Question

why were things following World War II far from normal, even though people wanted a return to normalcy?

Answer 1

Well for one thing, it cost a lot of money and rebuilding was difficult, especially in places like Poland, parts of China, Hungary, and Japan which got hit the worst.

Another is that tensions still remained at home; i.e. displaced Jewish survivors began creating modern-day Israel in Palestine, Japanese-Americans were still the brunt of discrimination for a long time in the USA, and, of course, people pretty much hated the Germans.

I think it's gotten a lot better since then, but even generations that weren't alive then still feel the weight from that (i.e. my grandfather hated Japanese people until the day he died, and I was exposed to that).