It is evident that Elena is fascinated about Lina, whether it is about her behavior or intellect. This is contradicting for in the prologue Lina is depicted as frail or easily broke, “You haven’t seen her for a while, Elena, she’s gotten worse: she’s never sleepy, she comes in, goes out, does what she likes.”(Ferrante 19). This does not reflect Lina’s early childhood where she lived in a rough environment but managed to move forward because she had a strong will. The mystery here is how Lina, tough as nails person, managed to become this total opposite. I’m sure all of this will be answered as we go through their story.

There were plenty of on instances when Elena was baffled by Lina’s responses or actions and it merits to be analyze in relation to their evolution. It is still too soon to shed light about their relationship into the reading but from what the text provided it is clear that there is a element of dependency in their friendship. We see it in the prologue, “We’ll see who wins this time, I said to myself.”(Ferrante 23). Here Elena is an adult and she is competing with Lina of this made-up race. Although it’s established that Elena and Lina were apart for some time there is a drive in Elena to catch up or rather to be in terms with Lina. This need to be in the same level as Lina in stems from this unspoken competitiveness that started early childhood, “She began to subject me to proofs of courage that had nothing to do with school.”(Ferrante 54). Elena’s growth is in relation to Lila’s growth. Lila excels at school, Elena pushes herself so she doesn’t fall behind. Although she admits that Lila is too far advanced for her nevertheless she continues to thrive to improve her intellect. Unlike Elena, Lila’s growth is all through her own strengths and she achieved this with little effort. I have yet to see moments with absolute certainty that this effect of growth by means of dependency is the same for Lila. This seems to be one-sided as of right now.