Some questions I have:
- Why are the chapters all named after the first eight books of the Christian Old Testament?
- How does Winterson use humor and/or irony in her novel?
- What foreshadowing do we have in these early chapters that this will be a coming-out novel?
- What is Jeanette's mother like?
- What is this church community like?
- Why do fairy tales appear in this novel? (like the Leviticus ch. (61-67))
What questions do you have?
I feel kind of relieved to be rereading this novel. I don't think it occurred to me when I assigned all these po-mo novels how dark they all are. I think Kafka is probably the lightest reading we've done up to this point which is saying a lot considering how dark his fiction is. Winterson's novel is light and funny and still just as serious as the other novels. I love the scene where the Pastor slams the table so hard that he knocks a cheese sandwich into the collection bag (the fact that it's a cheese sandwich, for some reason makes it all the funnier). Btw: Here's a picture of trifle in case you're wondering what one looks like (they're a popular desert in England):
ReplyDeletehttp://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/wp-content/uploads/blogger/_A39cgxoHN64/S_Fv8eDh-2I/AAAAAAAAE8M/yVQ32ENMjLQ/s1600/Patriotic-strawberry-trifle-WM.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2010/05/patriotic-trifle-and-giveaway.html&h=1600&w=1600&tbnid=OOe2zNZWj27WEM:&tbnh=186&tbnw=186&usg=__ulF4ssg0ZlJNw1fFTAYZLASIhfM=&docid=XR3arMHbc6A0yM&itg=1
("Time to go home, said my mother. I think you've had enough excitement for the day"
ReplyDelete"It's odd, the things other people think are exciting.)
Winterson expressed humor in this scene. Before reading these lines one would think Jeanette enjoyed church but clearly after the statement we know she finds it boring. All the "important" information she knows is just to know. It's funny yet serious how Winterson plays with Jeanettes feelings...
1. i didn't really understand why the chapters are names after the eight books of the christian old testament, but what i can guess is is that it has something to do with the person narrating the story perhaps. maybe each chapter represents what a character is going to go through?
ReplyDelete2. i felt humor when the narrator and her mother went to church and the Reverend was yelling singing and preaching and doing his stuff and how the narrator felt that a bit funny
3.
4. shes a strict mother, well respected. cooks, goes to church, prays, makes sure that her child is safe
5. very loving, joyful, respectful community. the church scene here is very pleasant, the Pastor is polite
6.
I would say that the chapters are named after the first 8 books of the old testament, because her mother was a religious women.And from what I have read so far they go with the descriptions of each part of her life. For example the fist chapter is called genesis, and this in the old testament is the beginning, the creation of the world. For Jeanette this chapter is the start of her life and how she introduces us to her way of life and what she is experiencing
ReplyDeleteWhat foreshadowing we see in the early chapter about this being a coming-out novel is probably when Jeanette talks to the gypsy, and she "reads" her hands and she said that she will never get married. Also when you read on you see that she thinks that maybe its better if she does not get married life will be better for her; from what she is sees going on around her.
Jeanette's mother is a very opinionated women and she seemed to be every pushy with her ways being the right way and no one else's are OK or right. She does not what to send her daughter to school because she thinks bad things happen there. she is very involved in the church and believes that the word of the lord is what will get her through life.
So far for the fairy tales, I think in the begging of the book when the women was walking in the forest for some reason they where talking about the hunchback of notre dame.
I believe that the chapters are named after the first eight chapters in the Old Testament because it shows how important religion is in this novel. I believe that Winterson is trying to use this humor because she is trying to show how devoted her family was to their religion. I believe that the Jeanette losing her hearing at one point in the book, is showing that this is a coming out novel because she cannot relate to the people around her and she feels that her beliefs are different from them. Jeanette's mother is very neglecting of her daughter, because she doesn't even realize at first that her daughter went deaf. I think that she only cares about religion and her whole life revolves around it. I think that the Church community is very insane and paranoid because they talk about certain people being demons and that they are the devil. The fairy tales appear in the novel because they show how Jeanette is trying to escape from her family's beliefs by talking about these different fairy tales.
ReplyDeleteAll the chapters are names after the first eight books of the Christian Old Testament because if shows the religious life she was introduced to as a young girl. It also shows her knowledge for this religion. She explains in the beginning on the novel how she is studying the scriptures and stories. Having these 8 chapters shows what an impact this religion made on her life.
ReplyDeleteJeanette's mother seems very strict when it comes to religion, as well as very strict about the real world. I understand she is trying to protect her daughter but some of her rules are a bit extreme. Jeanette's mother literally wanted to be just like the Virgin Mary and is against sex 100%. Also, on Sunday's watching television on the Lord's day is frowned upon. She is trying to protect Jeanette and keep with on God's side.
