How important is the first chapter of “Normal People”? What  was the real intention of Sally Rooney? 

Sally Rooney  started her story with a chapter titled “January 2011” and her choice is particularly interesting because it gives us the perception of something that has just started as this is the incipit of her story, the point of start of something that has to grow up. 

In the first period of the story, the novelist decided to use the simple present as a verb tense in order to let the reader think of something concrete, real and the figure of Marianne opening the door to Connell can be considered something really recurrent because his mother, Lorraine, was Marianne’s housewife. 

From the first two lines the reader can understand that both Marianne and Connell are teenagers because of her still wearing her school uniform and from the minimum hint of conversation between them, the reader can understand that they both know each other. 

Some lines after, the writer started to describe Lorraine’s actions as a zoom was focused on her and simple actions as walking down in the hall and peel of a pair of rubber gloves appear as something so natural and normal to do, as a routine. 

Going on with the reading you can clearly see from the strange exchange of words between them that Connell is feeling uncomfortable in that situation and he clearly would like to go away from Marianne’s house because her presence makes him feel embarrassed. Unfortunately his mom has something to do before leaving the house so, while he was waiting for her, he started talking with Marianne about school, the only apparently thing they have in common. Going on reading you can notice that the conversation started being more private, as a common conversation between two friends and this is also highlighted from the deep feeling of confidence that Connell has for Marianne. 

The most important objective of this first chapter is to highlight the particular relationship between Marianne and Connell which is going to characterise the all story; that feeling of confidence and trust that nobody could doubt about.