Why Be Happy
When You Could
Be Normal?
By Jeanette Winterson
Structural Analysis
By Alberto De Meo
LITERARY GENRE
Memoir
 Memoirs are representations of memory, not of
history
 The writer follows the emotional impact of the
protagonist regarding some events that do not
follows a chronological process
 The narrator tells about his life with emotionable
story
 A memoir is not an autobiography
IPOTHESIS FROM THE TITLE
WHY  starts from a problem, a question
BE/COULD  question for anyone, theme of research
HAPPY  meaningful life, aim of all human being
NORMAL  acting regarding the norms, suppression of
individualism
DEDICATION
Dedication paves the way to the content.
The novel is dedicated to her three mother:
 C. Winterson: adopted mother
 Ruth Rendell: english novelist
 Ann S. : her biological mother or a lover
STRUCTURE
• The text is organized into 15 paragraph and a coda
STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF THE CHAPTERS
 Title: expectation, ipothesis
 Content: find link between the other chapters
 Characterization: analysis of the characters
• FIRST CHAPTER The Wrong Crib
Keyword: Wrong  wrong choice, idea of mistake. The
protagonist introduces the main topic of the novel: her
adoptive family and her life as an adopted child
• SECOND CHAPTER My Advice To Anybody Is: Get Born
Get Born: wake up from the ordiarness and find out who a
person really is; the narrator invites the reader to think
Description of Manchester  she tells about her roods
Quotations: Engels from The Condition of the English Working
Class in England
It is presented the apocalitic nature of Jeanette Winterson’s
mother
• THIRD CHAPTER In The Beginning Was The World
The title recalls the incipit of the Bible
Keyword Word: it emphasizes the importance of the
language. The importance role of the language is the center
of the chapter.
Quotation: Jeanette Winterson takes a quotation from
Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit.
The reader can understand the postmodernism point of
view of the writer.
• FOURTH CHAPTER The Trouble Of The Book…
Keyword: Trouble  C. Winterson considers reading as a
rebellion act.
This chapter tells to the reader the protagonist and her
mother’s relationship with books.
J. Winterson creates an imaginary atmosphere and she
writes with an ironic tone.
Dots are used to create expectation in the reader.
Quotation: Dr Jekill and Mr. Hyde, Alice in Wonderland, A
Midsummer Night’s Dream
• FIFTH CHAPTER At Home
Keyword  Home The writer considers home as a center of
gravity and a place of order but she feels out of place in it.
She discovers a new home: books
In this chapter she explains how the home where a person
grows up influences his life.
The reader can understand that C. Winterson is a powerful
character and there is an assimetrical relationship between
her mother and her father
• SIXTH CHAPTER Church
It is an important place for Jeanette. It is a place of hope and
help.
In this chapter the novelist underlines Mrs. Winterson
exaggerating religiosity. She obliges the novelist to submit
an exorcism for her homosexual nature.
• SEVEN CHAPTER Accrington
The novelist describes her small town, its inhabitants and its
shops.
• EIGHTH CHAPTER The Apocalypse
The title suggests to the reader a tragic event in Jeanette
Winterson’s life. Mrs Winterson disown her adoptivedaughter because she is homosexual.
In this chapter the reader can find Mrs. Winterson’ belief
about religion and a very different mentality the novelist
and her adoptive-mother.
This chapter deals with the pursuit of happiness.
From this chapter is taken the title of the novel «Why Be
Happy When You Could Be Normal»
Definitive break-up of relantionship with her adoptivemother
• NINETH CHAPTER English Literature A-Z
In this chapter the novelist underlines her love for reading
particularly for English literature.
She considers books as «messages in a bottle» and as a
friend who comfort her from the difficulties of her life.
• TENTH CHAPTER This Is The Road
The title is a quotation from the previous chapter. The
novelist quotes Gertrude Stein.
This chapter deals with her admission to Oxford university
and with a reflection about woman society.
• ELEVENTH CHAPTER Art and Lies
Art  reference of Jeanette’ s university career and to her
reflection about literature as a form of art.
Life in Oxford is compared to a life in a library
Lies Jeanette’s university tutor behaviour toward her and
women and Mrs. Winterson inhospitality.
This chapter deals with Jeanette’s life at university and with
her last meeting with her adoptive mother.
• INTERMISSION
Reflection about art and life against chronoligical time.
Jeanette’s predilection for a life of emotions not of facts
• TWELTH CHAPTER The Night Sea Voyage
Night Darkness: dark secret is unvealed and it has
ripercussion on Jeanette’s mood of life
Sea Voyage  metaphor of an important discovery. Episod
of Jeanette’s life
Sheep Drawer Treasure Certificate
• THIRTEENTH CHAPTER This Appointment Takes Place
In The Past
Appointment multiple references: love affair with Susie,
research about adoption with root, last meeting with her
father and most of all appointment with her biological
mother.
• FOURTEENTH CHAPTER Strange Meeting
Keyword Strange. Mix of emotions during her first
meeting with her biological mother
• FIFTEENTH CHAPTER The Wound
Wound mark, it has different meanings to different
people. Jeanette Winterson, Mrs. Winterson and Anne were
wounded.
Reflections on her voyage through time and finally she feel
at home
CHARACTERIZATION
• JEANETTE WINTERSON
She is the narrator and the protagonist.
The narrator tells about her life with emotionable story
and she doesn’t follow the chronological process of the
events of her life.
Jeanette’s life with her adoptive parents was often
appalling, but it made her the writer she is.
Mrs Winterson dominates the first half of the book as she
dominated Jeanette’s life. The second half is written in
responce to another mother-tumult: the novelist’s search
of her birth mother. Jeanette does not denounce her
adoptive-mother but she wants to understand Mrs
Winterson with her contradictions and eccentricities.
• MRS. WINTERSON
At the center of the narrative is Mrs. Winterson. She is a
powerfull character because she has skills.
The novelist tells the reader Mrs. Winterson’s ideas, lifestyle and physical appearance.
Mrs. Winterson eductes Jeanette on the basis of contempt
for bodies, devotion to the principles of the Bible.
The reader can understand that C. Winterson is a powerful
character and there is an assimetrical relationship between
her mother and her father.
Her father shoveled coal at night for a power station. His
absence was his presence