Shoes Symbol in My Brilliant Friend

Shoes are a symbol of hope and financial progress, but also of the impossibility of success. When Lila’s parents, Fernando and Nunzia Cerullo, are unable to pay for her to continue her education into middle school, Lila goes to work in her father’s cobbler shop making and mending shoes for other families in the neighborhood. Lila, is obsessed with finding a way to make money for herself as a means of escaping the neighborhood, so she begins scheming with her brother Rino to design a line of fine shoes for men and women that will pull their family’s business up out of obscurity and allow them to make real money. In this way, shoes represent a hope for a better life, a wealthier future, and a happier existence. However, when Rino gives the prototype he and Lila make to Fernando, their father lashes out in anger, furious that his children would attempt to change his business model (and likely afraid of how the neighborhood loan sharks would react to their money-making attempt).

In the second half of the book, an older Lila realizes that in order to make her dreams a reality, she must rely on the wealth of men she at worst despises and at best tolerates. As such, the shoes become a symbol of the impossibility of true social mobility. Lila’s suitor Stefano Carracci becomes interested in the shoes. Though they are too small, he buys them for an astronomical sum directly from Fernando—and, in the same breath, he proposes to Lila and promises to invest a grand sum of money in the Cerullo shoes business so that Lila’s designs can be faithfully made. It seems that every move forward Lila makes has strings attached, and in order to make money for her family and establish social security for herself, she must sell herself (and her ideas) to the highest bidder. At the end of the novel, when the hated Marcello arrives at Lila and Stefano’s wedding wearing the very shoes Stefano purchased, Lila is full of rage and sadness—she realizes that even though marrying Stefano has given her the illusion of security, wealth and power will always rule her neighborhood. The implication is that Marcello has bought, extorted, or demanded from Stefano the shoes Lila made in order to free herself socially and financially. Ultimately, then, shoes represent Ferrante’s assertion that for women of Lila and Lenù’s time, there is little room for freedom, advancement, or recognition through work: everything is inextricably tied to men, money, and power.

Shoes Quotes in My Brilliant Friend

The My Brilliant Friend quotes below all refer to the symbol of Shoes. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

I tried to remind her of the old plan of writing novels… […] I was stuck there, it was important to me. I was learning Latin just for that, and deep inside I was convinced that she 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), Rafaella “Lila” Cerullo, Rino Cerullo, Fernando Cerullo

Related Symbols: Shoes, Language, Literature, and Writing

Page Number and Citation: 117

Explanation and Analysis:

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 that, even if she became rich making shoes with Rino, she couldn't do without me, as I couldn't do without her.

She looked at me perplexed.

"What is high school?" she asked.

"An important school that comes after middle school."

"And what are you going there to do?"

"Study."

"What?"

"Latin,"

"That's all?"

"And Greek."

[…]

She had the expression of someone at a loss, finding nothing to say. Finally she murmured, irrelevantly, "Last week I got my period."

Related Characters: Elena “Lenù” Greco (speaker), Rafaella “Lila” Cerullo (speaker), Rino Cerullo

Related Symbols: Shoes, Language, Literature, and Writing

Page Number and Citation: 132-133

Explanation and Analysis:

[Rino] had always seemed to her only generously impetuous, sometimes aggressive, but not a braggart. Now, though, he posed as what he was not. He felt he was close to wealth. A boss. Someone who could give the neighborhood the first sign of the good fortune the new year would bring by 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 considered enemies to be beaten, so that he could assume their role.

Related Characters: Elena “Lenù” Greco (speaker), Rafaella “Lila” Cerullo, Marcello Solara, Rino Cerullo, Michele Solara

Related Symbols: Fireworks, Shoes

Page Number and Citation: 166

Explanation and Analysis:

“What would it cost you to let him see them?” I asked, confused.

She shook her head energetically. “I don’t even want him to touch them.”

Related Characters: Elena “Lenù” Greco (speaker), Rafaella “Lila” Cerullo (speaker), Marcello Solara, Rino Cerullo, Fernando Cerullo

Related Symbols: Shoes

Page Number and Citation: 203

Explanation and Analysis:

Punctually, three days later, he went to the store and bought the shoes, even though they were tight. The two Cerullos with much hesitation asked for twenty-five thousand lire, but were ready to go down to ten thousand. He didn't bat an eye and put down another twenty thousand in exchange for Lila's drawings, which—he said—he liked, he wanted to frame them.

