[BONUS] Sally Rooney and Ireland’s post-colonial inferiority complex: Normal People plot summary
To better explore these issues let us look at Normal People. The show and, from what I have heard, the book are both fairly generic stuff masquerading as high art; a standard romance plot pumped up with surface level literary and philosophical references to create an illusion of depth and make the audience (and author) feel smarter than they are. While self-proclaimed Marxist [1] Rooney would lead you to believe this is a tale of class conflict the fact of the matter is that the upstairs-downstairs dynamic is nothing new, and is rather standard fair for romance novels. The story focuses on the on-again/off-again relationship between the wealthy, quiet and bookish Marianne (wonder who she’s a stand in for?) and outgoing and popular Connell, who’s single-mother is employed by Marianne’s family. The early part of the story is set in secondary school in rural Sligo, where Connell is captain of the Gaelic team and the most popular lad in school, while Marianne is an outcast who he is too embarrassed to have a public relationship with. Here we already begin to see the cracks form, Connell’s character does not really fit with his backstory of being raised in poverty by a teenaged single-mother, rather he has all the trappings of a quintessentially middle-class [2] lad, not helped in the show by actor Paul Mescal’s clear middle-class background, showing how little Rooney really knows of the working-class. There is certainly something interesting to be said about the homogenous gender roles in rural Ireland, from Marianne’s ostracisation due to breaking them to Connell’s inability to truly express himself and their relationship due to having to fit them, but I feel Rooney largely glances over these complexes dynamics (or perhaps is just ignorant of them due to her privileged upbringing) in order to tell a fairly generic tale. The second half of the story is more relevant to my argument; Marianne and Connell are now in Trinity College studying English and the dynamic has been reversed. Marianne is now in her element and popular amongst her new bohemian peers, while Connell feels out of place and becomes prone to impostor syndrome, unable to fit into his new surroundings. Most insidious of all Rooney attempts to draw a false equivalency between the self-destructive alcoholism and suicidal inclinations Connell develops due to his impostor syndrome and Marianne’s previous feelings of loneliness because she was a nerd in school [3]. The tale ends with Connell emigrating to America, while Marianne continues on with her yuppie bohemian lifestyle. Throughout Rooney shows only surface level understanding (and frequent misunderstanding) of class dynamics and working-class culture, while both romanticising cosmopolitan bohemianism and portraying the rich protagonist as a victim who misunderstood and simply too intellectual for her peers back home. Actual substantive questions are ignored in favour of woe is me venting and contrived plot issues. It is clear by now that I do not like Normal People, but many do and for a certain type of woman Sally Rooney/Marianne gives them that “she’s just like me feeling” in the same way the Joker does for 4Chan NEETS. This provides a lot of insight into the way many leftists and artistic types (I know this is a broad generalised category but stick with me) in Ireland see the nation, its culture and class dynamics.
[1] Ireland is a small place, and Irish Marxism is even smaller; I have never heard any mention of Sally Rooney doing any political activism or being involved in any organisations. Her self-identifying as a Marxist is indicative of her entire oeuvre, illusions to intellectualism and depth with no actual effort put in. To be fair, she is far from the only person guilty of this and at least in her laziness she is not a wrecker attempting to impose her rich kid sensibilities of the left.
[2] When I say Connell appears middle-class I do not mean in the private school, parents with six digit incomes way, which I see as just outright being rich rather than middle-class. The GAA lad archetype to which Connell belongs is nonetheless distinctly middle-class; he is well connected, highly educated and has established himself as the face of the local GAA (which is a deeply parochial and conservative origination, where family connections are almost as important as sporting skills). His actual characterisation simply does not fit with the backstory of being raised in absolute poverty by a teenaged single-mother. Overall Connell and his characterisation is indicative of how little Rooney understands the working-class and how little she cares about portraying them accurately.
[3] I’m not trying to downplay Marianne’s struggles with mental health and the bullying and ostracisation her character faced, especially since the character is a clear author self-insert and I empathise with Sally Rooney (maybe this is why she doesn’t like the working-class). However, at no point do we ever see her as far gone as Connell was, and I think the artistic choice to portray these two moments as parallels is pure narcissism and the middle-class white woman victim complex at its finest.
If you somehow read this without reading the main article (good for you, you get a gold star) you can find it here; and if you read both pieces you are clearly a big fan, how about you some more of my writing, or better yet do anything else (I joke, please read my stuff, I’m desperate for approval and attention).
