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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Against what surface does someone smash one of Marianne's coupe champagne glasses?

2. Before Connell meets Jamie, Marianne gives Connell what instruction?

3. Connell tells Marianne at the cafe that she never feels what emotion?

4. During lunch at her house, Connell wants to tell Marianne that she looks like a what?

5. During the month of July in 2012, how often does Marianne return home to Carricklea?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Marianne's reply when Peggy asks about Marianne's hang-ups?

2. What does it mean to Connell when he wins the full scholarship to graduate school?

3. What simile does Rooney use to describe Connell's feelings about writing and why?

4. Discuss Rooney's use of a literary device to depict, foreshadow, or imply violence.

5. What is Connell doing in July of 2013?

6. How is the motif of violence depicted within Connell's feelings about Jamie?

7. What happens to foil Connell's Plan B for staying in Dublin over the summer?

8. What gift does Connell bring back for Mariane from his trip in the summer of 2013 and why?

9. How are the issues of privilege and class differences depicted within Peggy's experiences?

10. What plans does Marianne make for her third year of college?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Could Normal People be classified as a coming-of-age story? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss Rooney's choice to tell the story of Normal People using a third person omniscient narrator. What elements of the novel's themes lend themselves to this choice and what are Rooney’s intended effects on the reader?

Essay Topic 3

Analyze the interplay between the resolution of Normal People and one of the novel's main messages. How does Rooney make connections between these elements and how does their juxtaposition help them get across one main message of the novel?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 893 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample