Neither Celie nor Jeanette grew up exposed to a stable heterosexual relationship, which could have veered them away from heterosexuality. Celie’s parents had a very unstable relationship; they showed very little love. Even when her mother was ill, he would be “pulling on her arm”(P. 3), bothering her about having more children when she said twice that she wasn’t well enough to have another child. It’s hinted they had a bad sex life when the father rapes Celie and says “You gonna do what your mammy wouldn’t” (P 3). Even when Celie is forced to marry Mr.___ she is mistreated and abused by him, leading her into the belief that marriage is about loveless suffering. He treats her like dirt and has no respect for her, and because Celie knows no different, she expects this of all heterosexual relationships,
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which could lead to her sexual awakening as a presumed lesbian.
Jeanette’s childhood was much the same as Celie’s in the sense that it lacked a heterosexual relationship she could be influenced by. Jeanette’s parents aren’t shown to be in love; in fact they are hardly shown being together. When Jeanette asks her mother why she married her father, she replies not about love but about their responsibility to have a child and “dedicate it to the lord”(P. 10). Just like Celie, this lack of a loving parental relationship may have lead Jeanette to becoming a lesbian, as she hadn’t been exposed to any real love between a man and a woman.
Throughout the two novels, neither primary character has a close relationship with a male. Instead, they find shelter with other women. The fact that Jeanette never has a close relationship with a man can give us hints to her inevitable sexuality, as she is not sexually attracted to them, shown when she “tried imagining him without his clothes on. Horrid.”(P. -), expressing her disgust of the male body and general distaste of men. Throughout Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, she has a close relationship with a woman from church, Elsie. When Jeanette is sick in hospital, her mother rarely visits because she is busy, but Elsie comes every single day to “make me smile”(P. 29). This, as well as the fact Elsie sticks by Jeanette even after her lesbianism is revealed, almost seems to the reader that they have a parent/daughter relationship, where Elsie looks out for Jeanette and keeps her strong through hard times; Jeanette said “and my confidence restored (thanks to her)”(P. 30). Their closeness lasts until Elsie’s death. Her friendship and experiences with Mrs Jewsbury introduces Jeanette to homosexuality, which is a key turning point in the novel and can be seen to have had a huge impact on Jeanette’s sexuality.
Like Jeanette, Celie shares closeness with women rather than men. While Jeanette’s distaste of men is more passive and subtle, Celie is hateful and wary of men because of the way she’s been treated by them. She lived in a time when men dominated the social hierarchy, so all the women had to stick together. This is shown when Celie meets Sofia, who has six brothers and five sisters, and says “all the girls stick together” (P. 39). It’s a possibility that Sofia’s words inspired Celie to find confidence in other women instead of suffering alone, because it is after this that Celie develops a close relationship with Sofia and Shug Avery,. The quilt Sofia and Celie make acts as a metaphor to show the power women can have when in numbers and the things they can achieve. Both Nettie and Mr. __’s sister, Kate, tell Celie “You got to fight”(P. 17 and 21) to encourage her, and Kate says “you deserve more than this”(P. 20), which helps Celie discover self-worth and gives her the confidence to leave Mr. ___. Kate shows Celie she is not alone, and the new dress Kate buys for her symbolises Celie’s newfound refuge with other women and the start of defining herself as a new, stronger person. Celie also seeks shelter from Shug, who she spends most of the novel admiring, and Shug takes on the responsibility of looking after her and introducing her to the idea of self-worth, empowering Celie as a woman. Their relationship is a major influence for Celie’s sexuality, despite the fact critic Trudier Harris calls it “The height of silly romanticism”1, implying it is unrealistic. I disagree with this, as I think their relationship is more sisterly than romantic, shown when Celie says “we sleep like sisters me and Shug” (P. 124) emphasizing how closely they’ve bonded. It is definitely not “silly” when looking at how much Celie gets out of their relationship, including redefining herself, questioning the word around her and discovering self worth, as stated before.
