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 is in her apartment with a bunch of her friends. She has just taken the exams intended to determine who will receive a scholarship. She doesn’t need the money but simply views the scholarship as a way of distinguishing herself and proving her intelligence. She thinks she did pretty well on the exams, but she downplays her performance when her friends ask how things went. Peggy, in particular, makes fun of her by implying that she must have done badly. Peggy has been hanging around a lot recently. She considers herself close to Marianne, but whenever they’re in public, she makes fun of her to get a laugh out of their other friends.
Unlike her experience in Carricklea, Marianne has a lot of friends at Trinity, but they’re not all as kind or supportive as she might hope. Peggy, for instance, seems to care more about getting a laugh from the rest of their friend group than reassuring Marianne about how she did on the scholarship exams. In a way, Marianne’s popularity in college resembles Connell’s popularity in secondary school: she has a lot of friends but doesn’t necessarily feel particularly connected to them, which is exactly what Connell experienced in Carricklea.
Themes
Jamie pipes up and says that one of his professors wanted him to take the scholarship exams. But Jamie decided he couldn’t be bothered to study over the winter break. Everyone knows he’s lying—the real reason he didn’t take the exams was because he knew he wouldn’t pass. Marianne feels a deep disrespect for Jamie, but Peggy seems to really like him. Whenever Marianne talks negatively about Jamie, Peggy defends him by suggesting that all men are sexist and selfish. In comparison, she claims, Jamie isn’t really that bad.
It's pretty obvious that Jamie is insecure about himself and, as a result, overcompensates for his lack of self-esteem. Marianne seems to recognize that this is the case, but she has nobody to talk to when she wants to complain about Jamie, since Peggy is apparently unwilling to talk badly about him. On the whole, the mere fact that Marianne disrespects Jamie suggests that she’s unhappy in their relationship. It also sheds light on why she has rough sex with him even though she doesn’t necessarily like it when he becomes physical with her—she’s trying to make up for the fact that she sees him as pathetic by letting him assume a position of dominance in their relationship.
Themes
While hanging out with her friends, Marianne receives a call from Connell. He has just been robbed of his wallet and phone. Since he has no way to get home, he’s wondering if Marianne could help him. She immediately tells him to take a taxi to her apartment and says she’ll pay the fare when he arrives. Jamie watches her as she talks on the phone, even when she motions for everyone to keep talking amongst themselves. She’s more than willing to help Connell—when he told her about what happened with Miss Neary over the summer, she was overwhelmed with rage. If Miss Neary ever tried something like that again, Marianne said, she would kill her. Connell had laughed, but Marianne wasn’t joking.
Because they have such an emotionally important history together, Marianne feels protective of Connell. She wants to do whatever she can to help him, even if that means inadvertently revealing to Jamie how much she cares about Connell. Similarly, she can’t bear the thought of Miss Neary taking advantage of him.
Themes
Marianne had a terrible time over the winter break. Alan followed her around the house, constantly looking for ways to get into fights. At one point, he criticized her for bragging about her grades to her aunt and uncle at dinner. When she tried to laugh him off, he grabbed her by the arm, whirled her around, and spit in her face. Then, on Christmas day, her mother gave her $500 and said she was worried about her future—life isn’t like it is in college, she said, to which Marianne replied by noting that at least people won’t spit in her face in the real world. Her mother hardly batted an eye, simply suggesting that Marianne can’t even handle “a little sibling rivalry.”
Everything about Marianne’s home life is emotionally toxic. Alan abuses her both verbally and physically. Meanwhile, her mother purposefully looks the other way and, to make matters worse, belittles Marianne when she tries to stand up for herself. The hostility of her family life is likely why she feels unworthy of love, since the people who are supposed to be closest to her have never shown her any form of genuine love or support.
Themes
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Connell has blood on his face and a cut in his lip when he arrives at Marianne’s apartment. She meets him on the front steps, and he takes her hand in his own. He’s very drunk—so drunk that he starts flirting with her, but she tells him that Jamie is there. Inside, her friends are surprised to see Connell’s wounds. After he tells them about the mugging, Jamie speaks derisively about drug addicts, but Connell challenges him by showing sympathy for people who are so desperate for cash. Before long, Jamie announces that he’ll have to leave soon, and instead of telling him to stay, Marianne says she’ll see him tomorrow.
Jamie makes the assumption that Connell’s mugger was a drug addict. In doing so, he reveals his entitled and condescending way of viewing the world, making it quite clear that he’s incapable of showing compassion for people who are desperate for money—something he has never experienced and probably never will. Connell, on the other hand, is a bit more empathetic because he knows what it’s like not to have much money. At the same time, he also disagrees with Jamie simply because he dislikes him. And Marianne, for her part, once again prioritizes Connell over all else, sending a clear message to Jamie that he isn’t as important to her as Connell is.
Themes
After everyone leaves Marianne’s apartment, Connell jokingly reminds her that she could have another, better boyfriend, since everyone likes her so much. As they talk, she feels comforted by the alone time with Connell, which suddenly relaxes her and makes her feel like life is all right. But then he tells her that he’s been seeing someone—he should have told her earlier, he admits, but he’s been with Helen for six weeks. Marianne turns away and tries to keep herself from crying, angrily asking why Connell is trying to get her to dump Jamie if he’s not even single in the first place. He says he just wants her to be happy, and when she asks if he loves Helen, he says that he does.
The interaction between Connell and Marianne in this scene serves as a good reminder that they’re still rather young and inexperienced when it comes to love—after all, Connell claims that he’s in love with a person he’s only been dating for a month and a half! Of course, it’s technically possible to fall in love that quickly, but it’s pretty rare. It’s also possible that he’s just saying he loves Helen as a way of making Marianne jealous, maybe because he hates that she’s dating Jamie. Either way, though, there’s a sense of emotional immaturity at play as they talk to each other about their love lives, since neither of them are capable of simply stating the obvious: namely, that they love each other and want to be together.
Themes
Marianne starts crying. She tells Connell not to touch her when he puts a hand on her back, and then she asks him to leave. Before he does, though, he tells her that he didn’t mean to leave her over the summer. He’d thought he might stay with her, he explains, but then things got confusing and didn’t work out the way he’d wanted. She’s shocked by what he’s telling her and reminds him that he never even brought up the possibility of staying at her apartment—in fact, he said he wanted to see other people. He doesn’t have anything to say to this, instead saying good night and leaving.
Despite what Marianne claims here, Connell didn’t actually say he wanted to see other people. What he said was that he assumed she would want to see other people. Because they both assumed that the other person wanted to end the relationship, then, they broke up for no good reason—a frustrating illustration of the damaging effects of their inability to communicate effectively with one another.
Themes
