53 pages • 1 hour read
Elena FerranteThe Lying Life of Adults
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Aunt Vittoria’s Bracelet
Aunt Vittoria’s bracelet has many origin stories in the novel. It appears as a motif throughout, much like the necklace of Harmonia that Giovanna likens it to. The necklace of Harmonia is a bewitched charm in Greek mythology that spells doom for whomever wears it or even owns it. Giovanna initially takes comfort in thinking that the bracelet being enchanted means that she is not at fault for the bad things that happen. She wants to leave life to fate and live life like she did before knowing her aunt or inheriting the bracelet. Ultimately, the bracelet symbolizes restriction, greed, jealousy, and someone else’s story. Giovanna leaves the bracelet behind in the same place she has sex for the first time, thus rendering the bracelet powerless to follow Giovanna into her future as an adult who makes her own choices.
Faces
Physical faces play an important role in revelation and deception for many characters. Giovanna’s quest to meet her aunt begins when her father says she’s beginning to resemble his cruel sister. Giovanna believes her changing features, a self-described ugliness, symbolize a growing darkness within her. If her face looks just like her aunt, then Giovanna will become mean-spirited and hurtful like Aunt Vittoria is said to be. Later, in Milan, Giovanna watches Giuliana’s face change appearance and likens the dramatic change to jealousy. Faces in The Lying Life of Adults symbolize inward struggles coming to the surface through physical transformations.
Giovanna also mentions not showing her friends her true face. This definition of face suggests being two-faced, an accurate definition because two-faced means lying or deceit, and Giovanna is lying to her friends.
Rione Alto and the Industrial Zone
The characters in The Lying Life of Adults largely exist in two distinct spaces: Rione Alto and the Industrial Zone (Pascone). Giovanna’s family, as well as Angela’s family, lives in Rione Alto. This neighborhood is high up in Naples and symbolizes affluence, refinement, and intelligence. Pascone lies in the Industrial Zone, the place where Giovanna’s father, Andrea, grew up. Aunt Vittoria still lives in the Industrial Zone, as does Margherita’s family. Roberto, too, is from Pascone. The Industrial Zone is far lower than Rione Alto. The narrative paints it as a lower, darker place that one must descend into like descending into hell or the bowels of the earth. The Industrial Zone symbolizes poverty, crudeness, the uneducated, and a lack of upward mobility. Andrea broke free from the Industrial Zone and despises his origins. Roberto, however, also makes something of himself but refuses to abandon his birthplace. Roberto bridges the high and the low by becoming a formidable intellect in fashionable Milan while also upholding a “spiritual debt” to his hometown of Pascone.
Related Titles
By Elena Ferrante
