Analysis about Normal People's title and structure of the novel.

TITLE

The impression, you can be had from the title, does not reflect what emerges from the book.To begin with, it could be a title for an almost boring book, which speaks of "normal" people, without great expectations either from the plot or from the characters;instead the protagonists involved in the plot of the book reflect a whole series of problems that happen every day in all families: interpersonal problems, different characters, stories of violence and misunderstanding.

In English the word "normal" hasn’t meaning, even if the writer is not English but Irish, therefore the expression wants to emphasize the topic of normality, bringing the reader into confusion. Both Marienne and Connell are preoccupied with being normal. They both long for a life free of complications, even if other people’s ideas of normality are not right for them. They are normal people nonetheless.

Today normality is confused with conformism, but in everyday life of common living anyone is different from the others so it should be abnormal.Perhaps normality exists in the common ideology to identify a person who is conformist, who is equal to others, who does not do things out of the ordinary.In common living, on the other hand, there are always conflicts, problems, difficulties in getting along with someone or with an ideology.

In my opinion, normality lies precisely in the diversity of each of us.

STRUCTURE

Normal people does not adhere to a strict chronology. The chapter titles all follow a chronological pattern and are called: “seven months later”, “six weeks later” and so on. The month and the year are given underneath the chapter titles so that the reader can easily date events. Much of the novel is written in the present tense and details events that happen in the time period of each chapter.

Certain sections, however, are written in the past tense and details events happened in the time periods in between chapters. These segments could be described as flashbacks, and serve the purpose of clarifying earlier events and revealing the characters’ motives.