The Devil Led Us to the Wrong Crib : Paranoid and Reparative Reading in Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? 

Abstract: This essay analyzes the issues of attachment between Jeanette Winterson and her adoptive mother in the memoir Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?. My argument is that the memoir demonstrates a movement from what Sedgwick calls the paranoid position of reading to the reparative position. The research questions are relevant as Winterson’s memoir is written in a significantly different way than her early published works. It was found that the text in the memoir does present a clear movement. When comparing Winterson’s writing in her early work with her memoir, a development is clearly demonstrated. Her early works are paranoid readings while her memoir is a reparative reading. The findings implicate that the author has processed the trauma of her childhood, which is reflected in the writing of her memoir.