MANCHESTER IN J.WINTERSON 

HOMEWORK ACTIVITY ABOUT CHAPTER 2.  

In the second chapter of the novel “Why be happy when you could be normal” in the Manchester’s

description,Jeanette Winterson mentions some english and european movements of different historical periods.

In the fourth paragraph the novelist says that “Manchester was all mix”, and she quotes the Peterloo Massacres and the Corn Laws. In addition, she gives a list of systems of thought that made the city of Manchester so radical and mixed:

·       Utilitarianism: a philosophy in which the happiness of the greatest number of people in the society is considered the greatest good.

·       Quakerism: the whole system of beliefs, thoughts of quakers, members of The  Religious Society of Friends, a sect founded by George Fox in 1650.

·       Feminism: a movement which claims the equal rights for women and men.

·       Anti-slavery movement: a belief according to which slavery should be abandoned.

·       Socialism: a socio-economic phenomenon in which property is held in common and not individually.

Communism: a theory of system based on the common production ruled by the governament.