In the present text I’m going to analyse the first chapter of “Normal People”. The title of the book is Normal people, written by Sally Rooney. The first chapter of the book starts in January 2011, so the date gives to the intelligent reader the idea of the beginning. The narrator is in the third person, but there are many changes that allow another point of view to be adopted.

In the first part there is the presentation of the characters: Marianne and Connell are friends and they go to the same school, while Lorraine is Connell’ mother and Marianne’s housekeeper. In fact, this first presentation of the characters makes us understand that they represent two different social classes: Marianne comes from a wealthy family who can afford to have a housekeeper, while Connell comes from a middle class family. Immediately you can have cleared the setting in which the characters are found. Right from the first conversations it soon becomes clear that Connell seems to be bored and he doesn’t really want to talk. One can sense his insecurity from the beginning as he puts his hands in his pockets and sighs many times. Thus, one can rediscover the image of Connell through the images of his body.

Later it is explained that Marianne has no friends and likes to be in solitude. Her description suggests that she is a bad girl, careless and heated by everyone. Connell, in contrast, seems to like Marianne, and this can be guessed from how she reacts physically during the conversation with Marianne. Furthermore, the two friends don’t want to let anyone know that Connell’s mother is Marianne’s housekeeper, as Connell is afraid of the judgements that his schoolmates can make.

 In addition, the secret conversation about Connell’s teacher proceeds with an informal register, which suggests that the two friends know each other very well to tell each other secrets. Later, Connell’s thought of Marianne contributes to creating his first description: Connell is the only friend who has Marianne, they both trust each other. The two characters placed in a closed space, ensure that the reader can focus on their most intimate and personal things. The function of this first chapter is certainly to introduce and present the main characters of this book and the effect that is created is one of concreteness and reality.