Norma & Norman: A Boy's Best Friend Is His Mother

[Luckylyn]

I thought it might be a good idea to have a thread dedicated to Norma and Norman and their dysfunctional dynamic.

[Richard]

Funny that you should start this thread...I just wrote and recorded a song (and made a video to go along with it) written from the perspective of Norman called "Mother" and released it today.

 

[Spartan Girl]

Norma never should have had kids.

I know how that sounds, but that's true.  She went with one extreme with Norman and the other extreme with Dylan.  I don't think she really knew how to be a parent, she just wanted someone to love her unconditionally, and it blew up spectacularly in her face.

And while part of me is really disappointed that there was no epic confrontation between Norma and Mother, with Norma spending the last moments of her life realizing just how wrong she was and how deeply she screwed the pooch in handling Norman's problems, I think that moment kind of already passed in the second episode of the season when Norman confronting her about her "crimes"...and she still didn't get it.  She knew, yet she didn't want to know at the same time.  And as we saw in this season, reality was staring at her right in the face, but she just dismissed it because it was not what she wanted to hear.  She's the kind of person that never faced reality, and it cost her dearly.

[Rustybones]

I totally agree, Spartan Girl.  And now I have to wonder if Norman was born with some mental issues, could he have been treated early enough?  If Norma had faced reality, when would she say she first noticed Norman was "different?"  Sad that because of loving him too much she contributed to his illness. 

[Spartan Girl]

I'm not so sure it was "love" so much as need. Or at least a very selfish love.

[peacheslatour]

20 hours ago, Rustybones said:

I totally agree, Spartan Girl.  And now I have to wonder if Norman was born with some mental issues, could he have been treated early enough?  If Norma had faced reality, when would she say she first noticed Norman was "different?"  Sad that because of loving him too much she contributed to his illness. 

Even if Norma had noticed something was off about Norman, I don't think her husband would have been on board with shelling out "his" money to get Norman any kind of help. If you've never been in an abusive relationship, you may not understand how trapped you can really be. Norma was probably afraid to rock the boat in any way shape or form. She just reasoned that if she loved Norman enough, she could at least protect him, even if she couldn't protect herself. And as to that part where she was being raped, IMO she didn't know he was under the bed until he reached out for her hand. At that point she was more afraid for him than she was for herself and didn't want to draw any attention to Norman so that his father could escalate the abuse to Norman. If she had told him to run, his father would have known he was there and also as long as he was under the bed, he couldn't really see what was happening. Norma couldn't live with the shame of her son seeing that. Your child's father anally raping you is not something you ever want your child to see.

Edited May 18, 2016 by peacheslatour
a letter

[smorbie]

On 5/17/2016 at 0:31 PM, Spartan Girl said:

Norma never should have had kids.

I know how that sounds, but that's true.  She went with one extreme with Norman and the other extreme with Dylan.  I don't think she really knew how to be a parent, she just wanted someone to love her unconditionally, and it blew up spectacularly in her face.

And while part of me is really disappointed that there was no epic confrontation between Norma and Mother, with Norma spending the last moments of her life realizing just how wrong she was and how deeply she screwed the pooch in handling Norman's problems, I think that moment kind of already passed in the second episode of the season when Norman confronting her about her "crimes"...and she still didn't get it.  She knew, yet she didn't want to know at the same time.  And as we saw in this season, reality was staring at her right in the face, but she just dismissed it because it was not what she wanted to hear.  She's the kind of person that never faced reality, and it cost her dearly.

It's not unusual for the family to be the last to know or accept that something is wrong.