her second Every achievement Lenù accomplishes is met with the
year of high school, Lila announces to her abruptly one day that announcement of something different—yet equally
she and Stefano are to be married the following spring. On the momentous—from Lila. The two girls circle each other, constantly
day of the wedding, Lila will be barely 16 and a half. trying to one-up and outdo each other.

Lenù is upset by the news of Lila’s upcoming wedding and Lenù feels she’s constantly living in Lila’s shadow even in moments
shocked by the suddenness and finality of the fixed of personal triumph, yet this creates within her a desire to continue
date—March 12th. There are still nine months until the getting closer to Lila rather than to shut her out.
wedding, yet Lenù fears she and Lila are speeding toward a
“crossroads that [will] separate [their] lives.” Lenù begins to feel
that school is more meaningless than ever. She also begins
berating herself for her “meager” number of romantic
experiences.
When Lenù goes to school the next day, however, Professors This passage is indicative of Lenù’s lifelong uphill struggle to
Gerace and Galiani praise her most recent Italian paper and determine what percentage of her thoughts and of her work is truly
Gerace reads a passage before the final exam committee. hers—and what percentage she owes to Lila. Lenù’s academic
Hearing her words come from the Maestro’s mouth, Lenù is achievements bring her great personal satisfaction, but with every
proud of her writing for the first time in her life—it is not a mere success she has, she—and those around her—are constantly
imitation of Lila’s voice, but her own. Lenù is promoted to her measuring her against Lila.
third year with perfect grades—but her family doesn’t seem to
care much. Even Maestra Olivero is uninterested in the good
news when Lenù goes to deliver it to her—Oliviero only wants
to talk about Lila and lament the waste of Lila’s mind.

Alfonso is the only one who congratulates Lenù—she is grateful Alfonso clearly has affection for Lenù—and he also seems to have
for his support and surprised when he hugs her and gives her a complicated feelings about his brother’s engagement to Lila. Lenù
big kiss on the cheek. On the way home from school, Lenù asks resists getting too close to Alfonso, however, because part of her still
Alfonso how he feels about the upcoming wedding and his new believes it would be humiliating to be with the younger brother of
sister-in-law. Alfonso recalls the competition in which Lila her best friend’s fiancé.
“humiliated” him even though he was the son of the feared Don
Achille—he remembers finding Lila’s lack of deference
“intolerable” and states that if it were up to him to choose who
to marry, he would choose Lenù. As they part ways, Lenù
promises to meet up with Alfonso over the summer—but she
reveals that the season will go by without them seeing each
other even once.
Lenù looks for summer work and quickly finds that the In this passage, as Lenù accepts Antonio’s offer to be her boyfriend,
stationer needs someone to watch her young girls and take Ferrante shows how Lenù, threatened by the idea that Lila will soon
them swimming during the day. Lenù can hardly believe that move on without her (and surpass her in terms of romantic
she’ll be paid to take the three girls to the beach for July and experience) decides to use a relationship with Antonio to stay apace
part of August. On the way home from the stationer, she runs with Lila.
into Antonio on the street and shares the good news with him.
Antonio, excited for Lenù, asks her to be his girlfriend. Knowing
that Lila is just about to “complete a definitive leap” beyond
Lenù’s experience, Lenù accepts the older boy’s offer of
companionship.

Each day, Lenù takes the stationer’s girls on the bus to the sea. Even in the midst of her sexual encounters with Antonio, Lenù
She sits on the beach and watches them play, then returns with thinks mostly of Lila—she is constantly comparing herself to her
them to the neighborhood late in the afternoon. Lenù brings friend. With things like writing and school, the two can compare
the girls home to their mother and then hurries off for secret their progress and status openly—but when it comes to love and sex,
dates with Antonio. At the ponds near the back streets of the Lenù has unanswered questions about Lila’s experiences and point
neighborhood, Lenù lets Antonio touch her breasts and of view.
between her legs, and she touches a penis for the first time as
she fondles him, too. During these exchanges, Lenù wonders if
Lila does such things with Stefano. She comes to realize that
touching and kissing Antonio doesn’t give her the same
pleasure her strange encounter with Donato did, yet she sees
Antonio as a “useful phantom” in conjuring those feelings on
her own.
Antonio occasionally goes to the beach with Lenù and the Lenù knows that she and Lila are on different paths, and their
stationer’s girls, buying them all sandwiches and entertaining encounter at the beach—one in which Lila doesn’t even spot
the children while Lenù reads. One day, Lenù spots Lila at the Lenù—fills Lenù with fear that perhaps Lila will truly move on from
beach looking like a movie star in big sunglasses and a their friendship and have no need of their relationship anymore.
glamorous swimsuit as an attendant sets up chairs for her and
Stefano. Lenù hasn’t seen Lila in a long time—Lila doesn’t know
about Lenù’s job or her new boyfriend. Lenù has trouble
catching Lila’s eye and returns to reading, but soon, Antonio
calls her over. The three of them and the girls spend the day
together, and Stefano orders ice cream, sodas, and sandwiches
for everyone.

