Benjamin’s essay on Naples speaks of the entrenched poverty in Naples. Benjamin writes that in Naples “Poverty and misery seem as contagious as they are pictured to be to children”. Living surrounded in poverty, it is impossible to not also fall into poverty too.

The characters in Lenù’s neighbourhood are in poverty. Lenù and Lila’s reaction to this is a desire to escape their poverty, and by extension the neighbourhood too. When they are children, they dream of writing a successful novel, inspired by reading Little Women, and to be wealthy as a result. Benjamin’s essay reflects the friends’ view of poverty. They see it all around them, have been impacted by it. Lack of money is a constant obstacle in Lenù’s education, and was one of the factors that prevented Lila from continuing her education. A desire to pull themselves out of poverty underlines many things they do. 

Lila and Lenù have many reasons why they want to escape poverty. It prevents them from doing many things ie school, but it is summed up aptly with a line from Lila to Lenù: “There is a poverty that makes us all cruel” (261). It is not just poverty they want to escape, it is the violence and depravity that it creates. Towards the end of the first novel, Lila is in a situation where she has money to spare when she becomes engaged to Stefano. However, Elena notes that during this time she realised that money itself was no longer the object for them, but the protection that money offers themselves and the ones around them. She writes that the dream of “The treasure chests full of gold pieces ..when we published a book like Little Women – riches and fame- had truly faded. Perhaps the idea of money as a cement to solidify our experience and prevent it from dissolving, together with the people who were dear to us, endured…” (248). Lenù is realizing here, that they do not want money, they want the safety and the privilege that having money creates.