With the date of the midterm presentation approaching I want to center my thinking and analyses on Lila and Lenù’s relationship. I want to narrow my presentation specifically on how Lila is a sort of parasite or disease in Lenù’s life.

An episode in this reading where Lila is seen as a parasite in Lenù’s life occurs through the events following the party at Professor Galiani’s house. At the party, Lenù feels confident, praised and accepted amongst people like her who are educated and strive to be brilliant. Lenù comes to realize after the party at Professor Galiani’s house that she does not want a real relationship with Lila anymore (Ferrante, 169). Lila viciously mocks the manner of the people Lenù strives to be like and this deeply upsets Lenù. All of Lila’s hateful remarks of the night turns Lenù’s joy sour. This immense influence Lila has over Lenù’s emotions is shown through this passage:

“She was so spiteful, all the way home along Corso Vittorio Emanuele, that I was silent, and felt the poison that was transforming what had seemed to me an important moment of my life into a false step that has made me ridiculous. I struggled not to believe her. I felt she was truly hostile and capable of anything. She knew how to set the nerves of good people alight, in their breasts she kindled the fire of destruction” (Ferrante, 163).

Lila has the power to ruin the joys of Lenù’s life. This party is one of the few moments so far that Lenù feels confident being herself; someone who continues to pursue her studies because they matter and will lead to a brilliant future. This party gives her hope and in a single car ride home Lila is able to dismantle that hope and leave Lenù feeling inadequate once again. Lila sucks the hope and joy out of Lenù like a parasite sucks the life out of its host.