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 was voted onto a school committee to fundraise for the “Debs” (a yearly dance)—she thinks it was probably just a joke to vote her onto it, but she still has to help plan. She works on the committee with a group of popular girls, all of whom are in Connell’s friend group. Tonight, they’ve put together a party at a local club to raise money for the Debs. Marianne is dressed up nicely. Karen compliments her, but Rachel doesn’t say anything. Rachel is the most popular girl in school and has no interest in making Marianne feel welcome. Marianne, for her part, doesn’t care much about popularity, often feeling completely detached from the entire social hierarchy.
Marianne is well aware of her own lack of social status in school, but it doesn’t seem to bother her all that much. Or, if it does bother her, she doesn’t dwell on it. Instead, she divests herself from the entire idea of popularity. By not playing into the various hierarchies at school, then, she’s better able to deal with the fact that she’s widely disliked, telling herself it doesn’t matter. And yet, there’s no doubt that it must still be painful and awkward for her to face animosity and ridicule on a daily basis.
Themes
Marianne gets a drink even though she doesn’t usually have alcohol, and the girls stand around waiting for people to arrive. Rachel says she’ll kill Connell if he and his friends don’t show up—he specifically told her they’d be there. Marianne knows that Rachel often talks about Connell this way, as if they have a shared intimacy. Connell himself doesn’t pay any mind to it, though he also ignores it when Marianne brings up Rachel’s interest in him whenever they’re alone.
The tricky thing about Marianne and Connell’s arrangement is that it’s unclear what, exactly, they are to each other. Because they only see each other secretly, they haven’t had to define their relationship to other people. The result is that they’ve never discussed whether or not they’re exclusive with one another. In fact, they haven’t laid the important groundwork for smooth and effective conversation on which most successful relationships are built. Therefore, Marianne fails to make it clear to Connell that she dislikes the way Rachel acts toward him, and he fails to pick up on the fact that it bothers her.
Themes
Slipping out her phone, Marianne texts Connell and asks where he and the others are. He replies by saying that they’re late because one of them threw up from drinking, but now they’re on their way. She’d like nothing more than to tell Rachel and the others that the boys will be there soon. Just saying it would suddenly imbue her with a sense of power and status, but she remains silent.
Although Marianne supposedly sees herself as detached from the social hierarchies at school, her desire to tell Rachel and the others that Connell is on his way suggests otherwise. She recognizes that her relationship with Connell might elevate her status, and she can’t help but get a little thrill from such an idea—even if she knows she’d never actually say anything about their secret connection.
Themes
Marianne hasn’t been out drinking in Carricklea before. In fact, she hasn’t been to most of the places Connell frequents, and she doesn’t know which families are considered “good” and which ones aren’t—though she does know that she’s from a “good” family and Connell isn’t. Lorraine got pregnant at 17, and one of her brothers is in prison. But Connell is his own person: quiet, intelligent, and dedicated. He doesn’t get into fights or act crazy like some other boys, though he does party with his friends. They sometimes go to a place they call “the ghost,” which is a large housing development that nobody lives in. Connell once said he “wished” he could take Marianne to see it but couldn’t because there were always people hanging out there.
In the small, fictional town of Carricklea, reputation is seemingly quite important—not to Marianne, necessarily, but to other people. Wealth plays a big role in whether or not a family is considered “good,” but there are also other factors, like whether or not the parents follow certain social conventions. Because Lorraine got pregnant before she was married, it seems, Connell’s family is viewed as something of a disgrace. But he still excels in school and behaves well, illustrating that things like social status are ultimately quite arbitrary and aren’t accurate indicators of a person’s true identity.
Themes
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Connell often talks about things he “wishes” he could do with Marianne, failing to acknowledge that he could do these things if he really wanted to. Still, he ended up taking her to “the ghost,” leaving her in the car for a moment to make sure nobody was around. When he confirmed that the coast was clear, she came out. There was a disgusting old mattress in one of the rooms, and Marianne asked Connell if he’d ever had sex on it. He hadn’t, and he didn’t like the implication that he was constantly having sex with other people—is that what Marianne thought he did every weekend? She admitted that she did kind of think he spent his time with other girls on the weekends, but he assured her that he’s not interested in doing that.
