Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay

The novel’s title, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, directly references Ferrante’s exploration of the methods and motivations of people who experience systemic poverty and structural violence to improve their lives. Elena desperately desires to escape the impoverished Neapolitan neighborhood she grew up in and achieve conventional success through wealth and education. Meanwhile, Lila returns the neighborhood after leaving in previous novels and achieves success of her own at home. To Elena, the neighborhood symbolizes the abuses and poverty of her youth; the intellectual, professional world she longs to inhabit has no relation to those things. To escape the neighborhood, therefore, is necessary to attain opportunity and a better life. Lila, by contrast, is well aware of the harmful effects of the neighborhood but feels drawn back to home in order to improve life for those who do not have the resources to leave for less violent or more affluent neighborhoods. Elena becomes one of the eponymous “those who leave,” while Lila chooses to stay within the community that raised them both.

As in previous novels in the series, Elena’s education represents a gateway to a more comfortable life. When Pietro insists on only having a civil marriage, Elena does not oppose him because “the essential thing was to get out of Naples” (51).