The title of the third chapter is: In
The Beginning Was The World
that is, a quotation from the Book of the Deuteronomy. Indeed, the function of
the chapter is to explain how the Bible affected Mrs. Winterson's mentality and
her vision of the world. It seems as if the 1611 Bible were the seminal book
for her forming and a linguistic paradigm for most of the uneducated people
from the working-class families (their English was so similar to that of
Shakespeare and the metaphysical poets that Mrs. Winterson often spoke using
mispronounced quotations by the famous writers).

According to the Bible, death coincides with salvation and it perfectly
fits with Mrs. Winterson's hate for life, seen as something painful and negative,
as the writer explained in the previous chapter. It follows that chapter three
is a further reflection about the binomia happiness-life, as it is differently conceived
by Jeanette and her mother: if on one side the writer loves life, fights to be
happy and tries to heal the wounds of her past, being who she really is, on the
other side what could improve Mrs Winterson's life is just a miracle and in her
opinion it is not Jeanette.

The title
of the fourth chapter is an extract from a quotation by Mrs. Winterson,
reported at the beginning of the chapter.  As the title suggests, the chapter is the
development of the topic "books and literature" discussed in the previous chapters.
 Also in this chapter, the  Bible seems to have a very relevant role: it
was one of the very few books admitted in Jeanette's house.

Moreover,
another comparison between Jeanette and her mother is set up, describing their
different attitudes toward the reading activity. Mrs. Winterson just read
murder mysteries and she forbade Jeanette to read fiction: narrative was
dangerous in her opinion, it could feed noxious ideas; Jeanette conceived
literature (and in particular poetry) as a medicine: words and images were
powerful to her, since they could express her feelings and she felt not lost; even
if her mother forbade her to read, she broke the rule because books were warmth
to her and they all contained messages she needed to stick in her mind.