Far from seeing Mother as a victim of a repressive society, Winterson presents her as the repressor through her upbringing of Jeanette. How far do you agree with this critical view of women in Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit?

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Léa West   13S                                                                                                                                                                                                    

‘Far from seeing Mother as a victim of a repressive society, Winterson presents her as the repressor through her upbringing of Jeanette.’ How far do you agree with this critical view of women in Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit?

In 'Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit', it could be said that Jeanette Winterson explores the true nature of femininity without it being contrived. Feminist critics have shown how often literary representations of women repeat familiar cultural stereotypes, yet the portrayal of the female characters in this novel, especially of Mother and Jeanette herself, defy our expectations. Because Mother is strict, rigid, un-maternal and even cruel in her upbringing of her child, she is the opposite of the loving housewife, and it could be construed as a critical view of women instead of a positive one. The female characters are central to the novel, while the male characters are marginalised and treated largely with mockery. For the most part, the characters are static and do not develop (reflecting the ordinariness of the 'home town') with the exceptions of Jeanette, her mother and Miss Jewsbury. In addition, the novel has the time period and setting of a rather less open society, where social constructs and rules were more revered. It is debatable whether Mother is a victim of the society she lives in due to her status as a woman, thus transferring restricting ideas to her adoptive daughter.

The characterisation of Mother, or Louie, is of “a dogmatic and powerful middle-aged woman, inviting the same mix of admiration, incredulity, disapproval and hatred”*. Due to her strong religious beliefs, she believes the world around her to be wrong and only her view, at one with God, is right. The 'unsaved' are enemies, and a threat to Jeanette, whom she guards fiercely from ways of life and thinking that do not correspond with the word of the Lord or the teachings of the Pastors. It is often suggested that Mother is a good, attentive mother only in this one area of Jeanette's life, but tragically absent in others, and this distance is represented by the symbol of the Orange fruit. Winterson’s portrayal of her certainly is relentlessly critical, and there are many incidents of wrongdoing, mistreatment or neglect throughout the novel. One notable incident, in 'Exodus', where Jeanette contracts deafness, shows that Mother does not realise what is really wrong. “On the night I realised I couldn't hear anything...I couldn't attract her attention, so I took an orange and went back to bed” (p24). It marks an unpleasant episode in Jeanette's life when she felt alone and isolated physically and mentally. This is when Mother, the church and congregation fail her for the first time, and Mother's indifference when faced with pleas for help foreshadows Jeanette's future rejection. On realising her true sexuality, Jeanette muses on the impossibility of having any kind of relationship with Mother in 'Judges' :”My mother has always given me problems because she is enlightened and reactionary at the same time...she saw it as a wilful act on my part to sell my soul”(p128). Jeanette realises that she is thinking about her own instincts and others attitudes, but Mother is incapable of doing so.

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Jeanette describes her mother’s character in ‘Genesis’ when she says “She had never heard of mixed feelings. There were friends and there were enemies.” This description lays the backdrop for the future conflict Jeanette will have with her mother’s personality. Mother’s dualistic views of Binary Opposition are deeply impressed upon Jeanette as a child. According to her, the world is black and white with no layers in-between or possibility of individuality. Yet on reaching adolescence, she falls into more middle ground. Homosexuality falls outside of Mother’s assumed heterosexual binary. Jeanette criticises her mother’s perspective and suggests that the world ...

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