ARGUMENTATIVE TEXT: “WHY BE HAPPY WHEN YOU COULD BE NORMAL?”

 “Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?” is written by Jeanette Winterson. It proposes some themes of “Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit” (1985). It is a memoir so there isn’t a chronological order and the narrator follows the emotional impact of the events.

The novel consists in 15 chapter and it is dedicated to three mothers: Constance Winterson writer’s adoptive mother, Ruth Rendell contemporany novelist and last but not least Ann S. writer’s biological mother.

In the economy of the novel book’s title and chapters’ title are really important to understand the function and the meaning that the writer wants to leave.

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, Postmodernism 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". The adjective normal, on the other hand, refers to society and what people want you to be.

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 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.  In addition "Get born" is just an invite to take your life in your hands and become who you really want to be. 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.

In the third chapter the title refers to a typical write of the Bible, the novelist emphasizes the importance of word and language which is concepts that are central to her life but also for all men. All book is made up other books, like the Bible, and this represented intertextuality, which means in a work of art writers tend to quote to imitate to amplify rather that to state.

The novelist doesn’t use a chronological order of the events, narration is frammented it is made up emotional impacts and facts of the novelist. 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 (postmodernist’s concept). According to the writer this novel is a dialog between writer and reader.

The important thing in life is knowing how to live with uncertainty which is element that characterizes postmodernism.