My Brilliant Friend Examined Through a Gossip Girl Lense

Hey Everyone, 

Wow, this novel had a lot to unpack. It covers sociological concepts like the reproduction of inequality, as well as romance, betrayal, and jealousy through the story of friendship. The friendship between Lila and Elena reminded me of the Gossip Girl characters Blair and Serena, as these young women navigate their changing lives alongside one another. 

First, this story showed the reproduction of socio-economic inequality through the idea of education and success. Despite Lila taking initiative over her education by secretly self-teaching the contents of Elena’s formal education, the fact that she was unable to formally graduate put her in a position in which there was limited opportunity for growth. Her family being poverty-stricken shoe-makers resulted in Lila being unable to receive formal education and was met with the fate of only being able to marry rich, despite being smart. However, Elena’s parents’ support in her education allowed her to have a higher status in that aspect. While gossip girl characters Blair and Serena come from extremely wealthy families, we can see the same reproduction of inequality on the other side of the spectrum. They have access to private-school education and many other opportunities in comparison to the other less-privileged characters in the show. 

Lila’s shoes represent her agency, as shown in the end when the man she rejected shows his control over her. This, while also supporting the idea of socio-economic hierarchies, reflects the theme of gender inequality as well. Lila’s romantic relationships require her to give up her agency in exchange for economic stability. Women in this novel are often economically bound to their husbands, while the families of the young women are easily won over by men’s status. Furthermore, I found that Lila’s engagement (or success in romance) is parallel to Elena’s graduation (or success in education) as both are a means of achieving status and stability. However, as the ending shows, neither of these women actually has as much as they had thought, shown by the shoes and the reveal that Elena’s writing was never published. This gender inequality that is driven by patriarchal norms is seen in Gossip Girl as well, particularly when Chuck sells his girlfriend in exchange for hotel ownership as well as the many inappropriate relationships between adults (who are usually men) and minors (who are young women) in the show. 

My question for the class has to do with the friendship between Lila and Elena: Did these two women push each other to grow positively or did they hold one another back? That is, did the competition between them drive them to become better individuals or did the jealousy and toxicity leave them to be better off without having been friends, to begin with?

XOXO!