Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Normal People, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Love, Inexperience, and Emotional Intensity
Identity, Insecurity, and Social Status
Miscommunication and Assumptions
Money, Class, and Entitlement
Summary
Analysis
Marianne sunbathes in the garden at her house while her brother, Alan, yells out what other people got on their Leaving Cert. She hasn’t eaten much today—like most days recently—and she can’t be bothered with Alan’s reports about her classmates’ scores. Still, he shouts out to her while he’s on the phone with some of her classmates: he just heard that somebody received a 600. Alan says into the phone that Marianne must be jealous, since she got a 590. He then calls out that the person who got the 600 was Connell. He asks the person on the phone to put Connell on, and then he chats with him as if he knows him, though he doesn’t.
The “Leaving Cert” is what students in Ireland call the Leaving Certificate Examination, which is the last exam students take in secondary school before going to university. The exams largely determine what universities students are qualified to attend. When Normal People was published, 600 was the highest score a person could receive. It’s therefore a huge accomplishment that Marianne scored a 590, not to mention the fact that Connell scored a 600. The way Alan talks about scores suggests there’s a certain amount of social status attached to impressive results, but Marianne never actually benefited from her intelligence while she was in school. To that end, Connell’s popularity had seemingly nothing to do with his intelligence, indicating that their secondary school wasn’t a place that encouraged people to be studious.
Themes
As a joke, Alan asks Connell if he wants to talk to Marianne, thinking he’ll say no because Marianne doesn’t have any friends. To his surprise, though, Connell says yes, but Marianne refuses to take the phone. Alan thrusts it at her, pushing it hard into her chest, so she grabs the phone and ends the call. She then watches Alan standing over her in anger, the sun casting his shadow along the grass.
The fact that Marianne hangs up on Connell hints that they’re no longer on good terms. But Alan doesn’t even know they were ever involved with each other, so he doesn’t understand why Marianne wouldn’t want to talk to Connell. As he stands over Marianne, she once again finds herself in a position in which she faces a hostile, possibly violent family member—a reminder of her difficult home life and the fact that, other than Connell (who is seemingly no longer in her life), she has nobody to turn to for support.
Themes
When Connell told Marianne that he had asked Rachel to the Debs last April, he assured her that he and Rachel weren’t romantically involved. She felt humiliated by the entire ordeal, but what was even worse was that he didn’t even seem to understand that he’d humiliated her—he didn’t apologize, instead acting as if it were perfectly reasonable for him to ask someone else to the dance.
Connell underestimates how hurtful it is for him to take Rachel to the dance. His ignorance suggests that he has a hard time putting himself in Marianne’s position. Instead of considering how insulting it is for him to keep their relationship a secret, he assumes that Marianne doesn’t mind. Worse, he naively thinks that she won’t be jealous if he takes Rachel to the Debs, further emphasizing the extent of his insensitivity.
Themes
Marianne stopped going to school after Connell asked Rachel to the dance. It was pointless anyway: she was better off studying for the Leaving Cert on her own. Plus, she knew nobody would invite her to the Debs, and it was embarrassing to think that she had helped organize it but wouldn’t be able to attend. One day she encountered Lorraine in the kitchen. Lorraine said she had heard from Connell that Marianne had been ignoring his calls. For a moment, Marianne felt awkward, but then Lorraine commended her for ignoring Connell—he didn’t deserve her, Lorraine said. She also said she had banned him from picking her up from Marianne’s house. Standing there in the kitchen, Lorraine hugged her tightly, and Marianne tried to say she was fine.
Lorraine doesn’t feel obligated to condone Connell’s insensitive behavior toward Marianne. Instead, she recognizes that her son treated Marianne unkindly. When she hugs Marianne, she offers a rare moment of emotional support in Marianne’s life, which is otherwise full of scorn, emotional abuse, and—thanks to Connell—insensitivity from others.
Themes
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Still in the garden, Alan stands over Marianne and asks if she’s mad that Connell scored better than her on the Leaving Cert. Marianne just laughs at this idea, so Alan asks why she wouldn’t talk to Connell. If Alan is so curious, Marianne suggests, he should call Connell back and ask him. Alan is confused, but Marianne urges him to call Connell—she’d actually be interested to know what he has to say. They used to be quite close, she tells her brother, but Alan doesn’t believe her. All the while, Alan gets angrier and angrier. His arm shakes, and he bites down on one of his knuckles as Marianne speaks. But before he can do anything, their mother comes home.
That Marianne is curious about how Connell would explain himself suggests that they have yet to discuss what happened between them. There is, then, no sense of resolution regarding their relationship. And because it was secret, it’s not as if Marianne can emotionally process what happened by talking to somebody about it—indeed, Alan doesn’t even believe her when she says that she and Connell used to be close. In other words, she’s utterly alone with her own feelings, unable to reach out to anyone for support.
Themes
Alan tells Marianne not to say anything about their interaction to their mother. She immediately agrees. It’s not as if Denise would do anything anyway—she apparently decided a long time ago not to stop men from mistreating Marianne. But Marianne doesn’t dwell on such things. Instead, she focuses on getting out of Carricklea. In less than a month, she’ll have disappeared into her new life. At the same time, though, she knows she herself won’t be any different. There’s no escaping her own life, but at least she can surround herself with new people and immerse herself in new places.
The way Alan treats Marianne in this scene isn’t glaringly abusive, but an ominous tension bubbles under the surface of their interaction. When, for example, he forces the phone on her, he jams it into her chest, thus hinting at his willingness to use physical force to get her to listen to him. Their exchange doesn’t reach a point of pronounced violence, but it’s implied that it most likely would if their mother didn’t come home. And yet, even Marianne’s mother doesn’t support her or protect her from harm. In a way, then, Marianne is tragically accustomed to people not caring about her feelings or her well-being, so Connell’s insensitivity simply fits into a larger pattern in her life.
Themes
