NORMAL PEOPLE’S FIRST CHAPTER FUNCTIONS

The purpose of the present text is to analyze the first chapter of the novel “Normal People”, written by Sally Rooney. In particular, I am going to focus the attention on the functions of the first chapter.

Firstly, there is no doubt that the first chapter has an introductory function. It generally aims to introduce the narrator, the setting and the characters.

However, it has also to be said that, as happens in many other novels, the first chapter is particularly relevant because it allows us to understand the overall story of the novel. It also happens in “Normal People” where the intelligent reader can understand lots of aspects only by reading the first sentences of the entire novel, like the setting, the narrator, and especially the character of the protagonists, their relationships, theirs aims and intentions.

Here, for what concerns the setting, it is clear that the first chapter is set in January 2011 since the chapter is titled just like that and the scene takes place in a closed space and in particular in Marianne’s house, since she behaves confidently with the place: she answers the door, she goes to the kitchen and picks up an open jar of chocolate spread… The choice of a closed space implies a greater focus on the most intimate aspects.

Going on, regarding the characters, the intelligent reader can build up the entire characterization of the protagonists of the chapter, who are Marianne, Connell and his mum Lorraine, but the most relevant ones are the two guys. 

On one side, Connell seems to be in a hurry because he asks continuously to his mum to go and since he only asks questions, he seems not to have any securities. He is also very good at English, more than Marianne, but in school they pretend not to know each other for his choice, probably because he is afraid of other people’s prejudices. The latter aspect is also evident when Marianne says that everybody in the school is talking of his attraction to Miss Neary. In addition, he is very fond of his mother Lorraine. 

On the other side, Marianne is a clever girl belonging to a rich family since she can afford to have Lorraine as the house cleaner. However, she is seen as an ugly girl by the other people in the school, she always stays alone, she doesn’t have friends. The reader can understand she likes Connell, first because at the beginning she does an appreciation judgement on him and then because she explicitly told him she likes him. 

In addition, they are in a very good relationships both because of the use of an informal register with direct speech and because for Connell “being alone with her is like opening a door away from normal life and then closing it behind him”.

Last but not least, the narrator is a 3^rdperson one that seems to see the story from the outside, but it happens very often that the narrator adopts the point of view of the characters which are presented with a mixture of telling and showing. It seems to drag the reader into the characters’ mind and consequently makes he/she feel involved into the story, but the reader seems to be almost free to make personal judgements.

Considering all the above, in addition to the introduction of lots of aspects of the novel, the first chapter allows us to make a first idea of the characters. They come to life with their names, reputation, social background, body language, dressing style and the way they interact which also reveals more about their intimate feelings. 

The use of language as well as the content of the conversation sets the ireader immediately in their more familiar environment: they are student teenagers, belonging to an Irish environment with their personal reactions towards home and school contexts.