Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?: Chapter 8 Summary & Analysis

Mrs. Winterson did not often welcome guests to her home, Jeanette writes—“part of the problem was that we had no bathroom and she was ashamed of this.” An even larger “challenge” were the Bible quotes written out and scattered throughout the house. Jeanette would be sent to school with Bible quotes tucked in her boots and in her lunches by Mrs. Winterson—“cheery or depressing,” Jeanette writes, it was reading, and “reading was what [Jeanette] wanted to do.”

Mrs. Winterson did like to answer the door when Mormons came to call, in order to wave her Bible at them and “warn them of eternal damnation.” On the rare occasion that Mrs. Winterson did occasionally invite visitors, Jeanette hid upstairs with a book. Jeanette recalls that her mother did read to her when she was young, but as Jeanette got older, Mrs. Winterson hid the books she’d once read to her. Jeanette searched for the books, and notes that she and her mother were “endlessly ransacking the house looking for evidence of one another,” constantly circling one another feeing “wary, abandoned, [and] full of longing.”

Once Jeanette did find a hidden book: a 1950s sex manual entitled How to Please Your Husband. Jeanette describes the tone of the book as “terrifying,” but realizes, flipping through it, that it is “flat, pristine,” and likely unread. Jeanette thinks that her parents never—or very, very rarely—had sex, and her mother always told her to “never let a boy touch [her.]” Jeanette wonders if, had she fallen for a boy rather than a girl, would her mother have been as enraged—she thinks yes, because her mother was fearful of and disgusted by sex. After Jeannette’s relationship with Helen, Mrs. Winterson waited and watched anxiously for Jeanette to take another lover, and “inevitably,” Jeanette writes, “she forced it to happen.”

Jeanette entered a technical college to prepare for her A levels, or college entrance exams, and Mrs. Winterson insisted she could only go if she worked nights in order to bring in some money. As Jeanette’s desire to live her life flared, Mrs. Winterson attempted to “wall [her] in.”

Jeanette’s family always went on an annual holiday trip to the seaside, but the year of her exorcism, Jeanette was ill, and asked to stay home. She walked her parents to the bus station, and then asked for the key to the house—Mrs. Winterson told her she could not have it, and instructed her to go stay with the pastor instead. Mr. and Mrs. Winterson boarded the coach and left Jeanette behind. 

Jeanette went to her friend Janey’s house, and told Janey and her family what had happened—Janey’s mother agreed to let Jeanette sleep in their camper van. Later on, Janey suggested to Jeanette that the two of them go over to Jeanette’s house anyway, and break in—the two girls broke in, ate food, and drank sasparilla. After a while, the front door opened, and two Dobermans entered the kitchen barking, followed by Mrs. Winterson’s brother—Uncle Alec. Mrs. Winterson had paid a neighbor to telephone her at the seaside if they saw Jeanette breaking into the house. Uncle Alec told Jeanette and Janey to leave, and when Jeanette refused, he struck her. Uncle Alec went outside and told Jeanette she had five minutes to meet him out front—she grabbed clothes and food and went out with Janey over the back wall.

That night, Janey and Jeanette slept together in the camper van, and confessed their love for one another. Janey told her mother about the relationship between them, and her mother accepted the two of them. A few days later, Janey and Janette rode their bicycles to the seaside town where the Wintersons were vacationing so that Jeanette could ask why Mrs. Winterson locked her out. Mrs. Winterson replied that Jeanette was no longer her daughter. Jeanette and Janey returned to Accrington and carried on their relationship. After the Wintersons returned home, Jeanette attempted to make peace with Mrs. Winterson, but to no avail—when she brought her mother a bouquet of flowers, Mrs. Winterson cut off the heads of the flowers and threw them in the fire. Mrs. Winterson finally confronted Jeanette outright about her lesbianism, and when Jeanette confessed her love for Janey, and the happiness they shared, Mrs. Winterson kicked her out of the house. As Jeanette packed a bag to leave, Mrs. Winterson asked her: “Why be happy when you could be normal?”