Jeanette Winterson’s book Oranges are not the only fruit review

Jeanette Winterson’s book Oranges are not the only fruit review

Introduction

            Jeanette Winterson’s book Oranges are not the only fruit which was issued in 1985. The book explores the life of the heroine whose quest for self-identity, individualism, and personal growth took place in the 1960s in Northern England in an extremely religious community and an environment with strict rules. Jeannette is the novel’s protagonist. She lives in an unnamed small village with her adoptive parents. Louie, her mother, is a fundamentalist Christian who has dominated every aspect of Jeanette’s life. Louie believes that Bible teachings should be translated literally. Thus, she uses religious rhetoric to justify her black and white view of everything that happens in the world. In describing her mother’s binary view of the world, Jeanette states that her mother did not acknowledge the concept of mixed feelings. There were two sets of people in her world, her friends and her enemies (Winterson 3). Just like her mother, Jeanette was connected to the Christian teachings and appreciated the church teachings. As she developed and matured, her understanding of the church’s binarism was challenged after she learned that she was sexually and romantically attracted to women. Jeanette began exploring the areas of uncertainty and ambiguity that did not conform to the notion of bad or good and wrong or right.

Queer Imaging and Discovering Self.

Jeanette tells the story from a different narrative perspective.  When recounting the events that have taken part in her life, she uses the first-person voice. While when narrating fables and mythic stories, Winterson switches to the third-person perspective. And finally, she uses the second-person view addressing the readers. The novel is made up of eight chapters that have a title from books found in the Old Testament in the Christian Bible. The archetypal themes examined in the story include the conflict between an individual and the community, identity construction, family, love, and religion. What stands out in the novel is the connect between Jeanette’s personal experiences and Biblical themes.

The novel is about a girl named Jeanette, who is adopted and raised by an extremely religious family in Northern England. At sixteen-years-old, Jeanette falls in love with a girl named Melanie. When Jeanette’s sexual preference was discovered, her mother, the pastor, and the entire evangelical community destroyed the girls’ relationship, subjected them to public humiliation, and forced Jeanette to undergo an exorcism. Despite the traumatic experience, Jeanette falls in love with another girl. This time around, she refuses to renounce her sexuality and opts to leave her home and the church.

While growing up, Jeanette’s life was heavily influenced by her mother. But as she grew up and became exposed to other people in her teenage years, the secular world began to change her world view, and it also strengthened her resistance against authority. Jeanette spent most of her childhood being homeschooled. Once she entered school, her experience was problematic and painful. Although she tried to fit into the school environment, her evangelical beliefs turned her into an outcast. Both the teachers and students in school ridiculed her or ignored her. Jeanette’s recollection of her years in school documents a series of unfair treatment. It outlines hypocrisy authorities portrayed against a child who was trying to adapt to a new environment. Mrs. Virtue, for example, is afraid Jeanette’s religious world view might be upsetting the other children (Winterson 39). Despite the unfair treatment she was subjected to, Winterson (43) documents, “if it was not for my conviction, I might have been sad.” From an early age, Jeannette learned to advocate for herself and defend her way of life. Thus, when she eventually became away of her sexual preferences, she was willing to fight against the binary views on gender and sexuality.

The postmodern tradition of experimentation influences the book’s structure, the author interweaves stories such as dreams and fables into the chronological and linear story about the protagonist. Thus, it can be said that the novel is a metafiction because it is a fictional novel that questions the truth and the nature of fiction. It is different from other fictional works that make use of a fictional linear plot linked to realistic fiction. Winterson’s use of fables and other short stories within the narrative is aimed at making readers question storytelling, the nature of fictional narratives, and objective reality. In the book’s preface, the author emphasizes the anti-linear quality of her book and urges the readers to resort to the image of the spiral shape. She states, “read this book in spirals. It is a shape that is fluid and allows for an infinite movement…… I do not see the point of reading this book in straight lines because we do not think or live like that” (Winterson xiii). Thus, it is evident that the author encourages different interpretations of the non-linear structure of the novel and the fairy-tale elements found within the narrative. There is a difference between stories, the reality, the truth, and the subjectively. Consequently, Winterson encourages readers that it is okay to have alternative views and understanding of the text.

Winterson’s approach to gender and sexual identity is untraditional. The stories told in the book appear to alert readers to the role of the self and identity construction concerning gender and sexuality. Oranges are not the only fruit is a book about a young woman revealing her homosexuality in a binary society with a strict religious way of life. According to Onega (18), Winterson’s book is a realistic autobiographical comedy about coming out. Also, it examines and questions the distinction between fiction and fact. In the novel’s preface, Winterson (13) comments, “is the book autobiographical? No, and yes.” The book was written at a crucial time in British history. From 1950 to 1970, there was a profound transformation in people’s consciousness. According to Mendez (10), to understand the characters in oranges are not the only fruit, it is essential to bear in mind the economic and socio-political atmosphere that inspired social transformation during the era the events in the novel took place. Winterson uses the character’s experiences as a lesbian living in Northern England to interrogate the representation of sexual identities in a British society that rejects homosexuality. Thus, the book deconstructs gender and sexuality binaries that permeate the narrative. According to Mendez (2), deconstructing sexuality and gender is a common aspect of Winterson’s novel since it disrupts the different models that have defined the patriarchal order, for example, the self in a gendered and binary system. She encourages understanding the intellectual, emotional, and sexual person in a restrictive patriarchal and deeply heteronormative society. Thus, as an author, Winterson encourages her audience to question the Western tradition that perceives sexuality and gender in an insular and binary manner.

A significant aspect of Winterson’s novel is the integration of stories and fantasy. The book is creative because it reads like a fairy tale, but it also comes across as psychic narratives told by a younger Jeanette. The stories a younger Jeanette tells herself are meant to help her navigate the process of constructing her own sexual and gender identity. The aspect of self-creation is not only singular, but it also becomes a psychoanalytic approach to self-conception. From the author’s perspective, human identity disintegrating and diffused. Winterson (169) writes, “Every time you leave a part of you behind, the other life you could have had continued and influences several different things… I might still be an evangelist in Northern England; at the same time, I could be the person who ran away.” Winterson explores the process of constructing a new identity; she terms the entire process as “confusing” (Winterson 169). Also, by recounting the events that took place in her life, it becomes clear that Winterson and the protagonist in the novel have a lot in common.

Conclusion

Oranges are not the only fruit is a novel that merges the struggles associated with reconstructing one’s identity, and the experience of discovering an individual’s sexuality. Although it is a fictional book, the protagonist’s story has several similarities with the author’s personal life experiences which include; the protagonist and the author share a similar name, they are bought raised by adoptive parents, they both have a religious and strict upbringing, and both women are attracted to women. In the book, it becomes apparent that Winterson is encouraging readers to embrace a new world view that acknowledges there is more than binary gender and sexuality.