This chapter reads Elena Ferrante’s novel My Brilliant Friend as a narrative of personal transformation through a process of active learning. In transformative activity, not only the onset but the entire process of personal transformation depends on the person’s active involvement in learning what she does, and thereby transforming herself into the person she becomes. The protagonists of Ferrante’s novel illustrate how transformative activity may take place through the aspiration to transcend the subjective confines of one’s present life–– and they do so by competing fiercely against one another. Competition can be an engine of large-scale transformation, because the goal of besting another person can serve as a proximate target for one’s transformative energies.