Normal People Literary Elements

Drama

Contemporary Ireland, including Dublin and the fictional town of Carricklea, with scenes elsewhere in Europe

Third-person narrator, alternating between Marianne and Connell's point of view

Romantic, dry, analytical

Marianne and Connell are protagonists, while Marianne's brother is the clearest antagonist

Marianne and Connell's struggle to maintain their relationship amid changing circumstances and challenges, and Marianne's attempt to extricate herself from her abusive family.

The scene in which Connell faces off against Marianne's brother, Alan, telling him that he may no longer harm Marianne.

Very early in their relationship, when they are still in high school, Connell tells Marianne that he loves her. She knows that "even in memory she will find this moment unbearably intense," and the narrator notes that "even after many years have passed she will still think: Yes, that was it, the beginning of my life." This moment foreshadows the important, even central role that her relationship with Connell will continue to play in Marianne's life, even as an adult.

After Connell asks Rachel to the Debs, Marianne tells Lorraine that "compared to the other people in school he was actually pretty nice." This understates both the cruelty of Marianne's other classmates and Marianne's own passion for Connell, who, despite his hurtful behavior, has also become extremely close to and admiring of Marianne. The moment of understatement highlights Marianne's own confusion. Because her social experiences have been so extreme, she views her relationship with Connell through a distorted lens.

The Communist Manifesto is Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels' articulation of the principles of communism. Marianne and Connell's shared interest in it indicates their shared passion for radical politics.
Trinity College is a real and prestigious university in Dublin.
The case of Edward Snowden concerned the leakage of classified information by a CIA employee in 2013.

Images of Marianne's clothing and home demonstrate both her own orientation towards her peers and her family's orientation towards their community. While Marianne avoids ostentation and her family opts for it, both of their styles reflect a certain desire to distance themselves from others.

When Marianne suffers from an eating disorder, Rooney uses tactile rather than taste images to describe how she eats, creating a distancing effect.

Connell wants to use literature to disrupt and overturn economic inequality, but he worries that the structures of the literary and publishing establishment render literature politically impotent.

Marianne's feelings of social anxiety and exclusion in high school are paralleled by Connell's in college, while Connell's popularity and ease in high school are paralleled by Marianne's in college.

Jamie's abusive behavior parallels that of Marianne's brother Alan.

The phrase "rain moves over the grass and whispers on slick roof tiles," used to characterize the beauty of Dublin, personifies the rain by imbuing it with a voice.