Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit Blog #6

This chapter called Joshua is a big chapter in the book since it feels like Jeanette’s identity develops a lot throughout, and because it involves some real drama and conflict. When Jeanette confesses her love for Melanie to her mother, it leads to exorcisms which are very hard to endure for Jeanette and can be compared to torture. This chapter felt like a kind of peak for Jeanette’s inner conflict since she is being literally held captive by her mother and the church, yet it also seems that Jeanette is more confident and sure about her own sexuality and identity. It is also interesting that Jeanette has the desire to be both a lesbian and a follower of God, when the church says this isn’t possible. I would think that she would want to leave the church completely because of how they treated her, yet she still wants to stay and even gives sermons at a church retreat. Another interesting part of the story are more of Jeanette’s fantasy stories that are woven throughout. After one of them, she is given an orange where she hallucinates a demon and he tells her “you’ve made your choice now, there’s no going back” (Winterson, 236). I’ll discuss more about the demon and the oranges in the next paragraph, but the fact that this demon tells her that her choice has been made feels like a confirmation that Jeanette is a lesbian and always will be, even though it wasn’t really her choice, as the demon says.

I was intrigued by the repeated imagery of oranges in this chapter, as well as throughout the book. As I’ve mentioned before, I think the title of the book refers to the fact that there are other fruit to eat in the world besides oranges and that this is kind of a metaphor for Jeanette being a lesbian, that oranges can represent being heterosexual, and that this is not the only way to live your life. After one of Jeanette’s dreams/visions about a Forgotten City, she awakes with a fever and she “took out the largest [orange] and tried to peel it. The skin hung stubborn, and soon I lay panting, angry and defeated. What about grapes or bananas? I did finally pull away the outer shell and, cupping both hands round, tore open the fruit… Feeling any better?’ Sitting in the middle was the orange demon” (Winterson, 236). It feel intentional that Winterson used the color orange to describe the demon, who could represent the way of life that the church wants her to live, and Jeanette sees this as almost evil. She wants to eat other fruit, like grapes and bananas as she mentioned, just as she doesn’t want a traditional heterosexual relationship with a man. I think overall oranges represent the repression that Jeanette often feels from her mother or from the church to conform to a certain way of life. The fact that the demon is orange is symbolic of Jeanette viewing the “ordinary world” as somewhat evil and undesirable. 

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