While Antonio and Stefano talk, Lila urges Lenù to ask the In this scene, Lila and Lenù have a casual, jocular conversation
stationer to pay her more for her work. Lenù jokes that she’ll which quickly turns serious when Lila declares that not even Stefano
gouge Lila for prices when the time comes for her to take Lila’s can replace Lenù in her heart. This passage speaks to the ways in
own children to the beach. Lila replies that she knows the which female friendship—even more than love, sex, and committed
“value” of time with Lenù and will pay her “treasure chests” of partnerships—have the power to alter the trajectory of a person’s
money. Lila asks if Antonio knows Lenù’s value—and if Lenù life.
loves him. Lenù says she doesn’t. She asks Lila if Lila loves
Stefano, and Lila replies that she loves Stefano more than
anyone in the world—except for Lenù.
Lenù invites Lila to come to the beach with her some days for Antonio clearly has a chip on his shoulder about the differences
the rest of the summer, and Lila agrees to do so. At the end of between him and Stefano. While Stefano can provide for Lila with
the afternoon, Stefano goes to pay and realizes that Antonio ease, Antonio cannot do the same for Lenù—yet he is determined to
has already taken care of the bill. Back in the neighborhood, show her his viability and utility as a romantic partner
Lenù scolds him for paying when he doesn’t have the money to
do so and asks him why he’d do such a thing. Antonio replies
that he and Lenù are “better-looking and more refined” than
Stefano and Lila.

Lenù begins growing fonder and fonder of Antonio. She starts Even as Lenù warms to Antonio, their relationship remains
feeling more attracted to him, and their “sexual games” secondary to her friendship with Lila—all of her sexual games with
advance, though they still haven’t had intercourse. Lenù Antonio are, in a way, attempts to make sure that she and Lila
decides that when Lila starts coming to Sea Garden with her, continue to have common ground.
she’ll ask her about her and Stefano’s sexual habits. Lila,
however, never comes to Sea Garden, and in mid-August,
Lenù’s job is done. Lenù is slightly horrified as the stationer
thanks her for all her hard work this summer and mentions
Antonio—whom the children have told her sometimes came
along during their day trips—but the stationer congratulates
Lenù on having such a nice boyfriend and says she should let
loose, since everyone knows that Lila sure does.
That night, Lenù repeats the conversation to Antonio and tells Lenù knows that she will never love Antonio the way he loves
him that ever since she and Lila were little, everyone has her—and yet she enjoys having him around and listening to the
thought that Lila is bad and Lenù is good. Antonio says that he compliments he gives her. Ferrante shows how Lenù uses
himself sees them that way, and Lenù is touched by his Antonio—and the concepts of love and sex more generally—to fulfill
response. She has been considering breaking up with him, but certain emotional needs of her own without actually committing to
the reply convinces her to stay with him a little while longer in or prioritizing her relationship with Antonio.
spite of her burning love for Nino. She tells herself that by the
end of the month, she’ll break up with Antonio. As the month
goes by, however, Antonio’s mother, Melina’s, mental health
starts to suffer again—she begins saying that she has seen
Donato around town.

One morning, on her way to the grocery, Lenù herself runs into Lenù, still repulsed by Donato’s advances, decides to use Antonio to
Donato. He approaches her and tells her he was sad not to see help get rid of Donato. Donato showing up means that Lenù has to
her in Ischia this summer—he professes his love for her and relive their experience together. She must remember the cruel twist
says he can’t live without her. He offers to read her some love of fate which led the father of the boy she loves to want her, and she
poems he's written her, threatening to kill himself if she refuses must remember her own abhorrent pleasure as Donato touched
to hear them. Lenù tells Donato that she has a boyfriend and her—a pleasure she has not really experienced since. For all these
never wants to see him again. Donato tries to kiss Lenù; when reasons, Lenù is inclined to do whatever she can—and to use
she ducks out of the way, he promises to bring her some poems whoever she must—to get Donato out of the picture.
soon. Lenù is frightened and decides to tell Antonio what’s
happening. Antonio is relieved to hear that his mother isn’t
losing her mind, but he is distressed by Donato’s threats
against Lenù. Lenù tells Antonio that they must confront
Donato together.
The next day, when Antonio and Lenù go out, they see Donato Lenù and Antonio seize the opportunity to bring their grievances
from a distance. He disappears into the tunnel, but Lenù against Donato and to try and get him out of the neighborhood. The
follows him. She re-introduces him to Antonio and tells Donato lecherous, deceptive Donato tries to project innocence—but both
that the two of them are together. Antonio tells Donato that Antonio and Lenù are aware of his sleazy nature and his willingness
Melina’s health has suffered greatly because of Donato—if she to say anything to get out of a tight spot.
sees him, she’ll surely end up in an asylum. Antonio warns
Donato to stay out of the neighborhood. Donato insists he
wants to see “the places that are dear” to his heart—but Lenù,
sensing the dishonesty in his tone, starts to speak up.
Antonio cuts Lenù off. He warns Donato that if he harms Even though Lenù is grateful to Antonio for standing up to Donato
Melina in any way, directly or indirectly, Donato will soon “lose and scaring him off, she still doesn’t feel any love for him. She
forever the desire to see these shitty places again.” Donato continues to use love and sex as a path to the fulfillment of her own
turns pale and hurries away. Lenù is bursting with pride for personal needs.
Antonio—yet as they walk back toward town, she resolves to
leave him after Lila’s wedding.

