Trust is hard to regain when it’s constantly broken. In Elena Ferrante’s novel My Brilliant Friend, two female protagonists lack trust in the people in their community, and more disturbingly, in their own decision-making. As new wealth arrives, trust is rebuilt between groups who had previously been hostile, revealing that trust is not only correlated with affluence, it depends on it. But Jane Jacobs’ book The Death and Life of Great American Cities claims that trust is built on certain factors of a city; namely, regular public contact on sidewalks. Although this public contact exists in Ferrante’s novel, it does not prove to be influential in creating trust in the neighborhood. Ultimately, while Jacobs assumes that trust is built by human connections, trust for Ferrante relies on money, and in an environment where poverty and scarcity prevail, there is more to gain as a perpetrator of mistrust than as a victim of it.
Jacobs and Ferrante fundamentally disagree on the definition of trust. The Cambridge Dictionary defines trust as the belief “that something is safe and reliable.” It’s the assurance that something is “honest and will not [cause] harm” (“Trust”). For Jacobs, there is only one qualification for building trust: the existence of a very personal, intimate city groundwork. Jacobs states, “the trust of a city street is formed…from many, many little public sidewalk contacts.” These sidewalk contacts can be as small as greeting the man at the newsstand, conversing with the bartender, or buying gum at the corner store (Jacobs 56). Thus, Jacobs’ view of trust is grounded in her belief in humanity, which to her, is the inherent ability to form bonds
with other people. Even amongst strangers, Jacobs believes people are innately connected–that people will be good to others because they themselves are good. Ferrante’s definition of trust is
multifaceted and more cynical. For Ferrante, mistrust is conventional and accepted, while trust is rare. From the beginning of Ferrante’s novel, the protagonists, Lenu and Lila, are surrounded by mistrust. In their small neighborhood in Naples, mistrust is a survival tactic for navigating an unpredictable, violence-filled environment. But acquiring money, which provides security, serves as a more viable survival strategy. Therefore, for Ferrante, trust can only exist as a byproduct of wealth and security, and since wealth fluctuates, trust is transient.
Lila’s feeling of “dissolving margins” results from a mistrust in her own decisions which derives from her family’s poverty. Lila is a fierce, intelligent young woman who grows up in a poor household. Forced to drop out of school due to financial constraints, she begins to work in her father’s shoe store. When a wealthy suitor named Marcello proposes to Lila, she is strongly encouraged to marry. Lila’s father explains “that Marcello Solara’s proposal [is] important not only for her future but for that of the whole family” (Ferrante 206). Though Lila hates Marcello, she desires financial security for her family and thus experiences a mental division that she calls “dissolving margins.” Within “dissolving margins,” the illusion of social bonds linking people of the city together disintegrates, exposing to Lila the fragility of her connections. She finds that interpersonal bonds are so weak, even within her family, that without money to hold her world together, everything will collapse. This fear intensifies following the explosion of a copper pot in Lila’s kitchen. She recognizes this as a sign “to find a solution, otherwise, everything, one thing after another, will break, everything, everything” (Ferrante 229). Lila believes one wrong decision about her engagement can lead to the physical fragmentation of her reality. The previously fierce Lila is replaced by someone insecure and fearful, demonstrating that without
money, she loses not only her self-trust but also her sense of self. Though Lila is the only one attuned to the feeling of “dissolving margins,” it is reasonable to assume that many people in her
community experience the same loss of self. Jacobs argues that the self can be preserved so long as sufficient personal connections exist, but it is impossible to find these connections, as explored through Lenu’s eyes.
Lenu’s neighborhood transforms as various public contacts arise, and though she attempts to adhere to Jacobs’ view of trust, she finds it absent. Lenu discovers mistrust in childhood, demonstrated through the actions of her and Lila’s dolls, who form a microcosm of the girls’ world. Their dolls “spied on each other” and “sized each other up” (Ferrante 30), representing Lenu’s understanding of the lack of trusting relationships in her world. However, in her middle school years, Lenu’s childhood acquaintances become regular characters on the street, and small public interactions become common. She sees a childhood friend, Enzo, with his vegetable cart, who conveys “an honest, reassuring willingness to serve his customers,” and waves to Pasquale who works on the construction site. From this, Lenu hastily concludes that the neighborhood has reformed and is “not to be known by the accumulated hatreds… but, rather, to show a new face” (Ferrante 109). According to Jacobs’ viewpoint that trust is formed from “many little public sidewalk contacts,” (Jacobs 56) the community should become trusting during this period, corroborating Lenu’s prediction. However, though public contacts exist, sincere human connections do not. Lenu is alone in abiding by Jacobs’ idea of trust, and she attempts to trust in her education, hoping it will generate success. For others in Lenu’s community, establishing real personal connections is unnecessary because trust is viewed through the lens of Ferrante: as a product of wealth. And as wealth remains absent, the streets continue as a home for mistrust. Even after a web of sidewalk interactions is established, Ada is raped by the Solara brothers, rival groups launch fireworks at each other, and brutal fights erupt.
