The Role Of Power In My Brilliant Friend

In the novel “My Brilliant Friend” power plays a key and intrusive role in the entire piece. Set in old Naples, the novel follows the friendship between Elena Greco and Raffaella Cerullo, also known as Lila. Power is a key feature in the text ranging from fights between different families or power struggles within each family. A character that constantly fights and strives to achieve this power within his own family in the novel is Rino Cerullo, Lila’s older brother. His power struggle shows how the societal norms of family have a large emphasis on the expected role of the son as well as the patriarchal norms in the family. Rino’s character throughout the story grows and develops past the kind older brother who pushes hard for Lila’s education to a character who cares mostly about his own worth. This is highlighted in his desperate need to surpass his
father, Fernando Cerullo, in shoe making.
Both Rino and Lila worked together for a long time to create their own pair of shoes, however while Lila stays constant in simply wanting to create better shoes, Rino becomes consumed and obsessed with how he believes he has already surpassed his father and that there are no flaws in his work. Then despite Lila’s disapproval, Rino shows Fernando the shoes that they constructed in secret and is immediately beaten by Fernando. This sends Rino down into not only a fit of despair, but anger as well. Rino needs constant verification of his own supposed genius and skill compared to his father. Rino’s behavior is a rebellion towards the expected norm of a son learning from his father, inheriting his father’s trade, and then continuing the cycle with their own son. Rino does not want an equal footing with his father; he wants to be above
him. Rino’s wish for power over his father shows a contradiction compared to the other boys in the neighborhood. The boys such as Stefano Carracci and Enzo Scanno followed in their father’s footsteps working in the family business with no complaint shown obvious to the reader. Rino is the contradiction that breaks this pattern. He does not wish to follow in his father’s footsteps. He wants to break free of his expected role as a son. This is a rarity in itself because in such a traditional neighborhood it is expected that the son would not only show respect to his father but also be extremely willing to follow in his footsteps. Rino’s thirst for power is also viewed in his relationship with Lila. He breaks away from his previous role of the carrying older brother who would always protect his sister to wanting full control over his sister. Not only in the showing of their shoes did Rino display a sort of dominance over Lila, but this display of dominance could also be seen when him and Lila were showing their shoes to Elena first. While he felt content over the quality of the shoes, Lila points out the flaws and Rino explodes on her for this. This could just be seen as frustration; however Rino goes beyond that by threatening to hurt Lila with an iron foot. Rino was already feeling the threat of his loss of power with his father, so he begins to make up for it in controlling Lila. He wants her to obey his orders and not question it. He earns his justification for this in the simplest of ways not in age but in gender. He knows that as a man he will have control over whoever he chooses as his wife and thus figures that he has control over his sister. He reiterates this power by displaying his dominance in the form of violence.