Throughout the Neapolitan Novels Lila experiences episodes, she calls dissolving boundaries. Figures and people spill over their outlines and become shapeless and Lila experiences this in 1958 on New Year’s Eve when her brother Rino and his friends battle with fireworks to show up the Solaras. The dissolving of boundaries is attached to a loss of control. This sensation terrifies Lila and she expresses, “All my life I’ve done nothing, Lenù, but hold back moments like those” (TSLC, 177). But, when an earthquake hits the neighborhood, Lila is enveloped in a situation far beyond her control as she feels her own boundaries and the boundaries of the neighborhood dissolve.

When the earthquake hits, Lila has no control over anything, and it terrifies her. Earlier in the novels whenever things would scare Lila, she would use the men in her life to hide behind: Marcello, Stefano, Michele, Nino, and Enzo. When she fears one man she moves to the next and in this cycle, she has control. Lila has this natural control over men. Lila used men as a tool to avoid the episodes of dissolving boundaries but when the earthquake hits, she has no one to hide behind because it’s all around her. The fear and sensation of smarginatura engulfs Lila and she is left as helpless as ever.