As Lila’s wedding approaches, the preparations being made for Even as Lila’s family continues struggling to make ends meet—and
it become entangled with the “rancorous birth” of the Cerullo to keep up with her wealthy fiancé’s demands upon them—she
shoe company. While Fernando and Rino make Lila’s designs, remains absorbed in her own personal struggles. Lila has turned to
they must also keep up with cobbler work in order to keep shoemaking—and to Stefano—in order to escape the strife and
money coming in. Because of the pressure to provide a dowry poverty of her family, and now that she has achieved a degree of
for Lila, the men are overworked. Lila and Stefano are oblivious separation, she seemingly doesn’t plan on looking back.
to the pressures facing the Cerullo family—they’re busy
figuring out their future home. They settle on a new apartment
in a nicer neighborhood. At just 16, Lila will soon be the
mistress of her own home.
Other tensions emerge: Lila and Stefano have trouble agreeing These early tensions in Lila and Stefano’s relationship as committed
on a honeymoon location, and they quarrel when Stefano partners portend greater difficulties to come. Stefano is clearly
makes rude digs about Lila’s family or expresses worry about contemptuous of Lila when it comes to certain things—yet he
returns on his investment in the shoe company. Lila always hurries to mend fences when he agitates her.
sides with her family during these disputes, and Stefano always
apologizes profusely and lovingly once she bristles.

One day, Lila takes Lenù to see the new apartment. It is small Lenù is shocked, embarrassed, and mildly horrified to realize that
but luxurious, with gorgeous tile floors, a refrigerator, a she has outstripped Lila in terms of sexual experience. Again, Lenù’s
telephone, and a huge bathtub. Lenù searchingly asks if Stefano goal has never been to surpass Lila and leave her behind—it has
and Lila ever come to the apartment alone, and Lila says they simply been to remain apace with Lila and not fall behind her at any
do. Lenù asks what they do when they’re here, but Lila doesn’t cost. Realizing that in this effort she has inadvertently left Lila
seem to understand the question. When Lenù asks if they ever behind fills her with apprehension and shame.
kiss, Lila says they do, but when Lila asks if they do anything
else, Lila states that they can’t because they’re not married yet.
Lenù is shocked. Lila asks if she and Antonio do more than
kiss—Lenù, ashamed, hurriedly says that they don’t do anything
else, either.

As the start of the school year approaches, Lenù stops seeing Lila struggles to develop a good relationship with her in-laws. Lila is
Antonio quite as much. She believes that after she returns to indeed using marriage to Stefano as a method of escaping one kind
her studies, Lila will be fine handling the wedding preparations of fate, and her future mother- and sister-in-law believe the ways in
on her own—but as Lila navigates tense interactions with which she’s using Stefano for money and comfort are unacceptable.
Pinuccia and Maria, who have come to see Lila as a pauper
playing at being a fine mistress, it becomes clear that Lila needs
an ally. Stefano urges his mother and sister to stop working in
the grocery store and help Lila with the preparations full-time,
at which point Lila, desperate for support, calls upon Lenù to
assist her.
One day, Lenù accompanies Lila, Pinuccia, and Maria to a For so long, Lila has had to deal with being regarded as prickly,
wedding dress shop in town. Whichever dresses Lila likes, difficult, and unlikable. With Lenù on her side to mitigate things, Lila
Pinuccia and Maria disparage; whichever dresses she hates, feels that she can navigate her relationships with her hostile new in-
they love. Toward the end of the nearly four-hour-long fitting laws. This passage shows how even as their paths diverge in new
session, Lenù speaks up and gently compliments Maria and ways, Lila and Lenù remain dependent on each other to make it
Pinuccia’s taste before choosing a random style. Lila stares at through.
Lenù, her gaze impenetrable. Pinuccia and Maria are thrilled
with Lenù’s choice. As the women make their way home, Lila
sidles up to Lenù and congratulates her on “conning” Pinuccia
and Maria into liking a style Lila herself adored. Lila declares
that Lenù, who is “good at making [her]self liked,” must
accompany her on all her wedding-planning excursions.

Over the next several months, Lila calls on Lenù constantly to In a time of great stress, Lila leans on Lenù to deal with the demands
make important decisions such as the wedding favors, the of wedding preparations. The two girls still clearly need each other
restaurant, and the photographer. Lenù is surprised by how as they navigate new, confusing, and often distressing territory.
detached Lila is about her own wedding preparations. Lenù
gets the impression that Lila feels “cage[d]” yet is still trying to
find her own way of being.

