My Brilliant Friend Violence Quotes

Violence is used in the novel My Brilliant Friend, written by Elena Ferrante, as a thematic idea. The neighborhood Elena and Lila live in experiences violence on a daily basis, but is rarely pursued as a real problem. Elena, even as a child, the harm of young boys throwing rocks at her because she is smarter than them. The thematic idea of violence is conveyed by using the motif of fevers and the impact of violence on people, proving that violence often has negative consequences. The thematic idea of violence having negative consequences is seen through the motif of fevers. Lila’s father Fernando violently throws Lila out the window and breaks her arm, and she shortly after withstands a fever. This fever causes her to look like “the spirit of a child who had eaten poisonous berries” (91), and eventually leads to Lila’s failure of middle school. The potential of Lila’s academic future is diminished by her fathers violent actions with her. Fever is also prominent when Rino begins to use violence because Lila refuses to pursue a business opportunity with Marcello, and then gets a fever shortly …show more content…
The character of Don Achille is commonly associated with violence, as he “[throws] [Peluso] against a tree in the public gardens” (37). Don Achille is later murdered, supposedly by the same person. By unnecessarily using violence in this situation, Achille has a major consequence. The Solara brothers also experience negative actions through their violence. When the Solaras had been nearly defeated in a firework competition, “in order to win, were shooting at [Elena and her friends]” (178). Irony is used in this passage because if the brothers were to kill Elena and her friends, there would be no one to compete and win against. This grows conflicts with these characters inside of the novel and explains that being harsh is not socially