This is the comparative essay I wrote for OCR English Literature and Language Coursework - task one that got me full marks! My schools chosen novel was Jeanette Winterson's 'Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal.' I found it very useful looking at example and model essays when writing my coursework, ...
How does Winterson explore Jeanette’s identity in her books
Why Be Normal When You Can Be Happy? And Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit?
Jeanette Winterson’s memoir; ‘Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal?’ and her novel;
‘Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit’ share a thematic exploration of family, sexuality and
religion. However, these themes can differ in the way that they contribute to Jeanette’s
identity. In this essay, I will explore how Jeanette’s identity is wrought through a number of
diverse themes that contribute to an overarching sense of selfhood.
The influence of Family
In both ‘Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal?’ and ‘Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit,’
the influence of family shapes Jeanette’s identity. In both books, Winterson presents this
influence using parallelism. Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal? was ‘one of Mrs
Winterson's best lines,’ Winterson shares in an interview with Vintage Books. 1 This phrase
not only poses a rhetorical question which directly connects with readers, but immediately
marks the influence of Jeanette’s adoptive mother. Winterson conforms here to the generic
conventions of the memoir, giving introspective insights into her life. In Why Be Happy When
You Can Be Normal, Jeanette’s identity seems to be illuminated through a number of
subversions to her adoptive mother’s beliefs and views. Jeanette becomes all that Mrs.
Winterson disagrees with. In the first chapter, Winterson writes; ‘books had been forbidden
in our house,’ as Mrs. Winterson believed ‘writers were sex-crazed bohemians who broke the
rules and didn't work.’ The article ‘the’ in apposition with the abstract noun ‘rules’ suggests
that Mrs. Winterson had her own concept of rules that she had been referring to, where the
modifier ‘sex-crazed’ and noun ‘bohemian’ are ironically presented against. Bohemianism
was a social movement of the 19th century that saw the practice of a person who was
interested in writing and literature. There is a dramatic irony when readers realise that they
are reading Winterson’s very book, and she did indeed become the ‘bohemian’ that Mrs.
Winterson thought writers to be. In this sense, Jeanette Winterson’s identity as an author is a
product of her adoptive mother’s pejorative language. There is a parallelism in that; what
Mrs. Winterson disliked inspired a large part of Jeanette’s identity. This argument is further
supported as Winterson switches between tenses and writes; 'to avoid Mrs Winterson’s story,
I had to tell my own, it’s why I am a writer.’ The dynamic verb ‘avoid’ connotes a
forethought, keeping clear of an expected difficulty or danger. In this choice of lexis,
Winterson expresses how becoming Mrs. Winterson was a danger that she had cautioned
1“Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal?” YouTube, uploaded by Vintage Books, 2 May 2012,
https://youtu.be/LDcGwOB1Cq4?si=4M83EaNXDyMXlg2z.
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