Marianne going from doing whatever she could to make Connell happy to encouraging Connell to go to New York but refusing to go with him for her own happiness.
Coming-of-age story is never only about from being a kid to an adult. It’s about what we find in ourselves in relation to the external world, and we keep looking for the inner peace at different stages of our life.
I need Normal People fanfics already for self-indulgence but S1 itself is a complete existence for both Connell and Marianne.
“He reaches for her hand and she gives it to him without thinking. For a second he holds it, his thumb moving over her knuckles. Then he lifts her hand to his mouth and kisses it. She feels pleasurably crushed under the weight of his power over her, the vast ecstatic depth of her will to please him.”
Honestly the only thing you can do is live moment by moment, right? It’s very hard to practice that in everyday life. It really is. But right now I think it’s actually essential to live in that space, because the unknown is so massive. What we’re leaning on now are our relationships. Even if we don’t keep it up every week when we get through this — and we will — it’s about deepening our understanding of the value of our relationships with the people we love. Maybe this is a reminder that we all needed to hear.
Tori