Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit - Class Notes

Jeanette Wilson’s Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit
Class Notes

Historical Context – sites back to history

Mother – everything black and white, good and evil (absolute)
• Believes men were like sheep – they flock and follow, no wise men
• Disgusted by sex next door – has had her relationships (Jeanette’s father – follows, Pierre

Heathens had no actual names – “naming is power” which naming gives purpose

Jeanette – human tire, mother got from God, child in the most sexless way, adopted

Old Testament – God pushing – like the mother’s order (strict)
New Testament – God forgive

Mother – afraid of losing Jeanette
Biological mother – what mother loathes

The princess – first story
• This is what I’m told to believe and do
• Jeanette – tool, strictly dedicated to God, her mother’s plans
• No childhood

Elsie – Jeanette’s real friend, elderly woman, “grandmother” presence, only one who gives unconditional love

Jeanette –
• Lacking social skills
• No other kids part of passage
• Given adult responsibilities
• Treated like both an adult and baby
• Scared children with Hell talk
• Disconnected while mother was away
• Disconnected when mother kicks her out

Mother – no middle ground

Jeanette – between two worlds
1. Praised for holy acts
2. Freak for unknown reasons

Mother – also not accepted outside of the church

Miss Jewsbury – too old for Jeanette

Mother – sex is a devilment of the body meant for God
Jeanette – interprets world around her through storytelling

Mother – changed ending of Jane Eyre, makes woman leave with the missionary

Prince’s search for perfection
• Jeanette can’t be perfect but only herself
• No perfections, only balance
• Prince given “Frankenstein” – doctor’s intentions were good but the monster created only wanted love
• Jeanette is mother’s creation

Mother – had male figure before

Jeanette – male figure later from Melanie and on

Mother’s life – denial, only looks through lens of religion, plays god

Jeanette’s father – another one of her mother’s subjects, plays little role in Jeanette’s life

Jeanette – preaches about being godly, raised to live by God, connection to spirituality

Pot plant – potted plant = plant in a pot
• Gift for interacting with religion and God
• Works on the number of people saved

Jeanette – when crying, was exorcised as thinking the demon was actually crying

Orange demon – friend and foe, angel and devil, good and bad thoughts / conscience

Oranges – what’s normal, being fed them all the time

Oranges – fruit – seeds, change of times, for a long time exotic (don’t grow in England), role reversal

Melanie – melon (not an orange)

Jeanette – embedded in her mind that she was pure
• God brought her Melanie so it must not be wrong

Mother – never educated Jeanette on sex

Jeanette – sex is unnatural but believes Melanie (found through God) is pure

Relativism – context makes situation right or wrong

Mother – never contradicted
Miss Jewsbury – seduces Jeanette

Jeanette – couldn’t come out because conditioned with exorcism, punishment came with coming out

Lesbian newspaper people – unnatural passions, foreshadowing of Jeanette

Demon says – to be herself meant being outcasted by the people she fit in with

Jeanette – interprets world through storytelling
• Bible
• Fairy tales

Title chapters – creation of Jeanette

You and the wall
Make your own sandwiches – know what’s in sandwich 9no poison), think about everything you’re learning
Keep you own teeth – lose teeth, no more bite

Jeanette – only emotional when Elsie dies, tries not to cry, denied by mother at church, Elsie’s funeral

Jeanette –
• Finally cracks around the end
• Misses God
• Misses certainty
• No home – physically and spiritually and emotionally
• What she wants is absolute – wanting her mother, like her mother
• What she had in her mother, she wanted in a lover

Sir Percivil – hid from the world, kept ignorant by his mother, innocent but a fool, pure at heart

Mother – can always pull her home, wizard tied to Winnet

Oranges are not the only fruit
• Possible progress
• Mother changes, but only changes due to force
• Changes only when not to be evil

Sad confirmation that there is no home – everything changed

Mother – estranged from family because she wasn’t a teacher

Jeanette – estranged from church for not being a missionary
Choosing own path against the rest

Mother –
• Came from upper class
• Now working class
• With church, not have to choose path, not active life, everything already set

Mother – possible affair with woman, old flame page, Elsie told Jeanette that mother would understand