Argumentative text on "Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?"

Thesis: If it's true that postmodernism doesn't believe in the existence of one truth and people loose their points of reference, then the novel why be happy when you could be normal can be consider a postmodern one.

Argumentation 1

Hypothesis: First of all, it emerges from the title that the reader is directly involved in the novel. As a matter fact the narrator immediatly puts him/her in front of two questions: what normal means and what happy means.

- Meanings according to the narrator
- Differences and self expression
- Comparison of life to a map
- Research of multiple identities

Argumentation 2

Hypothesis: the idea of a multi faceted life and a the possibility of infinite choices can best be underlined by the description of Manchester in chapter 2: My advice to anybody is : get born!

- Manchester shows all the contraddiction
- Life in industrialized cities

Argumentation 3

Hypothesisis: Get born is just an invite to take your life in your hands and become who you really want to be

- The pursuit of hapiness
- It depends on the road you choose to take: people make decision

Argumentation 4

Hypothesis: According to the fact that people are free to make their own choices and decisions, the reader becomes the one who creates the story, meaning that he decides how the thread should be unfolded

- structure: There is no chronological order

Antithesis: It is a memoir so the narrator tells the story following her emotions and feelings to describe revisit her past

- The novel focuses n emotions and feelings
- She writes to escape the suffering, repair the hurt and last

Coclusion

Mrs Winterson writes a memoir to give herself a chance to "self expression". she didn't want to be “want to be in the teeming mass of the working class”, she didn't want to be an ordinary person; she didn't want to look normal on other people's eyes she wants to be happy and find "her way out" in order to escape the reality. Her feeling lost and lonely while she was researching for a meaning having points of reference is the result, from a literary point of view, of a postmodern novel that doesn't follow a chronological order but makes the reader one of the protagonists.

Argumentative text

If it's true that postmodernism doesn't believe in the existence of one truth and people loose their points of reference, then the novel Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? can be considered a postmodern one.
First of all, it emerges from the title that the reader is directly involved in the novel. As a matter fact the narrator immediatly puts him/her in front of two questions: what normal means and what happy means. According to Jeanettte Winterson "be happy" means "come home to someone I love". There is no such thing as the unconditional love someone can give you, the unconditional love that her, as an adopted child, has never received and has never been able to give. The adjective normal, on the other hand, refers to society and what people want you to be. It's hard to be different, outside the norm is a way of self expression, what Jeanette is looking for. But you can choose who you want to be. Life is like a map, it has more than one route and plenty of destinantions and they are never clear right from the start. You have to select them and follow one in order to find out who you really are, the multiple faceted nature of your different identities.
The idea of a multi faceted life and  the possibility of infinite choices can best be underlined by the description of Manchester in chapter 2, My advice to anybody is: Get Born! Manchester is "the world's first industrialized city" with all its contrasts and all the possibilities it offers. It is "untamed" and "unmetropolitan", "connected" and "wordly", "radical" and "repressive" in one word "an all mix". It is the archetype of an industrialized city, showing all the contraddictions brought forth by the Industrial Revolution with a huge divide between rich and poor and the importance of individualism in a capitalistic society. Neverthless she has a negative idea of individualism and she asserts tha the only justification for it is that it allowds her to live her own identity: that's when it makes sense.
In addition "Get born" is just an invite to take your life in your hands and become who you really want to be. "Happy times are great but happy times pass. The pursuit of happiness  is more elusive and it is not goal centred." The pursuit is the "Quest" the meaning Jeanette Winterson has been looking for. So you need to take your life in your hands and decide who you really want to be despite what society may think.
According to the fact that people are free to make their own choices and decisions, the reader becomes the one who creates the story, meaning that he decides how the thread should be unfolded. This can best be explained by the structure of the book and the "jumps" the narrator makes. She doesn't follow a chronological order. Indeed, all chapters are at the same time realated and indipendent from each other, that is to say that the reader is the one who has to find the possible connection.
On the other hand though, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?, it's a memoir and thus it previleges emotions and feelings rather than the story told in a linear and "easy way".
Mrs Winterson writes a memoir to give herself a chance to "self expression". she "didn't want to be in the teeming mass of the working class”, she didn't want to be an ordinary person; she didn't want to look normal on other people's eyes. She just wanted to be happy and find "her way out" in order to escape the reality. Her feeling lost and lonely during the research of a meaning, having no points of reference, is the result, from a literary point of view, of a postmodern novel that doesn't follow a chronological order but makes the reader one of the protagonists.