Chapter #2 ; Exodus.
EXODUS 🌿
Hi everyone, and welcome back to my blog for Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson. Just a reminder! This space is where I’ll be keeping track of my thoughts, reactions, and literary observations as I read through the novel.
Let’s dive in with Chapter 2: Exodus.
In Chapter 2, “Exodus,” I really started to feel Jeanette’s loneliness. 🍊 After spending so much of her life under her mother’s strict religious control, being thrown into the “outside world” feels like being dropped into another planet. 🌍 Her confusion about how to act and what is normal made me feel so bad for her. She doesn’t understand why her classmates treat her differently or why they don’t see the world the same way she does. What struck me most is that Jeanette is still just a kid, innocent, hopeful, and wanting to belong, but she’s been raised to see everything through the narrow lens of her mother’s beliefs. 🙏
I could also relate to that feeling of not fitting in, especially when you grow up in a home where certain ideas or traditions make you “different.” 💭 Reading about Jeanette’s awkwardness and humiliation at school really hit home. I wanted to protect her from all the judgment she was facing. 🧡 It made me think about how our parents’ beliefs shape us before we even realize it, and how hard it is to start forming our own. This chapter showed me that Jeanette’s journey won’t just be about escaping her mother, it’s also about discovering who she is without all those rules. 🍃
Response #2 : Key Literary Elements
A key literary element that stands out in “Exodus” is symbolism, especially in the way Winterson uses religion to represent control and confinement. ⛪ Jeanette’s mother has built a world where every action is guided by faith, yet that faith is more about fear than love. 💭 When Jeanette starts school, this new environment symbolizes freedom, a place where she can encounter new ideas and people, but it also represents danger, since it threatens everything her mother has tried to protect her from. 🕊️
One scene that really stuck with me was when Jeanette reads her essay aloud in class. ✍️ Winterson writes, “I thought they’d be pleased, but they laughed instead.” That moment is symbolic of Jeanette’s innocence being met with harsh reality. She’s proud of her religious understanding, but the laughter from her classmates shows how disconnected she is from the world beyond her home. 🍊 It’s the first real moment where her belief system collides with society’s, and that clash marks the beginning of her “exodus,” her slow journey out of ignorance and isolation. 🚪
Winterson’s use of biblical structure also reinforces this. Just like the Israelites leaving Egypt, Jeanette begins her own kind of escape, not from a place, but from an identity built for her. 🌅 The writing beautifully ties religion and rebellion together, showing how one can lead to the other. ✨
Finishing “Exodus” left me thinking about how change often feels uncomfortable before it feels freeing. 🍊 Jeanette’s first steps into the world beyond her home were filled with embarrassment, confusion, and loneliness, but underneath all that, I could sense courage starting to grow. It reminded me that we all go through our own “exodus” moments, times when we have to walk away from what we’ve always known in order to find who we really are. 🌿
As I closed this chapter, I found myself rooting for Jeanette more than ever. I want her to find people who understand her and to finally see that she doesn’t need to follow someone else’s version of truth to be whole. 🧡 See you guys next time with Chapter 3! hehe
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