Oranges are not the only fruit

Jeanette's mother frequently told Jeanette religious stories including that of her ownconversion. Jeanette's mother converted one night when she walked into the tent holding Pastor Spratt's Glory Crusade. Upon her conversion, the pastor gave her potted plant, a technique he learned as an advertising businessman.

The narrative then switches to a story about a beautiful princess who is so sensitive that the death of a moth could distress her for weeks. No one in the kingdom knows how to relieve her pain. One day, the princess finds an old hunchbacked woman in the forest. The hunchback asks the princess to take over her responsibilities that include milking goats, educating people, and composing songs for their festivals. The princess agrees, the old hunchback dies, and the princess never thinks of her worries again.

Jeanette then switches back to her life and describes more about her adoption.
I think Jeanette includes these these little fantasy excerpts as a way of somewhat living out what she really wants to happen or do. Her mother pushes and shoves religion down her throat and although I believe Jeanette loves God and has love for her religion, I don't think she is as fixated about it as her mother is and wishes she didn't have to think about it all the time. Therefore she makes up these fairytales. In this particular fairytale she imagines the woman giving her her own responsibilities so she doesn't have to think about her own, which eventually she doesn't at all. I believe this is Jeanettes way of feeling that she does not want to think about religion, "her responsibility" all the time.