89 pages • 2 hours read
Elena FerranteA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
The majority of the novel takes place in Elena and Lila’s impoverished neighborhood. Through Elena’s reflections and characterizations, the neighborhood becomes a character in its own right: The people and places take on a near-mythic guise. What is the role of the neighborhood in propelling character growth and communicating the novel’s core themes? You may wish to reflect on the following as you construct your response:
Teaching Suggestion: Students new to literary analysis may benefit from additional support identifying characterization tools; this could be an opportunity to introduce key concepts such as methods of direct and indirect characterization. It may also be useful to excerpt particular quotes or passages from the novel and ask students to reflect on the discussion questions with those as a focus.
By Elena Ferrante