Lenù, distracted with preparations, spends little time studying, For so long, Lenù has clung to the idea that her success in school
and her grades dip—she does poorly in chemistry, math, and makes her special. Especially in recent weeks, as Lila’s wedding
philosophy. One morning Lenù gets into trouble when, during a preparations have ramped up and blotted out all else, Lenù has tried
lesson in religion, she reacts loudly against her teacher’s tirades to remind herself that at least she has school. Now, though, she
against Communists. She rails against the “superfluous entity” fears that not only has she jeopardized her status at school—but she
that is the Holy Spirit and claims that religion is “the same thing has come to realize that even in her own realm, her “wealth” in
as collecting trading cards while the city burns in the fires of terms of academics and intellectualism is still inextricably tied to
hell.” Lenù is sent out of class with a demerit for the first time in Lila’s influence.
her life. In the hall, Lenù realizes that she has felt emboldened
to say such things in class because they mirror past
conversations she’s had with Lila. Lenù worries that it’s not
true, after all, that school is her “wealth.” She begins to weep.
Nino appears in the hall and, seeing Lenù in distress, walks Even though Lenù’s controversial ideas have gotten her in trouble
toward her. Lenù realizes there is no way to avoid him. He asks with her religion professor, there are still those who support her. Her
what has happened and she tells him. He disappears and comes friends are proud of her for being an independent thinker—only
back a moment later with Professor Galiani, who praises Lenù Lenù knows that she would not have made such a stand without
for her intrepidness and goes to speak with her teacher. A few Lila’s influence.
moments later, Galiani emerges from the classroom and
declares that Lenù can return to the lesson if she apologizes.
She does so, grateful for the support of Nino and Galiani. Word
of Lenù’s outburst spreads quickly through her friend
group—Pasquale and Lila are particularly impressed by her
outspokenness. Lenù cultivates goodwill with the teacher she
offended by keeping her opinions to herself, and she soon
regains her standing at school.
A few weeks later, Nino asks Lenù if she will write a short paper Though others express reservations about Lenù publishing such a
recounting her conflict with the religion teacher—he wants to controversial article, Lenù knows that doing so will allow her to
submit it for publication to a journal he sometimes writes for. finally prove herself not just to those around her but to Lila. In her
As he shows Lenù a copy of the “dirty gray” pamphlet she is lifelong competition with Lila, Lenù will at last come out on
transfixed—she can’t believe she might have the chance to top—with external proof of her smarts.
publish something that others will read. Alfonso discourages
Lenù from signing her name to the publication for fear of
angering the teachers again, but Lenù is determined to show
her article proudly to everyone she loves—especially Lila.
When Lenù finishes a draft of the article, she knows the only In this passage, it becomes clear just how deeply Lila is affected by
person she trusts to proofread it is Lila. Lenù brings the pages Lenù’s successes in academics. All Lila ever wanted for herself was
to Lila and explains Nino’s proposal. Lila is hesitant and explains an education, and to have to watch Lenù shine as she comes into
she’s not capable of telling Lenù if it’s good or not. Lenù begs her own as a thinker and writer pains Lila. As a result, Lila no longer
Lila to help her. Lila agrees and reads the essay. She edits it, wants to study, learn, or even bear witness to Lenù’s work—though
moves some sentences around, and rewrites her edits onto a she characteristically trivializes her own pain with laughter.
new page. Lila tells Lenù how clever she is—and then she asks
that Lenù never again show her anything else she writes,
“because it hurts.” Then, Lila bursts out laughing.


The next morning at school, Lenù shows the paper to Nino. He Lenù’s feelings and behavior toward Nino change again and again
praises her writing and walks away, seeming hurt, without as the novel unfolds. In the past, she’s spent time pining for him and
saying goodbye. Lenù parts form Nino feeling they’ve gotten concerning herself only with his opinion of her—now, though, she is
“everything wrong again.” On a walk home one day with Lenù determined to show him an independent side of her, a side that is
and Alfonso, Nino’s sister, Marisa, learns that Lenù and Alfonso fulfilled without him.
are not going steady. After this, Nino’s behavior toward Lenù
changes—she senses Nino “hovering” around her. Lenù’s
feelings toward Nino, however, have changed—she worries he
can’t tolerate her “good qualities.” The next day, when Antonio
picks Lenù up from school, she entwines her fingers with his
pointedly in front of Nino—she wants him to recognize that she
is a better writer and student than he is, and that she has a
“man.” She has no time to pursue Nino like a “faithful beast.”

Lenù asks Antonio to go with her to Lila’s wedding and keep her Lenù continues to use Antonio for her own devices, even though she
company for the entire day—she is dreading the occasion, knows she doesn’t love him. Partnership with a young man has
which is starting to feel like “a definitive break.” She has another practical uses, and Lenù is desperate to exploit those uses so that
reason, too, for making this request of Antonio—she knows she doesn’t have to confront the matchmakers at the wedding—or
that the wedding will be an occasion for the girls without her own loneliness in the face of Lila’s impending marriage.
fiancés who are in attendance to find matches, and she doesn’t
want to have to worry about dressing up and impressing
anyone (even though she still plans on breaking up with
Antonio). Antonio, who considers Lenù the best thing that has
ever happened to him, accepts her request with glee—he
believes she is finally ready to make their relationship official
and tell their parents about their love for each other.
The days pass in a haze as Lenù struggles to keep up in school Lenù has a lot going on—she believes that she is on the cusp of
while she helps Lila with preparations. All she is looking greatness. Amid the significant change that’s gearing up to happen
forward to is seeing her name in print in Nino’s journal. in Lila’s life, it seems that Lenù is seeking comfort in the notion that
she can find her own path to success.
In November, the Cerullos finish their first batch of shoes. Lila’s dream has at last come to fruition—but there are wrinkles in
Upon seeing them, Lila tells Lenù that she feels a “very violent her moment of glory as tensions within her own family and
emotion,” as if a fairy has granted one of her childhood wishes. Stefano’s family make themselves apparent. The shoes, too
Rino, Lila, and Fernando summon Stefano, Pinuccia, and Maria expensive to sell well in the neighborhood, are not the life-saving
to see the shoes, and the Carraccis are amazed by them as objects Lila envisioned them to be, and her disappointment is
well—though Stefano believes that Fernando has not been palpable. This portends a similar outcome for Lenù’s excitement
perfectly faithful to Lila’s original designs, and he insists that he about her journal article—the one big thing she is looking forward to.
has invested too much money to obtain shoes that are not
precisely Lila’s own invention. Lila defends Fernando, but Rino
supports Stefano—ultimately, Stefano gives in, and by
Christmas, the shoes are for sale as they are. No one in the
neighborhood buys a pair, though, due to the astronomical
price.


