THE IMPORTANCE OF ALLUSION AND REFERENCE IN THE OPENING CHAPTER

The opening paragraph. How does it connect with the novel? What is its effect? How does the film version start? What is its effect?

·         Winterson explains what are the most important things for Jeanette's mother , in order  to describe her.

·         Its effect is to underline the authority of the mother on her husband and on her daughter.

·          The film version starts with a funfair scene. A lot of people are enjoying themselves. It's about people without thoughts. The first two people who appear on  the screen seem to be the junger Jeanette and the older Jeanette. They don't seem to enjoy themselves.

How many references are made to the Bible or have a religious Christian context.

·         There are a lot of references both to the Bible both to a religious Christian context. The mother is convinced to have a mission to dedicate to the Lord. Jeanette arrives without sex just as Christ does. Her mother follows a star to find her. According to her mother Jeanette can change the world. Jeanette suffers seven days. She is seven years old, just as seven are the days of creations, seven are branches of the candlestick and seven are the seals.

Keeping in mind that the chapter is called Genesis, what does it suggest about the setting and the context of the novel?

·         The setting has the same theme of the Genesis itself. It talks about the origin of Jeanette's life and education, and her early years of childhood

Characterization/s Make a note of all the facts that you know about Jeanette's mother. How has her character been built up? What kind of a person do you think she is? How many paragraphs begin with the words "My mother". What may all this mean or suggest?

·         Jeanette's mother is a religiously woman. She is determined and decisive. She is also a conservative and a bigot woman. She is full of preconceptions. Her mother is convinced to have the Mission to shape Jeanette. She doesn't want Jeanette to have contacts with external world.

·         In order to describe Jeanette's mother, Winterson uses a lot of religious references. She is described through her religious habits and customs.

·         I think she is a very narrow-minded person because she thinks only with a religious code. She doesn't accept anything different from religion.

·         Three paragraphs begin with "my mother", but the most of them refer to her with the pronoun "she".

·         This means that the figure of the mother is very important for Jeanette. Jeanette has to follow the ideas of her mother.

What facts do you know about Jeanette at this early stage?

·         I know that she was adopted in order to be a missionary of God. She is 7 years old. She is educated only by her mother.

What sort of person do you think her to be?

·         I  think she is a very fragile person, dominated by her mother.

How is your judgement affected by the fact that it is Jeanette who is telling the story in a first-person narrative?

·         In this way I can understand better the novel and I can somehow interact with the novel itself.

Remember this is not an autobiography. It is a novel. Also consider that the character is called Jess in the television adaptation.

·         The name Jess recalls to Jesus himself. It is usually male name.

What significance might there be  in the story  of the gipsy and her palm reading? Why do you suppose Jeanette is attracted to the gipsy fair in the first place? 

·         It might be a kind of notice for Jeanette. Because the gipsy tells her that she will never marry. Jeanette is attracted to her because she has something mysterious. She is looking for a revelation.

The short insert story about the princess and the moths. How does the story connect to the main story about Jeanette, her mother's ambition and her calling? What parallels can you draw?

·         This story has the function to underline the sensibility of Jeanette and at the same time it is the explanation of the mission of Jeanette herself. Her mother wants Jeanette to be the missionary of God.

·         Maybe the princess might be Jeanette while the moths are what upsets Jeanette.

How much  work is the reader expected to put into it? While you were reading  Oranges you will have found that other similar inset "fairy stories" appeared. Remember always to relate them to the themes and the events being played out in the main story.

·         The reader has to interact with the novel. Just as Winterson herself affirms in the introduction, this novel offers  a complicate narrative structure. The fairy stories offer to the reader the opportunity to read the novel in spirals.