Duality in Symbolism: The Stone in Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
In her autobiographical novel Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Jeanette Winterson constructs a narrative in which the protagonist, Jeanette, navigates an escape from the oppressive nature of her mother, her pastor, her church, and her faith. In instances of shame, abandonment, degradation, and false truth, Jeanette grows to experience herself as an unnatural and abnormal creature. More specifically, she experiences her desires as purely sacreligious. In constructing this narrative, Jeanette Winterson uses storytelling through a fairy tale lens alongside the manifestations of hallucinatory images to implement an integral symbol that shapes the protagonist: the image of the stone. In both hallucinations and fairy tales interspersed throughout the story, Jeanette experiences the image of the stone as two primary tools, the first being a weapon to defend herself against her enemies, and the second being a talisman to guide her home.
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The concept of “home,” and what it means to Jeanette, is significant in the analysis of the stone’s symbolism. Rather than a physical place, what seems to represent home to Jeanette lies in stories and the art of storytelling. Over the course of her childhood and, as far as the story allows us to witness, her young adulthood, the histories that shape Jeanette are entirely shaped by her mother’s mouth. She experiences a lack of intellectual autonomy and independence that is born out of her isolation as a child. Her experiences in school, in her church, and the outside world is entirely crafted by her mother’s hands. In school, Jeanette experiences herself as an outsider. This is mainly a product of the ways that her mother has molded Jeanette’s reality into the fabric of her Pentecostal faith. This leaves Jeanette entirely lost in school, an environment in which she is an outsider. As Jeanette attests in her narration, “At school there was only confusion.” (41) When questioned about her preoccupation with God in both her reading ability and the subjects that she chooses for her samplers and other projects, Jeanette finds herself lost and confused. “My mother had taught me to read from the Book of Deuteronomy because it is full of animals (mostly unclean).” (41-42) In all aspects of her childhood development, Jeanette’s reality had been centered around the Bible and her mother’s faith. This led her to understand reality not as it is, but through a specifically crafted lens that makes for a strict and heavily scripted existence.
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Jeanette’s mother, who throughout her childhood is understood as all-knowing of the world and its histories, says of her trouble at school, “‘We are called to be apart….’ People didn’t understand the way she thought; neither did I, but I loved her because she always knew exactly why things happened.” (43) Jeanette’s perception of the world and of the people around her is filtered entirely through her mother, as is seen in the reverent attitude she shows toward her mother in this passage. It takes a great deal to break Jeanette from this vision of her mother as the all-knowing presence that creates for her an existence that is entirely dependent on her mother, which she finds when she finds what she begins to know as “home.”
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The significance of storytelling comes into play in the chapter titled “Deuteronomy.” This chapter comes across as Jeanette’s voice, pure and untainted, as opposed to the rest of the story that portrays her through the words and eyes of the people that surround her. “Deuteronomy” is a discussion of history, what it means, how it operates, and the ways that storytelling plays a role in the preservation of our past. On history and storytelling, Jeanette narrates, “People like to separate storytelling which is not fact from history which is fact. They do this so that they know what to believe and what not to believe. This is very curious.” (93) Stories and histories, as Jeanette points out, operate in a specific way so as to create a sense of comfort. There is safety in the known, and therefore safety is found in the enumerated histories that have been collectively agreed upon as fact. On this, Jeanette continues:
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“Very often history is a means of denying the past. Denying the past is to refuse to recognize its integrity. To fit it, force it, function it, to suck out the spirit until it looks the way you think it should. We are all historians in our small way.” (93)
History is safe. It is manipulated into a story that the world can stomach, and in such false truths lies comfort and safety. Jeanette sees a reflection of her mother in this, especially in the ways that she has always shaped her beliefs around the varying stories that the church turned to.
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In the duality that this symbol exhibits, the second major representation that the image of the stone exhibits is that of a weapon of self-defense. The stone as a weapon provides Jeanette with a means of protecting herself from the oppressive forces of her mother, her pastor, and her church among others. In the stone’s first appearance, Jeanette is experiencing hallucinations from a lack of food, water, and light as her mother, pastor, and church members perform an exorcism on her. This effort to burn out of her body and soul the demons that are leading her to Unnatural Passions results in the hallucinatory state that introduces Jeanette to the orange demon. The demon presents her with a small pebble to use as a weapon to defend herself, thereby providing Jeanette with a means of fighting off the people, practices, and beliefs that attempt to suppress her...​