Tag Archives: lilaandlenu

Parasitism

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.  

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Diverging Lives

For this post I want to focus on Ferrante’s women, and in particular, Lenù and Lila. When they are young Lenù and Lila experience similar lives because they live in the same impoverished neighborhood in Naples. But as they grow older, Lenù and Lila pursue increasingly different lives. Lenù continues her studies while Lila adjusts to her new life as Mrs. Carracci. This difference is evident in this description of Lenù and Lila as they walk together in the neighborhood:

“Walking next to her I felt embarrassment and also a sense of danger. It seemed to me that she was risking not only gossip but ridicule, and that both reflected on me a sort of colorless but loyal puppy who served as her escort. Everything about her—the hair, the earrings, the close-fitting blouse, the tight skirt, the way she walked—was unsuitable for the gray streets of the neighborhood” (Ferrante, 15, p.73).

In this section Lenù describes an important contrast. The contrast between herself and Lila in which she herself is “colorless” while Lila is “unsuitable for the gray streets of the neighborhood.” One could only conclude that Lenù seems to blend in with the gray neighborhood and Lila seems to stick out. Lenù continues to dress the part of the neighborhood in which she still resides while Lila, having become a Carracci, dresses in a wealthy manner. This is an important contrast to take note of because it really displays the dramatic split in the lives of these two friends. Lenù remains tied to the neighborhood and Lila has married her way out of it in a sense. It’s interesting to note how two girls growing up in the same neighborhood become so very different in the kind of lives they lead in the future. I think it’s pretty impressive how Ferrante is able to truly capture the nature of their two very different lives yet still make the interactions between the two realistic.