Chapter n.1

After reading Sally Rooney’s novel Normal People, I’m going to take into consideration the hypothetical function of the first chapter. 

First of all, it is important to highlight the title of the first chapter, like every other chapter in the novel, is a date: “January 2011”. The choice to start with the first month of the calendar year is interesting and may refer also to the beginning of something else, which will be discovered in the next chapters. The first thing the novelist conveys is that the two characters are students: they are Marianne, a girl, and Connell, a boy. The episode develops into a close space and the register used by the novelist is informal, this clearly suggests that the two main characters are in good relationship. From the beginning of the chapter, the intelligent reader can easily understand that Connell and his mother have a good relationship and they family looks like a normal one. This can be deduced from Lorraine’s interest in front of his son’s school’s results. At the same time, Connell looks embarrassed in front of Marianne, this can be understood by Connell’s body language that shows all his insecurity. The typical action to put own hands in own pocket symbolized uncertainty. 

From the reading comes to light the two different social classes to which each character belongs to: Connell’s belongs to an inferior social class compared to Marianne. This is suggested by the fact that his mother works as a cleaner in Marianne’s house. The reputation of Marianne and Connell is another relevant point presented in the first chapter. Marianne has no friends and no one likes her at school; moreover, there are also some funny anecdotes about her behaviour. On the other hand, Connell is very popular at school because of his skills.

In short, it looks like the aim of the first chapter was to introduce the main characters, highlighting all what makes them different but at the same time suggesting that there might be something hidden that will get them closer in the future.