The book that I interpret for you today is called "Oranges are not the only fruit", the Chinese edition of this book totals 135,000 words, and I will use the content of 6 issues to explain the essence of this book for you, this issue is the first issue of the explanation.
Everyone goes through a period of growing up. During these days, we are constantly looking for our own place, exploring the inner world, and finally establishing our own existence, so that we can live calmly and fearlessly.
This process may be short, long, difficult, or bitter, but it is the only way for us to move towards freedom of thought and independence of personality.
"Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit" tells a story about growing up. In the face of worldly oppression, the disgust of relatives and the betrayal of lovers, the girl Janet never gave in. She stuck to her heart, struggled to resist, and finally went to a broader world and found her true self.
The book, the debut novel of British writer Janet Winterson and her semi-autobiographical novel, was widely recognized as soon as it was published, and in 1985 won one of the most important awards in English literature, the Whitblade Award.
Next, let's follow in the footsteps of the author and see how the protagonist Janet sticks to her original intention and pursues freedom and independence!
01
Janet was abandoned by her birth mother from the day she was born and adopted by a christian family. The adoptive parents were devout believers who devoted themselves to the service of God and were determined to raise their adopted daughters as missionaries.
Thus, religious activities took up most of Janet's family life.
On Sundays, my mother always got up early in the morning and prayed alone in the living room for a long time, and no one could disturb her until ten o'clock.
Janet followed her mother's prayer closely, and when her mother said the prayer of "justice to me," Janet began to boil water on the stove. When the mother finished her prayer and went into the kitchen, the tea had just been brewed.
At this time, the mother always took a large sip of tea and then began to examine Janet's bible knowledge. If Janet answered correctly, her mother would continue to ask the next question, and if she answered incorrectly, she would be very angry and make a big fuss about Janet.
After that, they would listen to the missionary activities of the Global Service Channel, and Janet would record the mission in detail with paper and pencil, so that the mother could submit a "Missionary Update" to the church at night- the mother served as a missionary secretary, responsible for collecting the progress of the church's work around the world.
The quality of Janet's and her father's lunch depends on the proselytizing situation: if the situation is good and there are many converts, the mother will be in a good mood and cook a good meal; if the non-believers are stubborn, even murderous, the mother will be depressed, and Janet's lunch can only be served with boiled eggs and desserts.
Usually, the stories told by my mother are mostly related to God. What impressed Janet was the story of a sweeper who converted to God.
This sweeper, ben, was a depraved man who was not only an alcoholic, but also had all kinds of vices. However, one day when he was scraping soot in the flue, he suddenly saw the aura of God. He was so excited and joyful that when he came out, those who saw him said that, though his face was stained with soot and illegible, it shone with a holy light, like the face of an angel.
Later, the sweeper was reborn, broke all his vices, and became a Sunday school tutor. After he died, he deservedly went to heaven.
Her mother also often told Janet stories of her own conversion.
One night, my mother stumbled to pastor Spratt's preaching ground. The pastor looked exactly like a Hollywood superstar his mother liked, and before becoming a pastor, he was a successful advertising manager.
Priest Sprat would spend every night in town talking about the fate of the cursed and displaying miracles to cure diseases. Inspired by him, the mother decided to convert to God and received a gift from the priest—a book of hymns filled with hymns and a pot of bell orchids symbolizing holiness.
Since then, my mother found herself interested in missionary work and decided to dedicate herself to God. She worked wholeheartedly for the missionary society, spreading the gospel, influencing the people, and finding the value of her existence in the mission. With Janet, she had one more job—to raise her daughter as a devout missionary.
Young Janet, who stayed with her mother for a long time and always felt the great gift that God brought to Christians, Janet witnessed the glorious achievements of missionaries around the world, and deeply believed in her mother and God.
02
The mother's personality is very strong and extreme, looking at everything as black and white, and there is no room for conversion.
She loves and hates clearly, and in her eyes, the enemy is the enemy, and the friend is the friend.
She loved God, and those pagans who didn't believe in God were enemies, and even the neighbors who lived next door never gave them a good look.
She pursues holy relationships, believing that those who indulge in "perverse passions"—that is, those who fall into homosexuality—are the enemy.
There is a stationery shop in the town, which is opened by a lesbian couple. They were friendly to Janet, and every time Janet went to buy a comic book, they would ask her to eat cookies.