It is only when individuals like Stefano acquire money and security that trust emerges,
but this trust is temporary because the powerless remain at the mercy of the wealthy. Stefano is the first example of someone in the neighborhood with both money and security. His wealth is described not as flashy like other members of the community, but as “wealth that [exists] in the
facts of every day…without splendor and without glory” (Ferrante 249). Stefano uses his wealth and security to build a bridge of trust between himself and his family’s rivals; he invites the Pelusos to dinner for New Year’s, making a “conclusive peace” with them (Ferrante 170). Stefano’s financial stability also allows Lila to begin to trust herself again. Towards the end of the novel, Lila agrees to marry Stefano, confident that her decision will ensure her family’s future financially. Her self-trust is displayed when her feeling of “dissolving margins” ceases. Lenu, when describing Lila after the engagement, says “the story of the exploded pot” is no longer a piece of her; that the Lila who had experienced that feeling “had disappeared” (Ferrante 265). Lila’s trust in herself is amplified because Stefano’s money acts as a safety net, alleviating her fear of the world collapsing. However, this trust is temporary. During her wedding reception, Lila sees Marcello wearing the handmade shoes Stefano bought from her family’s store just weeks before. This moment represents Stefano’s lack of loyalty to Lila. Although Stefano initially succumbs to all of Lila’s demands, in the end, the business of men is more important. Lila is once again left incapable of trusting herself and anyone else in her life.
The conflict between Don Achille and Signor Peluso highlights that mistrust due to lack of money and security ultimately leads to violent social breakdown. For Signor Peluso, a broke carpenter and gambler, mistrust stems from a lack of financial stability. Throughout the novel, Peluso doesn’t trust the people around him, including Don Achille, whom Peluso blames for his downfall. Though in reality he “lost everything gambling,” (Ferrante 36) Peluso publicly declares that Don Achille stole his carpentry tools and his shop. Peluso’s projection of blame
comes from the sentiment that he must “make it difficult for others before they [make] it difficult for [him]” (Ferrante 37). This mindset is widespread in the community and is rooted in mistrust and the belief that people will betray each other before they can be betrayed. It’s a coping mechanism for surviving an environment motivated by financial jealousy, where the desperation to preserve scarce material resources dominates. For Peluso, this mistrust isn’t completely unjustified. Don Achille, the local boss of the Camorra and loan shark of the neighborhood (Ovan, 2023), holds power over Peluso, who is deeply in debt from gambling. Because Peluso cannot trust that Don Achille won’t end his life at any moment, he hurts Don Achille before Don Achille can hurt him, and mistrust escalates into violence. The rivalry ends with Peluso’s imprisonment for the murder of Don Achille. This idea of “get them before they get you” applies to most instances of violence seen in Ferrante’s novel. Without money to produce trust, the neighborhood collapses into violence.
In Ferrante’s novel, trust is rare because the pairing of money and security is rare in Naples. Because of this, Jacobs’ optimism in building trust borders on naïveté when placed alongside the harsh environment that Ferrante creates. In an ideal world where people believe trust is built by sidewalk contacts, Lila and Lenu could have a stable sense of trust and form real connections with others. But the protagonists don’t live in an ideal world. Throughout their childhood, the girls “didn’t trust…the people inside and outside their houses” (Ferrante 31). Their relationship with trust is built on a foundation of money, and when money is scarce in a community, so is trust.
Bibliography
Ferrante, Elena. My Brilliant Friend. Translated by Ann Goldstein, Europa Editions, 2019.
Jacobs, Jane. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Vintage Books, 1992. Ovan, Sabrina. “Women’s Movements: Space, Friendship and Deception in Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend.” CORE 1. Scripps College. 13 Oct. 2023.
https://vimeo.com/user32186518/review/857664086/53299984f8.
“Trust.” Cambridge Dictionary, https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/trust.