Themes and Symbols in Jeanette Winterson’s Semi-Autobiography

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit is a book by Jeanette Winterson. It is about a young girl named Jeanette. She grew up in a very religious family. Her mother is strict and uses religion to control her. Jeanette starts to learn who she is. The book shows her journey and the problems she faces. It also uses symbols like oranges, a demon, and a pink raincoat to tell her story.

THEMES

Religion and Control

Religion is an important part of her life, and even a joyful one. Religion makes her feel as if she has power, agency, and purpose, all needed things in a household where she is often treated badly by the people who are supposed to love her most. However, religion is also how Jeanette’s mother controls her daughter, telling her that the Devil himself is everywhere and the world is full of sin. She sees school as a “breeding ground” for sin, and wants to keep Jeanette’s education strictly religious for as long as possible. Jeanette says that being a homosexual is not an obstacle to being a religious person. She believes that people are problematic and that people are damaging her.

There is no clear conclusion in the novel because the moment she is about to find herself, the story ends. In the end, she has no one left. It is like an inner journey. Religion is not shown as only a bad thing here because Christ is an important symbol and Jeanette also takes Him as an example in some aspects, such as goodness and believing in your ideas.

SYMBOLS

Oranges

Her mother comforts Jeanette with the sweet treat of an orange. Her mother roots through her purse or goes to the cupboard to retrieve an orange, which Jeanette peels and eats with focus and delight. Rather than comforting her daughter with words or actions, Jeanette’s mother simply hands her an orange, and oranges come to symbolize the inadequacy of Jeanette’s mother’s mothering and the inadequacy of Jeanette’s emotional life in general. You cannot form a bond with your daughter just by handing her oranges. There are other things in life. That’s also where the irony in the title comes from.

The Demon

It symbolizes Jeanette’s wary self-acceptance and her inability to repress who she truly is. The demon is orange, the color of comfort for Jeanette, and a reminder of the ever-present gulf between the care she has always deserved and the care she has received. The orange demon has stepped in to offer a new kind of comfort, which is not warm and fuzzy either, but which at least allows Jeanette to accept herself, even tentatively, and move forward with her life.

Raincoat

It is pink. For girls, in other words. Her mother always wants her to wear it. Jeanette doesn’t want to wear it because it doesn’t suit her.