Related Characters: Elena “Lenù” Greco (speaker), Rafaella “Lila” Cerullo, Stefano Carracci, Marcello Solara, Rino Cerullo, Fernando Cerullo

Related Symbols: Shoes

Page Number and Citation: 244

Explanation and Analysis:

Marcello sat down, loosened his tie, crossed his legs.

The unpredictable revealed itself only at that point. I saw Lila 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 the shoes of Marcello Solara.

[…] Marcello had on his feet the shoes bought earlier by Stefano, her husband. It was the pair she had made with Rino, making and unmaking them for months, ruining her hands.

Related Characters: Elena “Lenù” Greco (speaker), Rafaella “Lila” Cerullo, Stefano Carracci, Marcello Solara, Rino Cerullo

Related Symbols: Shoes

Page Number and Citation: 331

Explanation and Analysis:

Shoes Symbol Timeline in My Brilliant Friend

The timeline below shows where the symbol Shoes appears in My Brilliant Friend. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...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... (full context)

Masculine vs. Feminine Violence Theme Icon

...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.... (full context)

Poverty, Social Climbing, and Sacrifice Theme Icon

...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... (full context)

...working on a plan: they want to persuade Fernando to make a fancy line of shoes that will sell well in the center of town, on the Rettifilo in Naples. Their... (full context)

...makes Lenù feel superior. Lila and Rino show Lenù their continued work on their fancy shoes—though they are proud of their efforts, Lenù is confused by the frivolous shoes. Lenù often... (full context)

...she believes Rino has begun to count on the idea of making money from the shoes “too heavily.” Lila notices that an aggressive, braggadocious side of Rino's personality has begun to... (full context)

...arrives late 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... (full context)

Rino is eager to show the finished shoes to Fernando, but Lila believes the shoes are full of flaws—she wants to throw them... (full context)

Fernando pretends to like the shoes, complimenting them and praising the “Befana” for her craftsmanship and thoughtfulness. Only Lila can hear... (full context)

...tacitly suggests Fernando consider expanding his shop. He begins praising the idea of making new shoes. Rino becomes visibly uncomfortable. Marcello says he knows that Rino and Lila have made a... (full context)

...is huddled at the top of the stairwell near the terrace entrance. She clutches the shoes to her chest and declares that she doesn’t want Marcello to touch them or even... (full context)

...there, he points out that if they can get Marcello to like and buy the shoes, their father will let them start making more and selling them. The Solaras, he assures... (full context)

A week goes by and no one shows any interests in the special shoes in the window—not even Marcello. Eventually, Rino drags Marcello to the shop and forces him... (full context)

...time. As 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... (full context)

...are looking at them with strange, “sullen” curiosity. Stefano asks if he can try the shoes on. When Rino brings them out, Stefano asks Lenù what she thinks of them, and... (full context)

Stefano tries on the shoes, stands up, and walks around. Stefano’s face becomes worried—he announces that the shoes are too... (full context)

...plan is not just to 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. (full context)

Three days later, Stefano returns and purchases the too-tight shoes. Stefano pays 25,000 lira for the shoes and another 20 for Lila’s drawings, announcing his... (full context)

...that if Stefano puts up the expenses, he and Rino will begin production on the shoes right away. Stefano says he’ll pay two or three workers to join the shop and... (full context)

That night, Rino taunts Marcello about Stefano’s new car—and the fact that Stefano purchased the shoes for 25,000 lire. Marcello laughs the provocations off. Over the next several nights, Rino continues... (full context)

In November, the Cerullos finish their first batch of shoes. Upon seeing them, Lila tells Lenù that she feels a “very violent emotion,” as if... (full context)

...preparations that they hardly notice when Rino becomes depressed and agitated again. As the finished shoes sit piled in their boxes in the shop, Rino’s agitation increases. He asks another shoemaker... (full context)

...shatter the wine bottles in front of her on the table. Marcello is wearing Cerullo shoes. Rather than wearing the display pair, he is wearing the very pair bought earlier by... (full context)

My Brilliant Friend

Elena Ferrante

Shoes Symbol Analysis

Shoes Quotes in My Brilliant Friend

Shoes Symbol Timeline in My Brilliant Friend