Marianne asks Connell questions about other girls not because she’s paranoid or territorial, but because they haven’t defined the nature of their relationship. They don’t know whether or not they’re exclusive with one another, and since Connell wants to keep it a secret that he and Marianne are romantically involved, it’s only reasonable for her to wonder if he’s also secretly seeing other people.
Themes
Standing close to Connell, Marianne asked if he would have sex with her right there at “the ghost” if she asked him to. He considered it and then said he would, since she can always get him to do crazy things—a comment that surprised her, since she doesn’t think she can make him do anything. She wondered aloud if he wanted her to stop making him do things and instead leave him alone. He got nervous when she talked like this, and his nervousness made him seem nonchalant, which upset Marianne and made her think he was uninterested in her. But he promised her that he was just feeling “insecure,” eventually saying he would be quite unhappy if they stopped seeing each other.
Because of their lack of communication, Marianne worries that Connell doesn’t even like her all that much. But she’s wrong: he likes her so much that he gets almost defensive when she talks about the possibility of them not being together anymore. The problem is that they both make assumptions about how the other one feels—Connell seems to assume that Marianne knows he likes her a lot (even though he hasn’t necessarily communicated this), and Marianne assumes that he sees their relationship as nothing special. If they clearly articulated their feelings, they would avoid such emotionally confusing interactions. Instead, they both inaccurately guess how the other feels, saying not what they feel, but what they think the other person wants to hear.
Themes
Marianne told Connell that his friend Eric called her “flat-chested” at school that day. He said it in front of a bunch of people. Connell told her that the only reason Eric said such a thing was because he probably likes her but knows he has no chance. Connell then said that he likes the way she looks and that he would miss sleeping with her if they were to stop seeing each other. Then they held each other close, and Marianne felt a deep sense of happiness.
Finally, Connell manages to articulate his feelings by straightforwardly saying that he would be sad if he and Marianne ended their relationship. She has been waiting to hear him clarify his feelings in this way, but it has taken him the entire conversation to do so. And though their emotional confusion in this moment ultimately passes, it’s clear that their ineffective communication style will make their relationship quite difficult to navigate when they encounter more nuanced and complex relational challenges.
Themes
In the present again, Connell and the other boys finally come to the club for the fundraising event. Marianne has had three drinks by now and tries to make eye contact with Connell, whose clothes are a lot less fancy than his friends’. He doesn’t look at Marianne, but Eric notices her and tells her she’s wearing a sexy dress. Rachel laughs and goes to whisper something in Connell’s ear, but he looks away and doesn’t laugh. Then Karen suggests that she and Marianne go to the dance floor, and though Marianne is still holding a book of raffle tickets, she drunkenly moves to the music and enjoys dancing with Karen, who tells her not to pay any mind to Rachel.
The difference in Connell’s clothing highlights that he’s from a working-class background. The fact that his clothes are unlike the ones his friends are wearing also clarifies that he doesn’t just experience a sense of class disparity in his relationship with Marianne; he also experiences it in relation to his friends at school. The main reason he isn’t comfortable with jeopardizing his popularity by revealing his relationship with Marianne is that he’s shy, but it’s also reasonable to speculate that his modest economic upbringing has something to do with his hesitancy, since he is—in some regards—out of place among his wealthier friends. And yet, he has still managed to fit in at school, which is possibly why he’s hesitant to do anything that might endanger his social status—like, for instance, publicly date the least popular person in school.
Themes
Marianne dances with Karen and eventually sees that Connell is watching—something Karen has also noticed. “Now you see why Rachel’s in a bad mood with you,” she says. Not much later, Rachel comes over and pulls Marianne from the dance floor to sell raffle tickets.
The secrecy surrounding Connell and Marianne’s relationship has some unexpected outcomes. Rachel, for instance, can clearly sense that Connell has a soft spot for Marianne, but because it hasn’t been made clear that they’re together, there’s nothing stopping her from trying to interfere with their bond. And the way Rachel interferes, of course, is by treating Marianne unkindly. Once again, then, Connell’s refusal to go public about their relationship negatively impacts Marianne.
