Oranges are not the Only Fruit - analysis

The introduction of the novel was written by Jeanette Winterson in 1991 in London, and has the function to narrate Jeanette's life while she was writing the book and explain the problems she has had with the publication of her work "Oranges are not the only Fruit".

The novelist explains that Oranges is an experimental novel because its interests are anti-linear: it offers a complicated narrative structure and it employs a very large vocabulary. 

The structure of the book is similar to the structure of the Bible because the novel is composed of eight chapters, and at the same way the Old Testament of the Bible is composed of the same eight chapters.

The first chapter is "Genesis", it speaks about Jeanette's birth and adoption and her education to became a missionary as her mother would. It has the function to introduce Jeanette's origins and education. 

In the Bible "Genesis" is the first book and speaks about the creation of the world and the first era of the human race, because the word "Genesis" means origins and creation.

The second chapter of the novel is "Exodus"; it narrates the first experiences Jeanette has with the school and also her first problems with her school-friends and with her mother.

In the Bible "Exodus" is the second book, it describes the oppression of the Jewes in Egypt, the escape through the Red Sea and Sinai desert under the leading of Moises and the meeting between God and the Jewes à 10 commandments