Lila and Lenù are so busy with the wedding preparations that As Rino realizes that the neighborhood is controlled by the
they hardly notice when Rino becomes depressed and agitated Solaras—who will never allow Cerullo shoes to be sold in any of the
again. As the finished shoes sit piled in their boxes in the shop, shops from which they collect money—his anxiety and agitation
Rino’s agitation increases. He asks another shoemaker in town increases. Rino is powerless to change the way the neighborhood
to display the shoes in his shop, but the man, “bound hand and functions, and he rails angrily against his inability to do anything to
foot to the Solaras,” refuses him. Rino explodes in fury at the further his family’s fortune.
man, embarrassing his family and drawing Fernando’s ire.
Stefano, hearing of Rino’s conflict with the other shoemaker,
attempts to soothe Rino by telling him they simply have to find
the right storefront for the shoes. Rino becomes determined to
find a place in a wealthier neighborhood to sell the shoes.
As the date of the wedding approaches, Lila asks Lenù to Maestra Oliviero’s cruel refusal to recognize Lila—though she
accompany her to Maestra Oliviero’s house to deliver a obviously does—hearkens back to her disappointment in Lila and
wedding invitation to her old teacher in person. Lenù knows her entire family due to Lila’s failure to continue in school. Maestra
how disappointed and sad Oliviero has been over the years to Oliviero knows that Lila still has a chance to change her fate and
learn of Lila’s failure to stay in school but accompanies Lila put her mind to good use—and she’s disappointed by Lila’s decision
anyway. When Oliviero answers the door of her apartment for to simply marry instead.
the girls and Lila hands her the invitation, Maestra Oliviero says
she doesn’t know “who this girl is” and shuts the door on them.
Stefano decides that the speech master at the wedding will be a Lila is fully of anger at the idea of Stefano’s betrayal. She has chosen
relative of Donna Maria’s—but just a few weeks before the to marry Stefano in part because she feels it is the only way to
wedding, he changes his mind. He refuses to tell Lila who the escape the Solaras’ influence—now, though, she realizes that the
new speech master will be until he at last reveals that he has idea of truly being free of them is nothing but a pipe dream.
asked Silvio Solara to do the job. Lila becomes enraged and
declares that she never wants to see Stefano again. She shuts
herself up in her parents’ house and stops participating in
wedding preparations entirely. Her parents and Rino try to talk
to Lila and make her understand that a Silvio is “like a bank” and
that he’s the only hope for Cerullo shoes to take off. Lila,
however, remains immovable.
The Cerullos summon Lenù to the apartment to talk to Lila, but In an attempt to keep Lila on track to marry Stefano—and secure his
Lenù is tempted to convince Lila to give up the marriage for family’s wealth—the Cerullos pull out every last stop. Lenù reasons
good and go back to being her old self. At the last minute, with Lila and urges her to see that there is a way for her and Stefano
though, Lenù realizes that to resign Lila to a life in her parents’ to change the neighborhood and make a life for themselves without
house would be cruel. When she visits Lila, she attempts to fearing the Solaras by offering them this one favor. Stefano’s
remind her that Silvio is not his sons—and if Lila lets him speak promise that he’ll keep Marcello away, in addition to Lenù’s
at the wedding, he’ll help her and Stefano without having a entreaty, makes Lila feel secure in her decision once again—at least
huge “importance” in their married life. Lila listens to Lenù in for the time being.
silence, accepting what she says—but when Lenù’s done
speaking, Lila admits that she doesn’t believe Stefano truly
loves her as much as he loves his money. Lila agrees to
reconcile with Stefano on the condition that Marcello stay far
from their wedding. Stefano swears he will prevent Marcello
from attending.


