Stefania Lucamante writes in Undoing Feminism: The Neapolitan Novels of Elena Ferrante that “A complex relationship between the emancipatory power of sisterly friendship and the desire for the individual assertion of a woman threads the sisterly relations” between Lenù and Lila. Lucamante argues however that the relationship works to improve and help Lenù but not Lila:  “..the relationship is functional to her individual ascent, not a communal one”. Previously, I had seen Elena as being dependent on Lila, but after reading Lucamante’s paper, I’m beginning to think that it is less a situation of dependency, but of exploitation. As Lucamante writes, “Elena feigns submission to Lila, but she actually uses her”. It seems Lenù approaches many of her relationships this way. For example, her relationships with the other Airotas, in which she seems to benefit from all the connections and prestige that they have, but it doesn’t appear they receive anything from her in return. Most of the relationships she creates are because she can benefit them, whether it be her relationship with Donato Sarratore, once she discovers he is a writer, or with Franco, who helps her both socially, financially, and education-wise.