The church community also seems pretty extreme when it comes to their religion. The theories they have about possession and the devil is very out there. The pastor even had signs on how to detect someone that is possessed. The community seems very invested in this religion and it's ideas.
1. The chapters are all named after the eight books of the christian old testament because Winterson is comparing the story of Jeanette to the chapters that are named in the novel.
ReplyDelete2. Winterson uses humor and irony in her novel in a sarcastic tone. So far most of the story is set in a serious tone and she uses humor and irony to crack down on anything that sounds too serious.
3. In the early chapters this can be seen as a coming-out novel because of how religious her mother is. Considering how religious her family is she went from childhood to adulthood with little experience on relationships and what truly is out there in the world.
4. Jeanettes mother seems to be very judgmental and stern. She takes her religion very seriously and bases are everyday life off of religion.
5. The church community is also very judgmental and they stick to one another. They believe you have to do everything in the way the bible tells you to or else your actions will be considered a sin.
6.Fairy tales can appear in this novel maybe because it is something Jeannette always visioned? or fantasized about?
Jeanette's mother appears to be a super stern woman and very set in her ways. It was very described within the first few pages of Genesis. Dragging her offspring to do this many different task and combining with her church community, they all seem to play the same part that her mother plays, just like Pastor Flinch....
ReplyDeleteThe novel oranges Are Not the only Fruit is much more different form our last novel we’ve read “Carpenter's Gothic”. This book is based on the author Jeanette Waterson life, she also named one of the character Jeanette. This book stands out from many other novels because the chapters are all named after the first eight books of the Christian Old Testament. I believe the author named the chapters after the eight books of the Christian Old Testament because it represent different stages of her life journey. Genesis is only the beginning ….
ReplyDeleteI think the chapters are named after the first eight books of the Christian Old Testament because religion is what the novel mainly revolves around and the names of the chapters represent the stories' beginning to end. Winterson uses humor in her novel to show how dedicated she is to religion and to show how it affects her life. Jeanette losing her hearing can be a sign of foreshadowing in the early chapters since it happens so soon in the story and can mean something bigger would happen. Jeannette's mother is very dominant in her life, she is sent to school and forced to learn about how the Church is and a religious life....
ReplyDeleteJeanette Winterson's novel "Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit", already grasped my attention with it's notable title. I thought to myself, well it's either figurative and symbolic or literal as in, they really aren't the only fruit. As I opened the book up and skimmed through the chapters, I noticed that all the names of the chapters were reflecting the first eight books of the Christian Old Testament. Starting with Genesis, I can see the direction Winterson was going since Genesis meant beginning. It was basically mimicking the 'creation or start' of it all. It follows with Exodus, which is the departure of people and continued with Leviticus which symbolized "The things you shouldn't do". I guess in each chapter, the names portray what the main character is going through at that time. The rest of the chapters continue as Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, and Ruth which are all linked to the Old Testament. I think Winterson uses much irony in her novel naming those chapters as such and kind of stressing the atmosphere of church and preachers in the lives of individuals. We can see how Pastor Finch feels strongly about certain situations making it seem like everything that happens is "Devil's work". It's pretty ironic how someone who worships God can feel so strongly about the existence of the opposite, which would be considered the Devil.
ReplyDeleteJeanette's mother frequently tells Jeanette religious stories including that of her own experiences. Jeanette's mother converted one night when she walked into the tent holding Pastor Spratt's Glory Crusade. The pastor gave her potted plant, a technique he learned as an advertising businessman.
ReplyDeleteThen Jeanette 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 her adoption in more detail.
I believe Jeanette makes up this fairy tale as a cover in a way of expressing what she really wants. I think she is not quite as religious as her mother would like her to be but at the same time she would like to make her mother proud so she makes up this story where she could forget all of her responsibilities.
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ReplyDeleteWhy are the chapters all named after the first eight books of the Christian Old Testament?
ReplyDeleteHow does Winterson use humor and/or irony in her novel?
What foreshadowing do we have in these early chapters that this will be a coming-out novel?
I'm not christian so I don't know all the Old Testament books but from what I could gather about the first four is that its the start of everything. Much like in the book the character is progressing from a starting point. It could also be taken from the Old Testament because of her mother and the way she was raised. I believe she stated somewhere that her mother followed the Old Testament thoroughly.
The humor used in the book is through the child's sass. The way she constantly reacts the the different things the other characters are doing. Like the pastor and prosperously messing with the Daniel and the lions story. Making him look for the king even though she knows there aren't any.
There's a scene where the gypsy tells her she won't get married and she instantly thinks of the two unmarried women living together. She thinks about how her mother wont let her around them anymore because of their "unnatural passions".