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Adolescence: Chapter 53
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
The next morning at school, Lenù shows the paper to Nino. He praises her writing and walks away, seeming hurt, without saying goodbye. Lenù parts form Nino feeling they’ve gotten “everything wrong again.” On a walk home one day with Lenù and Alfonso, Nino’s sister, Marisa, learns that Lenù and Alfonso 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’s feelings and behavior toward Nino change again and again as the novel unfolds. In the past, she’s spent time pining for him and concerning herself only with his opinion of her—now, though, she is determined to show him an independent side of her, a side that is fulfilled without him.
Themes