On March 12th, the day of Lila’s wedding, Lenù goes to the Maestra Oliviero’s pointed refusal to recognize the version of Lila
Cerullo house to help Lila get ready for the ceremony. When standing before her and offering her a wedding invitation has gotten
Lenù arrives, she finds Lila sitting on her bed in her underwear, deep under Lila’s skin. Lila wonders if, in marrying Stefano, she is
her wedding dress beside her looking like “the body of a dead making herself unrecognizable to everyone around her—and
woman.” Lila asks Lenù if she is making a mistake. When Lenù perhaps even to herself.
asks why Lila would think such a thing, Lila says that she was
perturbed by Maestra Oliviero’s failure to recognize her. Lenù
insists that Oliviero is just “a mean old lady.”
Lila urges Lenù to promise her that she’ll go on studying, and Through Lenù’s narration, Ferrante has thus far led the reader to
Lenù says she’ll keep going until she gets her diploma. Lila believe that it is Lila who is the titular “brilliant friend.” However, this
insists that Lenù must keep going in school—she’ll give her the passage makes it clear that Lila sees Lenù as the one who is
money if need be. Lenù insists that school has to end at some “brilliant.”
point. However, Lila tells Lenù that she is her “brilliant friend”
and must keep on with her studies.
Lila strips and gets into the bath. Lenù is embarrassed to see As Lenù helps Lila bathe, she is full of many conflicting emotions.
her friend’s naked body for the first time, but at the same time, She loves Lila and is sad—angry, even—at the idea of her being
she is stunned by how beautiful Lila is. Lenù becomes nervous “disfigure[d]” by a man. At the same time, Lenù is afraid of being left
as she thinks about how in just a few hours, Stefano will behind as Lila embarks on a new phase of life. What Lenù feels isn’t
penetrate Lila and “disfigure her, perhaps, by making her precisely jealousy—though she is, without a doubt, intensely
pregnant.” Lenù is overcome by “violent emotion” as she helps motivated to keep up with Lila in whatever small ways she can.
Lila wash herself, and she longs to embrace or kiss her. Lenù is
furious at the idea that she is making Lila clean and beautiful
just so that Stefano can “sully” her later on. Lenù decides that if
Lila is going to lose her virginity tonight, she herself must also
“find a [dark] corner” where she can make Antonio defile her at
the same time.
Lenù helps Lila put on her wedding dress and the shoes that Lila is getting cold feet in the hours before her wedding ceremony.
she herself has designed. As Lila looks in the mirror, she She laments that her dreams have amounted to so little and that
declares that the shoes are ugly. Her mind’s dreams, she says, she is entering into a terrifying unknown, risking her independence
have ended up under her feet. She turns to Lenù, full of fear, for a chance at safety from Marcello and the Solaras.
and asks what is going to happen to her.

At Lila’s wedding ceremony, as Lila walks down the aisle looking Lenù has been working so hard for so many years to find a way of
“dazzling,” Lenù is distressed to realize that her own mother is steering her own destiny. It’s therefore painful for Lenù to realize
looking at Lenù with regret. Lenù realizes that her parents that her parents see Lila’s choice as the enviable one. The idea of
don’t see her success in school as real or important. Lenù’s “bad marriage fills Lenù herself with apprehension and something
friend” has acquired a wealthy husband, a house of her own, bordering on revulsion.
and money for her family. Antonio sits on Lenù’s other side
through the long ceremony—he whispers to her several times,
but she ignores him, afraid of her mother deducing the nature
of their relationship.

As Lenù looks around the church, she is stunned by how well- Lenù begins to feel despondent over the never-ending, cyclical
dressed everyone is. She knows that many people must have exchanges of money and power in her neighborhood. No matter
borrowed money for their outfits—and as she looks at Silvio who runs the show and pulls the strings, there will always be
Solara, the speech master, standing in front of the church next violence, extortion, and cruelty.
to his wife “loaded” with jewels, she realizes that everyone in
the neighborhood has borrowed from him. He has replaced
Don Achille, and he runs the neighborhood now.
Lenù notices that Lila will not look at anyone but the Lila’s wedding ceremony takes on a surreal, hurried quality in
priest—not Silvio, not her father, and not even Stefano. Lenù is Elena’s memory. Her recollection and retelling of the momentous
full of anxiety—she wonders if Lila is making a decision with occasion seems to suggest that there are difficult things in store for
ramifications that neither of them can fully comprehend. As Lila Lila, even though she has chosen marriage in an attempt to advance
and Stefano exchange rings and kiss, Lenù is shocked to realize and protect herself.
that her friend is really and truly married. Lenù looks around
the church, realizing that she hasn’t yet seen Alfonso—he is
standing at the back with Marisa and Nino Sarratore.

After the ceremony, everyone stands in the church courtyard. Lenù wants to spend time with Nino—she is in love with him and
Lenù is shocked to realize that Alfonso and Marisa are she feels that he represents the intellectual life she wants to lead.
together, and she wonders if they have made their relationship However, she keeps getting dragged back into her old friend
official. As Lenù spots Nino looking shabby and uncomfortable group—a pattern that begins to feel more and more like a threat
in the church courtyard, she feels that his presence adds to the considering Lila’s surrender to the ordinary path of becoming a wife.
“emotional disorder” of the day. She greets him perfunctorily,
but Antonio grabs her and leads her off with their friends
toward Pasquale’s old car so that they can all drive to the
restaurant. Antonio, sensing a change in mood as they drive,
asks Lenù what’s wrong; Carmela suggests that Lenù is jealous
that Lila is married.
During the car ride, as Pasquale speeds along the avenues and Lila’s wedding has thrown Lenù into an existential crisis. Without
their friends all laugh, Lenù feels completely alien. She is on a Lila, Lenù feels that nothing bonds her to her old friend group or
different path from them all—when she is with her old friends, their shared past. Lenù is disdainful of the average lives her old
she must put aside all she’s learned in school or else use it schoolmates will lead—she wants bigger and better things, and she’s
against them to mar herself as better than them. Lila, the only terrified of being the only person who does.
person who has ever mattered to Lenù, is no longer a part of
their group, and now Lenù feels no kinship with these
people—especially not with Antonio, whom she knows she is
supposed to love.


