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Adolescence: Chapter 3
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in My Brilliant Friend, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Female Friendship
Masculine vs. Feminine Violence
Women’s Work
Poverty, Social Climbing, and Sacrifice
The Uses of Community
Love, Sex, and Strategy
Summary
Analysis
Lila’s brother Rino tries to get her to reenroll in the specialized school, but Lila again refuses to go. She begins spending her time helping Nunzia around the house and working in Fernando’s shoemaking shop. When Lenù and Lila see each other, Lila doesn’t ask about school and instead talks at length about how much “admiration” she has for her father and brother’s work in the shop, drawing Lenù into the story of her family’s work. Lenù begins to feel that school is “pointless,” and 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.
In this brief chapter, it becomes clear that Lila has decided to change tack and act as if she is wholly devoted to the work that’s being thrust upon her. She does so in hopes of inspiring jealousy in Lenù—and her plan works. Lenù begins to doubt her own choices in life and reconsider everything she knows about her friendships, interests, and pursuits outside of Lila—evidence of how such absorbing female friendships as Lila and Lenù’s often have the power to dictate the course of one’s life.
Themes
