NORMAL PEOPLE

How is Normal People defined? It is a Postmodern novel and therefore it had been published after the Second World War.

Since it is a Postmodern novel, there is a more relevant 3^rd person narrator who mainly speaks from the protagonist’s point of view. (the shift of the point of view)

The main characters are Connell and Marianne, two teenagers with a particular relationship. They are round characters because by reading the novel the reader discovers different aspects of them and therefore it can be found a development of their behaviors in the novel.

The most frequent device of creating characters is reporting their ideas by a 3^rd person narrator who uses the shift of point of view. This device is called “interior monologue” and it consists in expressing the ideas of the characters, as if the reader feels inside their minds. 

Setting: mainly Ireland, in particular Carricklea and Dublin.

In the novel there is a relevant passage where Connell and Marianne move from the country to the main city. Maybe this choose is useful for the narrator to discuss how the relationship between them may change by changing the place to live. In both the country and the city, the characters feel displaced: Marianne feels displaced during her life in Carricklea, while Connell feels at ease there. On the contrary, Marianne found herself in Dublin, while Connell does not like the city and prefers Carricklea, since there he was considered popular.

Who do you think the narrator sides with?

I think the narrator is an external one and therefore he/she does not side with anyone.

PAG.254 OF THE NOVEL

• “She’s a normal person now”. It is one of the sentences which make the title of the novel. “Now” is the key word in a key position. The word underlines that Marianne was not normal before going to Dublin, while now she feels like the other people;
• Setting: there is an outside setting (Dublin) and an inside one (the kitchen);
• “Gradually the mist of her breath hides the college from view…”: there is something not clearly visible (the college) because it is hidden by the mist. This could have a metaphorical meaning to express there is something not clear in her mind;
• “whispers”: personification for the rain;
• “He’s never available to … just permanently idle”: the sentences underline Marianne’s ability to rationalize and consider more hypothesis than only one.