As Lenù and her friends arrive at the reception, they struggle to Lenù is confounded by her mother’s desire to keep her close. Even as
find a place where they can all sit together. Lenù’s mother calls her mother supports her pursuit of an education, a move which
her over and asks why “crazy” Melina’s son is always hanging would seem to signal that she wants better for her daughter, her
around her. She implies that she knows the truth about mother also longs to keep her close—a fact which fills Lenù with the
Antonio—and she demands that Lenù sit with her during the old fear of transforming into her mother in spite of all her efforts to
party. Lenù begrudgingly takes her seat at her parents’ table. escape the woman’s shadow.
When the band starts playing, Lenù attempts to get up and go
sit with her friends again, but her mother again restrains her.
Lenù feels that her mother wants two things at once: to keep
her near and thus confined to a life like her own, and to send
her to school where she can improve her station in life. Both
things, Lenù knows, are not possible at once.
As Lila and Stefano enter the room, Lenù’s existential crisis Lenù is disheartened to realize that Lila has taken a path which
deepens. She has always looked to Lila to determine how binds her to a traditional life as a wife and mother in the
together they might escape their mothers and their neighborhood of their youth. Lenù has always looked to Lila as an
neighborhood—now, though, Lenù sees that Lila has resigned example of how to be and what to aspire to—now, though, she feels
herself to making the best of the directive to stay in one place. lost, alone, and saddened by her friend’s resignation to an ordinary
Lenù feels isolated from everyone around her. As she watches path.
Lila dance, she laments that Lila has failed to escape—and she
becomes firm in her own resolve to escape no matter the cost.
When Nino, Alfonso, and Marisa enter the room, Lenù jumps
up from the table and, struggling against her mother as she
pulls at Lenù’s dress, goes to join them at their table.

As Lenù makes conversation with Alfonso and Marisa—hoping As the reception grows more chaotic, Lenù tries to distance herself
that Nino will talk to her too—Antonio comes up behind Lenù from most of the people from her neighborhood—including her own
and asks her to come sit with him. She tells him to get away and family—by talking with her schoolmates, whose attention she
stop drawing the attention of her mother, who has figured out believes is more important because they are more intelligent.
“everything.” Lenù notices that all throughout the room, people
are raising their voices—a few guests have figured out that
different tables are being served different things. Not everyone
is getting the same quality of wine, and some tables are getting
food before others.
Trying to ignore the shouts and growing discord, Lenù engages As young girls, Lenù and Lila bonded over language, literature, and
Nino in a discussion of poverty in Naples. Lenù is struck by writing—they imagined careers as brilliant novelists. For Lenù to be
Nino’s articulateness and his informed opinions. He urges Lenù told that novels are frivolous is painful—but she doesn’t recognize
to read newspapers and magazines. Lenù is embarrassed—all how cruel Nino is being in writing off and devaluing the ways in
her life, following Lila’s example, she has only read novels. As which Lenù has educated herself and found relief from the pressures
Nino and Lenù continue talking, he disparages novels and of life in her neighborhood.
“literature,” and Lenù hangs on Nino’s ever word. She can feel
Antonio’s gaze on her and knows he must be getting angry, but
she cannot tear herself away from her dazzling, engaging
conversation with Nino.

Antonio at last comes up to Lenù and asks her to dance. She Lenù has begun to see herself as different from her family and
begrudgingly agrees but warns him not to get too close to her. neighbors. She feels that her education and the ideas it’s opened her
As they take their place on the dance floor, Lenù realizes how up to separate her from them on some fundamental level—now,
intensely she has been shutting out the rest of the looking around Lila’s wedding, she fears that she will never be able
party—everyone is drunk, and the festivities are in full swing. to truly differentiate herself from them as long as she lives among
The quarrel between the bride’s relatives and the groom’s is them.
still going—Lila’s relations feel they are getting bad wine and
bad service. As Lenù looks around at her friends and neighbors,
she is disgusted by their behavior and by the rote patterns of
their lives—she wonders if she is still like them.
Antonio catches Lenù staring at Nino and expresses his Antonio knows that Lenù has used him—and he is despondent over
sadness and discontent. He is angry that Lenù used him to having been treated badly by the girl he loves. Lenù, however, has
confront Donato and now spends “hours” talking with his son, her sights set on Nino because she believes he has the power to take
ignoring Antonio himself. Antonio points out how hard he her out of the neighborhood and help her elevate her social,
worked to look good for the wedding, going into debt for a new intellectual, and economic status.
suit and a haircut, only for Lenù to ignore him. He leaves her
alone on the dance floor and goes out to the dance floor. Lenù
knows that if she follows Antonio out to the terrace, she’ll be
able to make up with him—if she doesn’t, she knows, he’ll leave
her. She decides not to follow him out and instead goes back to
sit with Nino, who is caught up in an intense conversation about
school with Alfonso.
Lenù tries to get Nino’s attention back by asking him about the Nino’s brusque, unemotional delivery of the news that Lenù’s piece
magazine and when it will come out. He tells her it is already will not appear in the journal shows his contempt for her—he
out and has been for a couple of weeks. Lenù asks where she doesn’t actually take her work or her mind seriously.
can get a copy. Nino says he’ll get one for her. Lenù is elated.
After a brief pause, Nino tells her that her piece isn’t in the
journal—there wasn’t room for it.