One day, they invited Janet to the beach with them, and Janet was so happy that after going home to tell her mother about it, her mother sternly refused her request, did not explain why, and did not even let her go back to the store to talk to the lesbian couple. Later, her mother forbade Janet to go to their store to buy comics.
Janet was young and did not understand her mother's intentions, and it was not until many years later that she understood that her mother hated homosexuality because they fell in love with the same sex and became evil and depraved.
Her mother loved Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre, and janet read it over and over again for her when she was young. However, she arbitrarily changed the ending of the novel and convinced Janet that the heroine Jane did not go back to her beloved Mr. Rochester, but married the pious priest St. John and followed him to India as a missionary, in order to shape Janet's concept of marriage and strengthen her love for God.
Janet never went to school because her mother thought that school was a "place of iniquity" and would lead people astray. At home, her mother used the Bible as a teaching material to teach Janet to read, and in this way, janet learned natural science knowledge and historical knowledge, which were based on religious doctrine.
For example, it rains because the top of the church breaks through the clouds. The higher the town's buildings, the more religious the people there are, and the more rain they get. Therefore, the drought that those pagan parishes encountered was that the people there did not believe in God.
The fruit in the family has always been only oranges. Whether it is fruit salad, fruit pie, or fruit punch, oranges are used as ingredients. Because the mother believes that just as God is the only faith, oranges are the only fruit.
The mother is the authority of the family, her control is everywhere, whether in life or in the soul, Janet is controlled by the mother. The only place she could be alone was in the outdoor toilet, but her mother couldn't tolerate her staying in the toilet for too long.
In her mother's eyes, Janet was God's gift to her, her possession, so she had the right to educate and shape her as she wished.
03
The mother was extremely concerned about Janet's growth, but only in the religious aspect. Emotionally, she failed to give her the care and love she deserved.
Once, Janet was deaf in her ears for three months because of inflammation of her lymph glands, but her mother never noticed it. She thought that Janet had become silent because she was possessed by the Holy Spirit and was complacent about it, thinking that her piety had been answered.
Janet was only seven years old at the time and did not understand the physiological laws of the human body, and when she finally realized that something was wrong and told her mother that she could not hear the sound, her mother just nodded her head, indicating that she knew, and then went on to read the book depicting the missionary life.
The next morning, Janet wakes up to find that her mother has left a note saying she has gone to the hospital to visit Aunt Betty, who is fractured.
Unable to do anything, Janet went out for a walk alone and met Miss Jo polly, who conducted the sister choir in town. Miss Joobalie was very enthusiastic, and with her help, Janet was taken to the hospital for examination.
Janet's surgery was scheduled for the next day, and she felt terrified and wanted her mother to be with her.
However, the mother and the nurse settled her in together and left with a large bag of oranges. For the week that followed, she was also busy with her own business and did not come to the hospital to see Janet.
During this time of loneliness and fear, the company of the old woman Elsie made Janet feel a little warmth.
Elsie was Janet's only friend. She was very old, her teeth were gone, and she always liked to tell Janet about her glorious deeds in world war I.
Elsie went to the hospital every day to tell Janet stories, read poetry, and play with her. After being discharged from the hospital, Janet went to Elsie's house for a while, because her mother went out of town to help a missionary association audit the accounts, and it would take a few days to return.
Elsie has an interesting and inclusive personality, telling Janet that the world includes both the real world and the spiritual world, and that what the naked eye sees is only a small part, and if you want to figure out this world, you must pay attention to both worlds at the same time.
At that time, young Janet did not understand these words, and as she grew older and faced the conflict between reality and heart, she slowly understood the meaning of Elsie's words.
In Janet's home, God and religion are almost the whole of life, the father is easy-going and gentle, almost cowardly, and the mother is harsh and ruthless and indifferent to her. The only warmth that young Janet could get came from the old woman Elsie.
Therefore, in the depths of Janet's heart, she is always eager to be loved, and she also very much wants to be recognized by others.
If Janet had grown up in such an environment, her nature might have been snuffed out, and she would have lost her curiosity about the world and her yearning for warmth, and she would have become a fanatical believer, like a mother, devoting herself to religious causes.
Fortunately, things soon took a turn for the worse: with the intervention of the local authorities, the mother had to send Janet to school.
Janet was very happy and full of expectations for school life.
What happens to Janet at school? Will she be able to adapt to campus life?
That's all for this episode, thank you for listening.