Normal People: Dealing With Class and Romance

Spoilers ahead!

"Marianne," he said, “I'm not a religious person but I do sometimes think God made you for me." This quote that was spread all over "Book Tok" this year is from Sally Rooney's well-known novel, Normal People, which was made into a Hulu original series released in 2020.

Normal People is a coming-of-age story that follows Marianne Sheridan and Connell Waldron through their lives dealing with class, romance, and societal standards from Sligo, Ireland, to Dublin to New York City. Rooney's novels often subtly deal with the effect of capitalism and class on individual lives. It is a common thread throughout Marianne and Connell's rocky relationship, consciously and unconsciously.

Marianne hails from a wealthy family that includes her cold mother and abusive brother. Connell is from a poor family that consists of him and his mother, Lorraine, who is supportive, warmhearted, and Marianne’s family's housekeeper. As the back of the book reads, "It takes us from that first conversation to the years beyond, in the company of two people who try to stay apart but find that they can't."

The way that Sally Rooney shows tension through the lack of communication throughout the story is a way to describe the dynamic between hierarchical insecurity and ignorance. In the chapter titled “September 2014,” Connell experiences financial struggles while in university at Trinity College. He lets his insecurity stand in the way of communicating to Marianne that he needs to stay with her in Dublin, the college town, in order to avoid moving back to his hometown. When Connell is unforthcoming about the situation, Marianne shows ignorance in not thinking of proposing the offer first.

This scene is the scenario that depicts the gap in opportunities between those who rank higher capitally and those who fall lower. The blatant deficiency of vulnerability in scenes like this is what brings out a reader's feelings, like mine, of frustration with the standards of the capitalist world as we know it.

How much vulnerability does it take to push past the inherited mannerisms of your stance in capitalism and society? Apparently a lot.

As a reader and a writer, it's also important to note the consistency that Sally Rooney keeps from the opening to the closing of the book. There is always a sense of dependency from the beginning of the story when Connell’s family is relying on Marianne for income. Although the two later discuss that Marianne’s mother paid Lorainne nearly nothing. It sheds light on the inevitable dependency of our world.

Sure, one can claim to be independent, but unless they grow all their food or make their clothes, what are they truly independent of? Rooney further touches on this in an interview with Louisiana Channel.

The struggle in this romantic but heart-aching story of these two individuals that can't quite seem to figure it out, but somehow can't get away from each other, is defeating as a reader. But you are left with a newfound appreciation for the way Sally Rooney relates Normal People to the backing of our world throughout many scenes.

Rooney says, “the economic and cultural backing of the world is a way of taking writers from their background, whatever it may be, and making them part of a special class, which is somewhat fenced off from normal life.” She threaded this faultlessly throughout the book, specifically throughout Connell’s highs and lows in his writing career.

Rooney mentioned in an interview with Louisiana Channel that she struggles to thread her views into her novels as particularly as she wishes she could. She however did a great job in Normal People at reaching into the reader's mind to pull out the pillars of our society and its hierarchy.

Outside of Marianne’s relationship with Connell, Rooney threads capitalism through Marianne’s journey with the daunting of men from high school boys to her own brother throughout the plot.

This specific struggle shifts the focus from economical capitalism to gender capitalism which expresses the stance of men compared to women in schools, careers, families, and overall average days in society.

From the character development, to the things you didn't realize you had even picked out of this addictive storyline, Normal People is a precise depiction of the outcomes of capitalism. Rooney does a brilliant job expressing true warmth through love and connection to harsh coldness through isolation, abusiveness, and loss.

If you've read Normal People, what did you think of Rooney's depiction of class and romance? Leave a comment below.