The purpose of the present text is to discuss about the narrative purpose of the first section of Normal People by Sally Rooney.

This part is not an ordinary chapter: it is named January 2011 instead of Chapter 1. Starting the narration in January (the first month of the year) the reader is lead to think something is starting.

One of the narrative purposes of the section is to set the story  and to introduce some characters. After reading it you can know three people: Marianne, Connell and Lorraine. Marianne and Connell are two adolescents talking together about their school results. Connell is at Marianne’s house to pick up his mother Lorraine, who is doing some kind of housework. Marianne lives in a very big house as quite mysterious: she has no friends and no one knows facts about her. She never speaks with people at school. On the other hand Connell is one who care about the other’s opinion: in class he is really embarrassed and annoyed because his mates think he has some kind of affair with one of his teachers.

From the extract you can understand about the characters’ personality: Connell is always making questions and therefore he is insecure about taking decisions. On the other hand Marianne is really spontaneous: she appears to say exactly what she thinks.

The purpose of the section is also to create some curiosity in the reader so that he is led to go on reading the book. After reading it the reader wonders why Connell is so nervous, what makes Marianne so alone and how is the relation between this two people going to develop.