CHAPTER ONE
THE TIES THAT BIND:ORANGES ARE NOT THE ONLY FRUIT
Jeanette Winterson’s first novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit,is
dominated by three love objects: mother, God and Melanie. The first
beloved of Jeanette, the narrator, is her mother and the connection
between them is represented by a thread motif, which is the primary
tie that binds. This tie is a constructed attachment that symbolizes a
manufactured rather than a biologically essential love. Jeanette’s love
for God acts as a perfect template for her other relationships and is,
therefore, central to the novel’s subtext. With God there is no betrayal
and this contrasts with the way Jeanette perceives she is treated later
by her mother and Melanie. Before disillusionment arises, Jeanette’s
lesbian relationship with Melanie works to undermine the
naturalization of homophobia. The love for Melanie is portrayed as
innocent and is a tacit means to castigate those who criticize their
relationship as unnatural.
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit suggests that all these forms of
loving are natural despite the obviousness that the thread between
mother and daughter is constructed. Consequently, this novel
questions the accepted belief of what natural attachments are; for
example, Jeanette is adopted and this is a recurrent theme in later
Winterson novels. The adopted or fostered child has come to be the
norm in her work.
Jeanette’s disappointment with her mother and Melanie is realized
when they become the unnatural ones for not loving by the codes that
she believes in. For Jeanette, the meaning of love is dependent on its
ability to transcend sexual barriers and gender. It should be limitless.
Jeanette’s love for God is only spoken of briefly, but this section is
pivotal for understanding how vital love is to the text and the narrator.
This love, first negotiated in Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit,
dominates Winterson’s work and is a form of love that asks for the
naturalization of the non-biological and for the inclusion, rather than
