The object of the present text is to provide my personal idea of the message given by the novel Normal People written by Sally Rooney.

It is not meant to give definitive answers but I am going to make some possible conjectures supported by textual references.

To start with, the novel was written in 2017 by an Irish writer and it is considered one of the best contemporary novels.

Reading the title the intelligent reader immediately understands it is not an English novel but an Irish one because “normal” is a common Irish word. However it is interesting to know why the writer decided to name the novel Normal People since people are peculiar. But only at the end of the reading people could understand it.

“Normal” is somebody who follows the norms, consequently reading the title the reader may expect the novel to be about somebody who is not strong enough and therefore he/she follows the rules as a form of self protection.

Looking now at the front page the reader can see a man and a girl inside a half-open tin and he ore she could assume people are inside the tin because they are scared about the others but at the same time they want to be looked slowly. Reflecting over the picture the intelligent reader understands the tin gives them protection because they are scared of people’ s prejudices and that is common to search protection in 21th century especially between teenagers.

Moving on with the analysis, a fundamental part is the quotation before the first chapter.

It is a quotation from Daniel Deronda by George Eliot, and it is a map for the whole novel.

There are used words like conversion, revelation, earth, heaven and personality that have a significant role  and they all come from the religious code.

Conversion means a change in making something, revelation means giving one self away to be saved,  the earth stands for the rational and heaven for the irrational. Therefore the intelligent reader may understand the quotation hints at the idea that neither heaven nor earth can tell people something important till  some personality touches their personal one making them receptive. In other words the quotation may mean that people are so important because everyone creates his or her identity in relation to the people they meet.

Now it is important to understand why the quotation is fundamental for the novel.

(Before going on with the analyse I want to make clear the plot of the novel.

Marianne and Connell are two teenagers who attend the same school, but there they pretend not to know each other. He is  popular, cool, intelligent, sportive while she is lonely, proud, asocial and private. But one day, when Connell comes to pick his mothers up from her job at Marianne’s house, a strange connection was born between the two teenagers.

They begin to see each other secretly and a relationship grows between them.

A year later they are both studying at Trinity Collage in Dublin. Marianne continues to be secure from her self and autonomous but she becomes social and finds new real friend while Connell continues to be shy, uncertain and not independent. Since the college’s years they straying towards others and possibilities but always irresistibly drawn back together. Indeed over the time they have relationship with other people, they stay far from each other but at the end they always come back together.)

Right from my reader experience what kept the attention of the reader is the narrative choices used by the writer which consists in telling and showing therefore the reader is able to create a balance.

Analysing the first chapter, the reader notices that there is a particular structure indeed every chapter is a part of the two protagonist ‘s life.(Marianne and Connell)

The first one starts with “January 2011” and it is probably that Sally Rooney decided to start with January to emphasize the idea of beginning.

An other important aspect is that the simple present is used even if habits are not reported. The reason for its use may be because it creates a sense of a concrete situation.

Regarding narrative choices the change of the point of view drags the reader into the characters mind and therefore involves him in the story told. It involves the two main characters and it starts in media res.

The idea of been involved into a realistic world is well organised by the writer.

There is a third person narrator who sees the world through the characters’ eyes and it allows the reader to enter the novel without being totally conditioned by the narrator's filter.

As a results of such narrative choices the reader seems to be free to make personal judgements about the two characters who are presented with a mixture of telling and showing but in the incipit showing prevails over telling and the effects is a real sense of freedom on the part of the reader.

The use of showing allows the reader to understand the two protagonists through their realistic conversation.

Characters come to life trough their names, their dressing style, their everyday routine, their profession, the reputation, their social backgrounds, their level of autonomy and last but not least from the way they interact which also reveals their more intimate feelings, their use of language as well as the content of their conversation sets them immediately in their more familiar environment: they are student teenagers belonging to an Irish environment with the personal reaction towards home and school content.

It is clear that the register used is informal and just reading the first chapter the reader knows three characters. They are Marianne and Connell, two guys who attend the high school, and Lorraine, Connell’s mother, who works at Marianne’s house as an housewife. It is immediately clear that Marianne and Connell belong to different social classes. The reader may realise the two guys attend collage because Marianne wears the school uniform and because they are talking about some tests results.

Right from the start the reader understand that Connell is tentative and insecure and that he searches protection because he puts his hands into his pocket, which is an action recurring in boys, because he wants to end immediately the conversation with the girl and because he always asks questions so that it is always his interlocutor who is to make any decision.

Contrary to this, Marianne seems to be more independent, sure of herself and able to manage a situation.

Reading the first chapter the reader understand that Marianne and Connell never speak to each other at school so it is interesting to find the reason why. However you could assume that this is because they belong to different classes, or because Connell is scared of other people's thoughts about them since Marianne is not popular, she has no friends and she always stays alone.

All things considered, I may assume the function of the first chapter is to introduce the main characters to the readers and to foster some questions so that if they want to find an answer to their doubts they must  continue the reading however the first chapter is also particularly relevant because it allows the readers to understand the overall story of the novel.

Moving on with the reading what appears to the reader’s eyes is the way characters process their feelings. From the beginning to the end of the book they are trying to analyse their emotions as a form of self protection because their feelings can hurt them and they will do this.

Who read Normal People is considered intelligent, smart but also fun.

This novel thinks all novels are decadent, the romantic intimacy is possible at best and dangerous at worst but also that novels are genuinely moving love story.

It is a post modernity novel.