Arinze Adigwe Reading Novels Professor Alice Elliot Dark First Paper 10/15/2022 Home Sweet Home Nigeria was where I was born and raised all my life. Fifteen years of my life I spent in Nigeria, in the heat, in the terrible living conditions, in the horrible economy. In one of the most corrupt countries in Africa, I inhabited it for fifteen years. Regardless of the vast negativity that plagued my home country, I enjoyed life, lived with my closest friends and family, enjoyed the delicious Nigerian dishes, and created so many memorable memories that I will never forget. And with such an experience, I can definitely relate and understand immensely the great reluctance in Lila leaving her hometown. I have so much love and care for both my family and friends over there. This also applies to Lila as well, who has showcased numerous displays of high regard to her family throughout the book “My Brilliant Friend”. Yes she might have lived in a neighborhood so toxic, so hostile to each other, filled with gangsters, violence, with so many people who idolized Nazism and all other forms of bad politics. But this was her home, her family, her whole life. Here in this place filled with so much gloom, she built many things of importance. It is no wonder she does not want to leave. Her family’s poverty, her love for her family, her family’s lack of belief in her ability, her best friend, and so many more childhood memories are the reasons why she is so reluctant to leave home. Lila lived in one of the smaller apartments with her family, which is a very big family with other relatives. According to the text, it is written that “the family was large, they all had to live off the shoe repair shop, including two unmarried sisters of Fernando and Nunzia’s parents.” The family includes Lila’s parents, her brother Rino, Lila herself, Fernando’s two sisters and Nunzia’s parents. That is a total of eight people in a pretty small apartment. And on top of that, Lila’s parents worked as shoe makers which definitely did not bring in a lot of income. This is because of the shoe factories and other mainstream companies that made shoes, making their shoe repair store completely obsolete. Due to that, they were basically living in poverty. In class when we watched the show, there was an episode where Marcello gifted Lila a television. The happiness that both Lila and her family felt was real. The fact that they became so joyous just watching images on a tv showed just how poor they were. This is because they could not afford such luxuries. We even got to see just how small the living room was as they invited their neighbors to watch the television with them. Lila living with her family under these conditions, would not want to just abandon them to fend for themselves. Instead she would rather stay and help in whatever way possible. She wanted to help so badly to the point that she gave up her dreams of studying and becoming a writer with her best friend Lenu, to continue to repair shoes and create a new shop with her brother Rino. Lila once said, “Let’s write one together”. She said this to Lenu. Both had hopes of getting wealthy writing their favorite books. However, Lila changed and decided that she needed money now and went on to help around the shop. Her ability to give up on her shared dream with her friend to provide for her family in the moment, shows how much love and care she has for her people. Even the author compares Lila’s parents to a wall. As mentioned in the text, “so on the matter of school it was like talking to the wall.” This portrays just how poor they were. They completely put school out of their mind for Lila. They did not entertain the idea of school at all due to their poverty. As a result of this, Lila will not be able to go to school, gain more knowledge and leave the neighborhood. Regardless of the amount of violence, pain, and disrespect that Lila’s family- specifically her father - has caused her, yet she is still so hesitant to leave them. It is almost as though her love is obsessive. Like she sees no evil in anything her family does. For example, her own father does not believe that she can succeed in school. In fact, he believes that schools are not even for girls. During an argument between him and Rino, he asks Rino, “Did you go to school?” Rino replies “No.” Then Lila’s father asks, “Then why should your sister, who is a girl, go to school?” The fact that he states “who is a girl” is so insultive to his own daughter. A very sexist statement he said that even Lila herself heard. His statement shows a lot about his thoughts on his daughter. It means he has no belief his daughter can succeed. He has no faith that his daughter is going to grow rich and make it out. Even when Rino brought up alternative options to fund Lila’s schooling, he still shut it down. Almost as though he does not want his own daughter doing better than him in life. There is another instance in which pain is brought upon Lila. Elena describes it vividly in the book. She writes, “suddenly the shouting stopped and a few seconds later my friend flew out the window, passed over my head, and landed on the asphalt behind me.” Lila’s birth father, the one who is supposed to protect and nurture her, carries her skinny, little, fragile ten year old body and flings her out the window like a toy. He goes even further to scream “horrible threats” at his daughter as she lays there bleeding with a broken arm. All of this was performed by Lila’s own biological father. No matter what kind of argument a child and a grown adult are having, should an adult man put his hands so violently on a child like that. According to Elena's account, “she (Lila), in spite of everything, wasn’t upset with her father.” After being thrown out a window, falling down multiple floors and breaking an arm, Lila still did not hate her father. Rather she continued to love him as per usual. This man caused her to break a whole arm. She could have died falling down there. But yet she stays and continues to live on with him. How can one almost be killed, just to go right back to the killer? It generally makes no sense. In that case, she has very strong love for her father irrespective of the verbal and physical abuse he has placed on her. Her love for her family and her family’s lack of faith in her have really bewitched her into staying in the neighborhood forever. In addition to the family, Lila’s one and only true friend lives there in the neighborhood. As someone who values family so much, she values Lenu just as much. Lenu, who is a very important friend in Lila’s life, in fact she is basically family, is another reason why Lila refuses to leave. She has lived with Lenu essentially her whole life. They have spent so much time together, eating together, walking together, going to school together, playing together, and built such a powerful connection between each other. They can be said to be sisters for they have shared so many memorable memories together. The author described one moment like this: “We liked that place , especially because behind the bars was a metal grating and, against the grating, on the cement ledge between the bars, we could arrange the things that belonged to Tina, my doll, and those of Nu, Lila’s doll.” This whole scene just depicts how close they are, because as kids, hiding your toys in a secret place, that is something very cherished by kids. Kids love their toys a lot. And for the fact that they were both able to come together and hide their cherished toys in secret, shows just how much they cherish each other. It shows just how much Lila cherishes her friend Lenu, making her reluctant to leave the neighborhood. To sum it all up, this neighborhood in Naples is one of great relevance to Lila in so many ways. She grew up here, learned, ate, had so many experiences here that it makes sense for her to want to stay. Her whole family lives here and are poor so she will definitely not want to just abandon them. Even her parents do not want her to leave and show this consistently by not supporting her dreams and hopes. And finally Lila has made so many memories that one of them which is very important to her is a human being, Lenu. She is Lila’s best friend and sister and I doubt anyone would ever find it easy to just pick up and leave someone so important to them without remorse. A person who she has made such an intimate, close, and personal connection. All over, there are so many reasons for Lila to be reluctant to leave. If I was her, I would feel the same way. Wouldn’t you?
