Oranges are not the only fruit door Jeanette Winterson

1. Algemene gegevens
a. Name author: Jeanette Winterson
b. Title of book: Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit
c. Year of publication: 1985
d. Number of points: 3
e. Number of pages: 224

2. Analyse van een aantal aspecten
a. Summarize in one sentence what the book is about.
The book is about a devoted Christian and Lesbian who gets banned from her church.

b. Write a summary in your own words of about 400-600 words.
The book is divided into 7 chapters named after a part of the Bible. I will summarize by chapter.
The first chapter is the Genesis. In this chapter you get to know the main character, Jeanette. Jeannette is a 7-year-old and is adopted by her parents because her mum believes she’s got the holy spirit within her. Both of her parents are very conservative Christians, especially her mother. Her father is rarely mentioned all trough Genesis. They live in Lancashire and the church is a close community. While reading this first chapter you really notice how conservative her mother is, for example, when she finds out Jeanette goes to visit two women living together she forbids Jeanette to visit them ever again, because it is a sin.
The second chapter is called Exodus. Although her mother doesn’t agree with it, Jeannette has to go to school. Because she talks a lot about god and uses biblical themes in her works she is disliked by her classmates. We also meet Elsie, an old lady who is part of their church as well and deemed almost holy by the members of their church. Elsie is the one who takes her to the hospital when she gets (temporary) deaf. She has to stay in the hospital for several days and her mother visits her about every other day and she always brings oranges, because she beliefs they are the only fruit.
In Leviticus, the third chapter is not that important for the story, it describes a convention in the name of god, organised by Jeannette’s mother. However, the oranges make a comeback in a story told at this market.
In Numbers, Jeanette has a reoccurring nightmare of her wedding. In this dream she struggles to get to the altar. Every night she dreams about her spouse turning into something else, be it a pig or her mom or even no one at all. At this point she tells her mom about these dreams, but she hardly reacts at all. For Jeanette these are the first moments she realises she may be a lesbian. At the end of the chapter she meets this girl called Melanie, who comes to church with her one time. Here Melanie realises she needs Jesus in her life and they study the bible together every Monday. They get really close and develop some sort of romantic relationship.
It is during Joshua, the next chapter, that Jeanette tells her mother about her feelings for Melanie, but again she was very stoic. After this the two of them didn’t talk often and her mom seemed to be worried about something up until a day of big cleaning at home. That night her mom stayed at Mrs White’s, something that was rather odd. Jeanette stayed at Melanie’s and when the two of them arrived at church the next day her mother was crying.  After this a lot of things happened, but the main change is that Melanie choses to give up their relation to devote to god and Jeanette doesn’t. Melanie marries a soldier and this upsets Jeanette. During this time Jeanette meets Katy, and they fall in love.
In Judges, Jeanette is kicked out of her home for being a bad influence on the church. However, she beliefs she’s clean. When her mother catch her and Katy together she asks someone from church to clean Jeanette from the demons. People talk about it during one of the services, but they are very negative. Jeanette decides to leave her home at the age of just 16.
Ruth starts with some kind of, almost unrelated, side story. Jeanette works two jobs, one at a undertaker. One day she goes back home to find Elsie had just passed away. Because she worked at an undertaker she is called by their local undertaker to help with the funeral. She accepts and help serve food at the church, this causes an outrage and she leaves at the end of that day. Years later she comes back home, and find her mom sitting at an keyboard, still being dutiful to her church. Jeanette thinks about her family a lot.
The end is open so you don’t know how her bonds with her family are after her arrival.

c. Describe the theme in one word.
Religion

d. Describe the main character in detail. Use about 50 words.
The story starts with Jeanette being just seven, but at the end she’s an proper adult. The most interesting part about Jeanette is her view towards god and religion, this changes a lot during this book. It goes from her mother’s view towards developing her own view.

e. Describe two minor characters.
Her mother, a very devoted, conservative Christian. She lives by the bible.
Melanie, the girl Jeanette falls in love with. Melanie choses god rather than their relationship, however.

f. Describe the place(s) where the story is set in detail.
The story is set in Lancashire, a quite conservative town in England. Quite a lot of the time is spent at their home, a very ordinary home or church. The church isn’t described at all.

g. When does the story take place? (How do you know? What is the length of time of the story? Is the story told chronologically? Does the author use flashbacks? Explain in detail!)
The book is semi-autobiographical and follows the same timeline as Jeanette Winterson’s life. This means the book takes place from the 1960 up till the 1980’s.

h. Who is the person who tells the story (the narrator)? (Does the author tell the story, or is the story told from the point of view of one of the characters? Explain.)
Although at first it seems like Jeanette is the narrator, the story is told by the author. The reader knows more than Jeanette.

i. Give an explanation of the title.
‘Oranges are not the only fruit’ is often said by Jeanette’s mother during the story. In the story she means it literally, but it is a metaphor as well. The church should be the only thing in your life, white people are superior and you can’t be anything other than heterosexual.

j. Is the book just meant as a story or is the author trying to bring across a message? If so: why? If not: why not?
I believe there are many lessons to be found in the book, but the main lesson is that god loves you no matter what and it is defiantly not a sin to be gay.

3. Leesbeleving en evaluatie
Write a personal evaluation of your book in which you answer the following questions (explain all your answers in detail):

a. What is your opinion about the book?
I really liked, it was a bit confusing at first but when I got used to her, brilliant, way of writing I really enjoyed it.

b. Would you recommend the book to your classmates?
Yes.

c. Which part did you like best or was most important in the development of the story? Quote (citeer) a passage or sentence from the book which you found most impressive or touching.
“I seem to have run in a great circle, and met myself again on the starting line.”

d. Which part disappointed you most?
It was not so much a disappointment as it was a personal dislike, but I couldn’t get into the parts where she analyses other stories.
 
4. Finally, roughly how much time did you spend reading the book?
I finished in two days by reading about 3 hours in total.