Previous
Childhood: Chapter 12
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
Sometime later, Enzo asks Gigliola to be his girlfriend, but she rejects him and tells everyone about his offer. Enzo, humiliated, starts a loud fight with Gigliola in the courtyard and threatens her. Soon after, Enzo drops out of elementary school, enrolls in trade school, and begins work at his parents’ produce cart. Lila and Lenù, meanwhile, face down the prospect of continuing on 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.
This passage shows how male violence infiltrates the spheres of women in insidious and frightening ways. In Lenù and Lila’s world, when male honor is threatened, there is often violent, punitive retribution not just against other men but against women as well. To Lenù and Lila, the prospect of attaining an education seems like an escape from this vicious cycle.
Themes
Lila’s parents reject the idea that she might continue on in school out of hand. Her father, Fernando, will not hear of it, and even hits Lila’s brother Rino when he sticks up for her. Maestra Oliviero summons Nunzia to school to beg her to see Lila’s brilliance—but Nunzia, controlled by her husband, cannot yield.
This passage shows how the men of the neighborhood control the lives and fates of the women around them. Despite Lila’s academic talent, it seems that her father will never see her work in school as a worthwhile pursuit.
Themes
The day after Nunzia’s visit to school, Lila and Lenù are walking to class when Lila declares that she is planning on taking the test to enter middle school anyway. Lenù believes without a doubt that Lila will do so. Lenù knows that “in the end,” people always give in to Lila.
Lila refuses to believe that she will not be allowed to continue in school—and Lenù, inspired by Lila’s strength and determination, shares in Lila’s optimism.
Themes
