Chapter 3 and 4 of Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

These two chapters have the function to introduce Jeanette Winterson’s relationship with literature.

In chapter 3 (In the beginning was the Word) the centre of attention, as it is suggested by the title, is the Bible, and the importance it had in the writer’s life. J. Winterson also reports some quotations her mother used to say, and that she later learnt to belong to poems and theatrical plays (King Lear, Hamlet …).

In chapter 4 (The Trouble with a Book…), after a short introduction about the concept of “size”, the writer talks about the books she had at home (there were just six books, including the Bible and two Biblical commentaries) and her mother’s attitude towards them (she thought they were dangerous since “you never know what’s in it until it is too late”). So J. Winteron started reading books on her own, even if her mother, when she discovered some books hidden in the daughter’s bedroom, burnt them. Obviously this event did not discourage Jeanette, who kept believing in the possibility of reading and writing books.

The two chapters are linked with chapter 2 by the consideration of what is “happiness” for J. Winterson, at the end of chapter 2 itself. Indeed, the writer says books represent for her a home, a place to escape a sad or difficult life.

The description of her life and of Mrs Winterson’s strange habits continues in the following chapters (At Home and Church), thus creating also a link with the next chapters.