Themes
At the raffle table, Marianne watches a group of men approach. They’re not supposed to be there, since it’s a school fundraiser, but they seem to know Eric and the other boys. One of them sets eyes on Marianne and asks if he can buy her a drink, and when she declines, he puts his arm around her. She tells him to let her go, but he doesn’t, and then he slips a hand beneath her dress and squeezes one of her breasts—hard. Marianne rips herself away and walks into a nearby hall, the door shutting behind her. Drunk and disoriented, she slumps to the floor. Karen, Eric, Rachel, and Connell soon run after her, and though Karen kneels down and asks if she’s all right, Eric and Rachel act like she’s overreacting.
The entire ordeal with the man who assaults Marianne tests Connell’s decision to keep his feelings for her secret. Since he feels so strongly for her, it’s unlikely that he’s able to write off the man’s atrocious behavior as easily as Eric and Rachel do. But standing up for Marianne would mean revealing—or, at the very least, hinting at—the fact that he likes her.
Themes
Eric claims that the man who grabbed Marianne’s breast is actually a good guy, and Rachel claims that everyone was laughing at the time. Finally, Connell speaks up and says that he wasn’t laughing. He asks Marianne if she’s feeling all right, and his attentiveness enrages Rachel, whom he tells to “fuck off.” Stunned, Rachel storms off, and then Connell offers to drive Marianne home.
For the first time since they started their secret relationship, Connell stands up for Marianne in public. What’s more, he actively criticizes Rachel for being so unkind, thus alienating the most popular girl in school in order to support the least popular girl in school.
Themes
In the car, Connell asks if Marianne wants to come over. His mother might be home, but she won’t care—Lorraine doesn’t mind that sort of thing. Marianne realizes that he doesn’t mind if Lorraine knows about them. Thinking about Lorraine, Marianne says she must be proud of how Connell turned out: he’s kind and everyone likes him. Lorraine herself is asleep when they get to Connell’s house, so they go into his room and lie together. Connell calls her beautiful, and it makes her feel incredible; nobody has ever called her beautiful before.
Connell and Marianne’s relationship becomes a bit more emotionally involved at this point, since Connell has demonstrated that he cares about Marianne enough to stand up for her in public. At the same time, though, showing her compassion after she’s been physically assaulted isn’t all that remarkable—in fact, it’s arguable that he really only did the bare minimum by reacting to the situation the way he did. Even so, nobody ever stands up for Marianne, so it’s especially significant that Connell, who has never even acknowledged her in public, advocated for her in front of his popular friends.
Themes
Connell gently touches Marianne’s breast—where the man grabbed her—and asks if she’s all right. She says she is and then asks if he would ever hit a girl. He’s taken aback: of course he wouldn’t. Marianne then reveals that her father used to hit her mother and even used to hit her sometimes, too. Connell is quiet for a long time. He then kisses her on the forehead and promises that he’d never hurt her. He also says she makes him happy and that he loves her—and he’s not just saying that to make her feel good, he says. He really loves her. Marianne is overwhelmed; she has never felt lovable, but now she feels different. Everything has changed, and she’ll always remember this instant as the moment her life truly began.
There’s a lot going on in this scene. First of all, it’s revealed that Marianne’s late father was physically abusive. Given that her brother, Alan, forcefully grabbed her wrist not long ago, it seems likely that Marianne still deals with physical abuse, which makes the incident with the drunk man at the bar much more emotionally fraught, since it builds on a very unpleasant aspect of her life. Perhaps because he’s overwhelmed by what Marianne has just told him, Connell can’t hold back his feelings and says that he loves her. Although he claims that he’s not just saying this to please her, the timing does seem strange, as if he wants to say anything he can to make her feel better; and, to be fair, it does make her feel better. She even feels like this moment is when her life truly begins, underscoring the extent to which she is invested in her relationship with Connell—she cares so much about him that, although she suspects she’s unlovable, the mere idea of him loving her feels like a life-changing event.
Themes