Lenù is deeply saddened by Nino’s news about her article, but In this overwhelming moment, Lenù becomes despondent as she
she tries to maintain a front of indifference. She looks around fears that her pursuit of education has been in vain. She worries she
the room: the festivities are winding down, and Lila and Stefano will never be able to escape her destiny to become a “pleb” and stay
are smiling and talking as they sit at their table. The dance floor mired in her neighborhood forever, with no chance of bettering her
is still full of Lenù’s sweaty, debauched friends and classmates; circumstances.
the floor is splattered with sauce and wine. Overwhelmed,
Lenù tries to hold back tears. She realizes that she had been
clinging to her upcoming publication as a way to confirm that
she “really had a destiny” and that school would really deliver
her from her fate. She recalls what Maestra Oliviero told her
years ago out the plebs, and she realizes that the plebs are her
friends, her neighbors, and her own family.

Nino gets up to leave. Lenù tries to get him to stay a little longer Lenù sees Nino—and the impassioned academic and political life he
by asking him to visit the bride’s table with her, but he refuses represents—as a ticket out of the neighborhood, and she laments
and heads out the door. Lenù envies Nino for being able to feeling unable to follow him or to earn his respect.
come and go from the neighborhood as he pleases. Lenù fears
she’ll never make it out as Nino has—she feels that studying is
useless.
At the height of her despair, Lenù notices a shift in the room. As Marcello appears wearing Lila’s Cerullo shoes prototype, it’s
She looks to the doors and realizes that the Solara brothers implied that Marcello either purchased the shoes from Stefano at a
have arrived. Lila whispers urgently to Stefano. As Marcello sits higher price or else forced Stefano to give him the shoes for free.
down at Lila and Stefano’s table and crosses his legs, all of the Either way, it’s clear that Marcello and the Solaras will continue to
color drains from Lila’s face—she is “whiter than her wedding control the neighborhood and to dictate the behavior of those under
dress.” She stares at Marcello’s feet with a gaze that Lenù feels their influence. It seems that even in the face of Stefano and Lila’s
could shatter the wine bottles in front of her on the table. marriage, the Solaras will be able to retain an outsized amount of
Marcello is wearing Cerullo shoes. Rather than wearing the power to demand or extort whatever they want, from whomever
display pair, he is wearing the very pair bought earlier by they want it from. Lila’s despair is matched only by her rage at
Stefano—the very first pair that Lila and Rino ever made, the Stefano for kowtowing to Marcello—a move she sees as a cowardly
pair that “ruin[ed]” Lila’s hands. betrayal.

To cite any of the quotes from My Brilliant Friend covered in the

HOW T
TO
O CITE Quotes section of this LitChart:
To cite this LitChart: MLA
MLA Ferrante, Elena. My Brilliant Friend. Europa Editions. 2012.
Tanner, Alexandra. "My Brilliant Friend." LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 29 CHICA
CHICAGO
GO MANU
MANUAL
AL
Mar 2020. Web. 29 Apr 2020.
Ferrante, Elena. My Brilliant Friend. New York: Europa Editions.
CHICA
CHICAGO
GO MANU
MANUAL
AL 2012.
Tanner, Alexandra. "My Brilliant Friend." LitCharts LLC, March 29,
2020. Retrieved April 29, 2020. https://www.litcharts.com/lit/my-
brilliant-friend.

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Childhood: Chapter 5 Quotes

Childhood: Chapter 7 Quotes Explanation and Analysis

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Childhood: Chapter 15 Quotes

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Adolescence: Chapter 8 Quotes

Related Characters: Elena “Lenù” Greco (speaker),

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Adolescence: Chapter 12 Quotes

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Adolescence: Chapter 20 Quotes

Related Characters: Elena “Lenù” Greco (speaker), Rafaella Related Symbols:

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Adolescence: Chapter 21 Quotes Adolescence: Chapter 22 Quotes

Related Themes: Related Themes:

Related Symbols: Related Symbols:

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Explanation and Analysis Explanation and Analysis

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Adolescence: Chapter 27 Quotes

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Adolescence: Chapter 43 Quotes

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SUMMARY AND ANAL

PROLOGUE: ELIMINATING ALL THE TRACES

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CHILDHOOD: THE STORY OF DON ACHILLE, CHAPTER 1

CHILDHOOD: THE STORY OF DON ACHILLE, CHAPTER 2

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CHILDHOOD: THE STORY OF DON ACHILLE, CHAPTER 3

CHILDHOOD: THE STORY OF DON ACHILLE, CHAPTER 4

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CHILDHOOD: THE STORY OF DON ACHILLE, CHAPTER 5

CHILDHOOD: THE STORY OF DON ACHILLE, CHAPTER 6

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CHILDHOOD: THE STORY OF DON ACHILLE, CHAPTER 7

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CHILDHOOD: THE STORY OF DON ACHILLE, CHAPTER 8

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CHILDHOOD: THE STORY OF DON ACHILLE, CHAPTER 9

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