Text
“I was struck by how thin
Angela and Ida's father
was, he was a match for my
mother.” (Ferrante, 184)
”Poor Vitoria, to have my
father for a brother: how
rough men were, how
brutal in every word they
dedicated to love. They
liked humiliating us,
dragging us along their
lewd path. 1 was
discouraged, and in
lightning flashes even
today, in moments of
suffering I feel as if I had
an electrical storm in my
head—I went so far as to
ask myself if Roberto was
like that, if he expressed
himself that way.”
(Ferrante, 207)
Analysis
Andrea leaves Giovanna and her mother, and Nella is significantly
impacted by this, as she still cares deeply for him. Her feelings are
portrayed by her loss in weight, which is also represented in Angela’s
and Ida’s father. Here, weight loss is symbolic, and represents
something that the character lost or is missing. In both cases,
Mariano and Nella lose part of their family, and so feel less whole,
and lose weight. While weight loss is present throughout the whole
book, it does not have the same meaning for everyone. For example,
Giuliana also experiences weight loss after being engaged to Roberto.
However, it is something Giovanna is jealous of, and is described as
beautiful. “overwhelmed by how her extreme thinness, her light
makeup, gave her a sort of ascetic beauty that instilled respect.” This
is also symbolic, but instead of a loss or missing part of her, she is
changing for Roberto, and could represent her making room for him
in her life.
Gender roles and norms are very present throughout the story, and
demonstrate a global problem of how society views the dynamics of
men and women. There is a stark contrast in the story with male
characters that Giovanna is describing here, and with men like
Roberto and Torino, who appear to respect women. This contrast is
to highlight the issue of objectifying and sexualizing women, which is
a large theme in the novel. Giovanna rightly feels this way about men
because of her experience with almost constantly being treated like
nothing but a sex object. For example, in school when Silvestro said
“her ass isn't bad, either, just put a pillow over her face and you'd have
a great fuck.” Age gaps between men and women in the story are also
very common, and often significant, like between Giovanna and
Corrado. A more severe circumstance, however, was when Mariano
visited her. “I was irritated that his excited gaze fell immediately on
my breasts, just like Corrado and Rosario, even if this time my chest
was completely covered by the shirt.”. This shows the extreme
sexualization of women, even if they are still children, and this
instance can be considered pedophelia.