Walker and Winterson both foreshadow the future lesbianism of Celie and Jeanette in various ways through symbolism and particular events. Jeanette’s lesbianism is hinted throughout the book, one example being the banana bar she is offered by the lesbian shopkeepers. The banana bar is a phallic
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reference, and it symbolises the rejection of heterosexuality. A gypsy woman tells Jeanette she will “never marry” (P. 7), which comes true, just not for the reasons the reader expects. Jeanette also describes her dreams where she is about to get married and at the altar, her husband turns into various things: a pig, her mother, an empty suit, and blind (P. 69), giving the reader the impression she is afraid of the idea of marriage, or specifically, marriage to a man. When Jeanette goes to school, she says that “everyone at school avoided me” (P. 42) and being there made her “very depressed” (P. 42); this mirrors and foreshadows how Jeanette is exiled by her church community when her sexuality is revealed later in the novel.
Unlike Winterson, who gives many hints about Jeanette’s lesbianism, Walker chooses to give practically no clues of Celie’s sexuality to the reader. The only obvious sign is when Celie sees Shug’s portrait and describes her as being “The most beautiful woman I ever saw” (P. 8); the word “beautiful” is a powerful word, suggesting physical and/or sexual attraction. She becomes infatuated and fascinated with the picture of this woman, staring at it “All night long” (P. 8), and she goes on to say “And now when I dream, I dream of Shug Avery” (P. 8) which shows not just attraction, but obsession.
Through relationships with others, Celie and Jeanette are encouraged to think differently and to question the world around them, and this is a major factor which contributes to their sexualities. Jeanette’s mother gives her gentle encouragement, telling her she can “change the world” (P. 10), encouraging her to achieve greatness. She spends a lot of time with fellow church-goer Elsie, who tells her lots of stories, exposing her to a new, imaginative realm that was unknown to her before. This challenges her to question what is around her, such as when Elsie says “There’s more to this world than meets the eye”(P.32), and we can see the influence this way of thinking has had on Jeanette when she asks “what is it about intimacy that makes it so very disturbing?” (P. 101). The way Elsie is trying to encourage Jeanette to open her mind is almost the same as Shug’s attempts to change Celie’s way of thinking. However, Elsie does it subtly through storytelling whereas Shug directly challenges her about the world. This marks a pivotal change for Celie’s character. Shug renames her “Miss Celie” (P. 69) and as a “Virgin” (P. 69), giving Celie a new identity and a new way she can identify herself. Shug subtly redefines ‘virginity’ as sex that is enjoyed, not forced, making Celie a virgin by this new definition and removing the negative association she has with sex. This way, Shug encourages Celie to take control of her situation by interpreting things in different ways, for example suggesting she see god as raceless and genderless rather than a “White man” (P. 166). Critic Margaret Walsh says that through her "magic helper," Shug, "the love inside Celie comes forth, breaking the spell that has bound her"1. Both characters gain enlightenment through this new way of thinking and interpreting things.
The ending of Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit is very anti-climactic compared to that of The Color Purple. It ends with Jeanette returning home to her mother, who after all the years of shunning her for her sexuality, acts like nothing at all happened. This is most likely used for the effect of underwhelming the reader, as after her self-discovery nothing has changed, and her life is just the same as it always was before. The ending of The Color Purple, however, is a complete contrast. Celie starts her final letter with “Dear God. Dear stars, dear trees, dear sky, dear peoples. Dear Everything. Dear God” (P. 242) to show her sexual awakening has opened her eyes to more of the world. She has a new-found appreciation for life and a restored faith in God, which have both been slowly diminishing over the course of the novel, but through her new identity as a lesbian, she has achieved enlightenment. By the end of the novel her awakening has changed her character making her more assertive. She learns to stand up for herself because she feels she deserves to be treated well, where at the beginning she was
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looked at like “earth” (P. 20). And by saying “Us so happy” (P. 244) it proves she’s completed her personal journey and, as a result, is happier.
To conclude, Winterson and Walker both portray Jeanette and Celie’s journeys to lesbianism differently; Celie is driven to lesbianism as a way of self-identification and empowerment, and this is most likely a result of the abuse she suffered in her childhood, whereas Jeanette’s is a story of rebellion against her sheltered upbringing. Winterson wrote her novel to challenge “the supposed normality of heterosexuality”1 while Walker wanted to shed light on the discrimination women like Celie endured, and I believe both succeeded in their goals.
Erica Wilson Word Count: 2, 218 Words
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