The environment plays an essential role in dictating the traits of a person. However, despite the hostility of the surrounding, the individuals who are determined to achieve their life goals always embrace success. The surrounding can make people develop fear even of their closest friends, hence seeing them as enemies. In other words, a harsh environment makes individuals nervous and cautious about everything which they do in life. Both Elena Greco and Lila Cerullo live in a challenging society against women’s empowerment, whereby men are supposed to dominate every community conversation and topic, regardless of having inadequate expertise. In the novel My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante, the writer develops two characters, Elena and Lila, who, through sharing the everyday environment, become close friends, helping one another in different life spheres. It requires women’s internal strength and boldness to succeed in Naple City, considering that they have limited social opportunities. Therefore, Naples’s dissolving margins and conditions in which these two young girls live significantly impact them, making them fearful and upholding the feminism notion that females are inferior to their male counterparts.
Lila uses the dissolving margins to show the audience the tremendous change that has taken place in society. She says, “The outlines of things and people suddenly dissolved and consequently disappeared” (Ferrante 89). Further, Lila mentions that on those occasions, during the celebration of welcoming another year, the outlines of people’s personalities disappeared after dissolving. She reiterates that when welcoming the year 1959, the noises and the fire streaks on the sky frightened her to the extent of developing nausea. Lila felt like something present around everyone was breaking down the actual outlines of things and persons and subsequently revealing itself. The New Year’s Eve made her perceive unknown entities for the first time, which broke the world’s outline, illustrating its frightening nature. Interpretatively, Lila is nervous about the difficulties which the new year will bring. She sees the world through pain, whereby the world’s framework has been broken, demonstrating its terrifying nature. The world is unfriendly to Lila’s life, giving her minimum opportunities to succeed. Connectedly, in the dissolving margins, Lila sees the new year and the globe cruel to its people, hence becoming fearful.
Additionally, Lila presents the metaphor of the dissolving margins when the copper pot breaks. Lila opines that “it was hanging on its normal place, the nail, but its large hole made it deformed, hence no longer holding its appearance:” (Ferrante 229). Lila interprets the pot’s deformation that energy cannot be destroyed or created, but it can change to different forms. The breaking of the pot signifies the burden that she was carrying in society, a sign of discrimination and struggle. Females could not persevere the cruelty of the surrounding egocentric environment that gave men every opportunity. Marcello violently insists that Lila must marry him, but when she refuses, her parents become furious. She becomes terrified and understands that she will consequently break everything in life if she does not make critical decisions. Understandably, Lila sees her life as a pot that might break and become useless after losing its significance if not repaired when it is deformed. The dissolving metaphor reflects the harsh life situations which Lila faced, creating strategies to overcome them. Thus, the breaking of the copper pot critically relates with feminism and the dissolving margins.
Different objects in the novel are used emblematically, symbolizing freedom among women. As Gibbons mentions, “the dissolving margins represent different incidents and happenings in a society whose era has come to an end” (392). The writer denotes to Lila’s regular sensation regarding the ‘dissolving margins’ whereby she mentions that the outlines of things and persons suddenly dissolved and subsequently disappeared. Gibbons develops a critical comprehension of this assumption, relating it to society’s real happenings, which Ferrante uses “to attract the reader’s emotions” (392). Lila symbolically presents an understanding that the issue of female discrimination in society is slowly dissolving since its time has come to an end. In other words, Lila foreshadows the future world where ordeals of gender discrimination will be unheard. When Lila talks about the outlines of people changing, she develops an understanding in the reader’s mind that people are mentally shifting their conception of females and seeing them as equal people who can achieve equal and even more than men. Therefore, the dissolving and disappearance of people’s outlines in the novel My Brilliant Friend represents the end of a gender discrimination period.
Moreover, the city atmosphere makes both girls, Elena and Lila, embrace a sense of togetherness, subsequently achieving greater accomplishment. Bakopoulos alludes that “the past actions are a reservoir to accommodate the new present, but the past reconstruction creates the extant memories, a scenario which preoccupies Elena, after loosing her best friend” (399). Understandably, Elena recognizes that her close bonding and friendship with Elena is of huge benefit whereby the individuals have since childhood benefited together, encouraging one another as women. Under many circumstances, both Elena and Lila have proven the society that women are equally productive and can achieve enormous status and even surpass men. For instance, the way that Lila competes and defeats boys in answering different topical questions in class signifies that women are intelligent people in the community and it is underrated which suppresses them. It is the external environment has affected ladies internally, whereby they see themselves inferior to their male counterparts. Contrary, men have developed an egocentric view, whereby they command women. Holistically, the external environment has made women see themselves as weak beings who can achieve nothing other than working under men’s instructions.
In conclusion, it is paramount to note that the novel My Brilliant Friend develops a critical understanding that the external environment dictates the actual mental behavior which people can embrace in society. The dissolving margins represent the world’s cruelty and how feminism was essential in Elena and Lila’s early years due to gender parity. Over the decades, women have fought to ensure gender inclusivity in every sphere of life. Gender discrimination has made Lila lose trust in people, including her closest friends. The Naples city’s harsh environment changes the way two girls behave and coordinate themselves. The breaking of the copper pot represents Lila’s and women’s life in general, who are working hard to ensure that their lives do not break. Moreover, New Year Eve resembles the real cruel personality of people in society. The miserable life that Elena and Lila face in Naples city shapes their thinking, imparting a sense that they are similar and intelligent as their male counterparts, hence rising and fighting for their societal rights.
Work Cited
Bakopoulos, Natalie. “We Are Always Us: The Boundaries of Elena Ferrante.” Michigan Quarterly Review, vol. 55, no. 3, 2016, pp. 396-419. Web.
Ferrante, Elena. My Brilliant Friend. Europa Editions UK, 2012.
Gibbons, Alison. “The Dissolving Margins of Elena Ferrante and the Neapolitan Novels.” Narrative Inquiry, vol. 29, no. 2, 2015, pp. 391-417. Web.