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.