(Im)possible Facilitating Environments: the Spaces of Family in Sally Rooney’s Normal People

Abstract

Building upon the concept of the “good enough” facilitating environment developed by pediatrician and psychoanalyst D. W. Winnicott, this article aims to analyze the family relationships depicted in the novel Normal People by Sally Rooney. Through the contrast of experiences, the author develops two distinct family environments — for Connell Waldron, the space is nurturing, while for Marianne Sheridan, it is marked by violence. This narrative choice allows for reflections on the impacts of these spaces on the emancipation process of the protagonists. They initiate a romantic relationship in their final year of high school and, amidst ups and downs, remain intertwined in each other's lives until the end of college, when they must navigate separate paths. Through the dialogues between the protagonists and the information provided by the third-person narrator, which alternates between the two points of view, this article aims to analyze how the family dynamics of each character influence their self-perception and the choices they make over the four-year period covered in the novel.