Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

Content Warning: This section contains depictions of anti-LGBTQIA+ bias and abuse.

In Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit the recurring appearance of oranges becomes a motif that combines the many themes of the novel focused on family and personal identity. The notion that oranges are the only fruit stem from Jeanette’s mother, who only ever gives her oranges, especially in times of comfort: “I started to cry. My mother looked horrified and rooting in her handbag she gave me an orange. I peeled it to comfort myself” (25). Jeanette’s mother gives her this orange in the hospital as she leaves, and though she rarely comes to visit she sends oranges with Jeanette’s father to the hospital. The oranges and their singular identity as the only fruit show a connection between Jeanette, her mother, and their way of life. The oranges represent Jeanette’s life in the church and her mother’s commitment to living that life in a particular way. The oranges comfort Jeanette by reminding her of this, but as time goes on and conflict grows, the oranges take on another meaning, as explored in the depiction of an orange tree in a garden: “To eat of the fruit means to leave the garden because the fruit speaks of other things, other longings.