How to Be Both

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, racism, gender discrimination, and sexual content. 

Francescho realizes that George is in fact a girl when she apologizes to the owner of the house opposite Lisa Goliard’s for sitting on her wall. She nonetheless returns to her perch time and again, moving to sit on the floor leaning against the wall when the old lady protests. She continues to take photographs of Lisa Goliard’s house, and Lisa Goliard herself comes out to confront George once. Eventually, the hostility of the woman in the house opposite wanes. She brings George an umbrella during a rainstorm and even once sits with George to keep her company. George sticks the photographs to her bedroom wall, and Francescho admires them as well as the other photos and posters George has pinned up. Although George cannot hear him, Francescho often addresses her with words of reassurance and comfort.

Francescho continues to remember scenes from his past. In his youth, his friend Barto took him to watch a parade in a local city to honor the ascension of the Duke Borso d’Este. The celebration is ecstatic, and at its height the Duke stars in a performance alongside a group of children dressed as virtues and angels.