Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay

Elena is the first-person narrator and protagonist of the novel, committed to recording her and Lila’s shared history. In this novel, Elena copes with marriage, motherhood, and the confines of traditional women’s roles, and grapples with feelings of inadequacy as a mother and as a professional. Elena feels intellectually inferior to Lila, and Elena fears that as a writer, she has no unique voice outside of Lila’s influence. Elena’s character arc tracks her evolving self-image and the liberation she seeks from oppressive, traditionally feminine roles. 

In the previous installments in the series, Elena struggled with deep feelings of inadequacy; as a result, she models her identity on others whom she esteems as superior to her. She has often looked to Lila for direction, but in this novel, Elena gains new figures to emulate. Her marriage to Pietro marks Elena’s entrance into the upper-class world, and the opportunity to shed the Neapolitan roots that she is so ashamed of. She wants to be like Mariarosa, like Adele, like Nino. Ever the diligent student, Elena is driven to study political theories that are recommended to her by others; however, this is also symptomatic of the deep inadequacy she feels.