1. W HY B E H APPY, W HEN Y OU C OULD B E N ORMAL ? Jeanette Winterson Author of Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS

2. DEDICATION The dedication at the beginning of the book is for the novelist’s three mothers: her biological mother, her adoptive mother and her literary mother. Ruth Rendell is an English writer, author of psychological thrillers and murder mysteries. The novelist says “Ruth has known me since I was twenty- six, and she lent me a cottage to write in when I was trying to make my way. She had been the Good Mother – never judging, quietly supporting, letting me talk, letting me be”. The novelist starts her book with a dedication to thank the women who contributed to her life, education and literary base. “To my three mothers: Constance Winterson, Ruth Rendell, Ann S.”

3. INTRODUCTION written in Great Britain, 2011 published by Vintage, 2011 and 2012 CONTENTS: Jeanette Winterson’s memories The writer’s explanation based on the novel “Oranges are not the only fruit”

4. T ITLE “W HY B E H APPY, W HEN Y OU C OULD B E N ORMAL ?” HAPPY: is a way to live life; everyone of the world try to reach this way of being. NORMAL: a different way of living. Normality coincides with masses. The intelligent reader from the title normally expects something. In this case he/she could expect a strange situation developed during the whole book, connected through the chapters.

5. S TRUCTURE AND ORGANIZATION OF THE NOVEL The book is defined from the novelist a memoir: it is a literary genre different from an autobiography because in the memoir the writer focuses the attention on her personality; instead of her story as it happens in the autobiography. In the memoir the chronological sequence of events is not the most important element because memoir is principally based on emotions and feelings. The novel is organized into 15 connected chapters, each having an own title and a particular function in the story: each one describe a period or a fact of the novelist’s life, even in they are not disposed in a chronological way. The novelist uses a simple language, but she adopts a straight-forward way of speaking to send directly her messages to the reader.

6. N ARRATOR : THE MAIN CHARACTER The novelist, Jeanette Winterson, is also the protagonist of the book: she speaks for herself and she tells her story: for this reason she does not have to introduce the main character. In the novel the reader does not find her physical description, instead he comes to know her thoughts, feelings and behaviours depending on different situations.

7. C HARACTER OF THE MOTHER Right from the start the character of the mother is perfectly described, both physically and psychologically, through Jeanette’s thoughts She is described as a person with a strong personality. In the novel “Oranges are not the only fruit” Jeanette Winterson says “my father liked to watch the wrestling, my mother liked to wrestle”. In this way she underlines the passive figure of her adoptive father instead of the active character of her adoptive mother.

8. SETTING Manchester and Accrington In the second chapter of the novel the writer describes the city of Manchester during the period of the Industrial Revolution and during her life in the city. She reflects on negative aspects which the revolution brought; the city is described with: “the filth, the smoke, the stink of dye and ammonia, sulphur and coal”. Men and women were exhausted and ill-clad, their children were weak and they went in the industries with their parents: often they lose hands and arms. With industries Manchester became a new active, uncontrollable reality, which showed its effects on ordinary people. The most terrible thing about industrialization is that makes escape necessary: in a system that generates masses, individualism is the only way out.

9. WHY DOES JEANETTE WINTERSON WRITE? She writes to repair to the suffering that her adoption brought to her.

10. Martina Toso 5 A a.s. 2012-2013