Quotes from Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit;

Concerning the struggle for identity;

P25; ‘But she’s not holy,’

 Mrs White is talking about Miss Jewsbury, and the reason she is unholy is because she is a
lesbian. The contradiction being that the Church/ God is supposedly Omni benevolent, yet w
woman who is attracted to other women is cast out.

P34; ‘When talking to individuals, you determined as soon as you could what they most wanted in
life, and of what they were most afraid. This made the message immediately relevant’

 Jeanette is discussing and expressing that in order to successfully convert citizens, one must
pick out their weak points and use these to make them see that the church/God is the way
forward and a means of reaching their goals and avoiding what they are most afraid of. In
other words, it is a way of brainwashing people so that they lose their originality and sense
of self.

P43; ‘I will enter it if that’s what you want but i don’t think it’s the sort of thing the judges will be
hoping for’

 Jeanette’s teacher’s personal opinion has come into play. The fact that Jeanette’s religious
beliefs challenge the school and its ethos has caused Jeanette’s teacher to think less of her
and has made her unable to appreciate Jeanette’s love of the church. She uses excuses such
as ‘your colours are limited’ and ‘you don’t exploit the potential of the thread’ to make is
appear as though Jeanette’s piece simply isn’t good enough rather than it being
controversial.

P44; (Elsie speaking to Jeanette) ‘Don’t expect the unwashed to appreciate’

 Elsie is referring to the unconverted. This statement contradicts itself because she is calling
the unconverted naive and ignorant, yet her inability to accept that people may choose to be
unconverted is ignorant in itself.

P52; ‘I didn’t quite know what fornicating was but I knew it was a sin’

 To fornicate is to have sex outside of a marriage and is seen by religious believers as a sin. In
the bible in the ‘Deuteronomy’ section is where the explanation as to why it is a sin can be
found. The fact that Jeanette is aware that fornication is a sin but does not know what it is is
evidence of how much her mother does not want to her to be aware of unholy actions. She
is shielding her from something which is harmless.

P102; ‘These children of God have fallen foul of their lusts’ ‘These children are full of demons’
  The pastor progresses to exorcise Jeanette because she refuses to deny her love for Melanie.
The church have been unable to accept homosexual desires and that they are real. The
church believe that the devil is inside of Jeanette and Melanie and is forcing them to feel
such sordid things. When the reality of the matter is that Jeanette is a teenager who is
discovering herself which is natural. The harmful aspect being that her mother and the
church cannot accept her and force her to stop feeling which she cannot control.

P109; ‘The Lord forgives and forgets,’ ‘ but my mother didn’t’

 Jeanette’s mother is overpowered by the church and is incapable of loving a daughter who
does not comply to her standards or does not aspire to what she wants her daughter to be.

P110; ‘In her head she was still queen, but not my queen anymore’

 The fact that her mother has disowned her has caused Jeanette to reciprocate. She is coming
to understand that she can never be the daughter her mother wants. Winterson has chosen
to use lower cases for the word ‘queen’ to emphasise that her mother is not of high
importance anymore and the love is beginning to fade. Her mother betrayed her when she
needed her to be there for her the most.

P119; ‘ despite my sudden nervousness and that worry that i was getting ill again’

 The notion that Jeanette becoming ‘ill’ again because she has seen Melanie is what the
church did to her and how the church has managed to control her. Jeanette herself now
believes that loving another woman is wrong and the work of the devil. Jeanette has now
lost herself.

P129; ‘The pastor snatched it away and explained to me that i was the victim of a great evil’

P131; ‘ the real problem was going against St Paul and allowing women power in the church.’

P132; ‘The devil had attacked me at my weakest point: my inability to realise the limitations of my
sex’

P169; ‘Never trust a sinner’ (Jeanette’s mother to Jeanette)