1. Find the most important scene. Explain why it is so important.
The most important scene from the book is probably the scene where Jeanette meets Melanie. She sees Melanie while she’s working and fells in love immediately. Jeanette loves Melanie’s lovely grey eyes and she just HAD to speak to her. So she chatted about her work and ordered some fish-bait. I think this is the most important scene from the book because this is the scene where Jeanette finds out she’s homosexual, and this changes her life forever. It’s not that Jeanette is ashamed by falling in love with women, but the problem is her mother, who is strongly catholic and follows the bible as best she can. That means, that she thinks a demon has taken over her daughter, they call him the orange demon.
2. You are going to be director of a film based on the book.
A Which two scenes would you definitely include?
I’d definitely include the scene where Jeanette’s mother says that she must leave the house and find a job, because she can’t live with a child that’s doomed with the demon called homosexuality. I’d include this scene because it is very important and it shows you how far you can go, you really are an awful mother if you can’t have peace with the fact she’s lesbian. In a film you can show how lonely she was by this scene.
I’d include the scene where she is serving the meal on a funeral too.
In this scene Jeanette is spit out by the church and her own mother. They don’t want to have anything to do with her, cause they’re afraid that the Devil himself will take them to Hell. If she’s serving this meal, by co-incidence, all the people at the table stare at her like she has got a zit on her nose or something. This has got to be terrible for Jeanette, to not be accepted by her own relatives, friends and neighbours. [
B Which two scenes would you definitely leave out?
I’d leave out the parts where Jeanette has wrote down some fairytales and other stories which she uses to express her feelings, it’s funny in the book, but it’s difficult to show it in a film.
3. How would you have reacted to the problem(s) if you were the main-character?
That’s very difficult to say, because everything in the book is extreme. An extreme catholic mother, extreme early when Jeanette finds out she’s a lesbian etcetera. The biggest problem isn’t that she’s a lesbian at all, but the reaction of her mother when Jeanette tells it to her. First of all I think I would not dare to say it to my mother if I had a mother like her. But if I’d tell and she’d react like this, I’d be furious. I think I’d feel very lonely and try to explain it to people over and over again. Jeanette doesn’t, she still LOOKS like she’s a happy little girl, and stays optimistic.
But she stays hoping to find love, and she keeps thinking everybody loves her, there’s no doubt. She doesn’t see the problem of being lesbian at all, I like that.
4.
A What do you like about the main-character and why?
I like her being so strong, and not being afraid of anything. If she says she’ll do something, she does, and she is strongly doubtful about herself. You’ll see that in the scene where she’s in needlework-class where she’s only 8 years old. She’s convinced that her work is a masterpiece, but the teacher, Mrs Virtue thinks it’s rubbish. She hasn’t even got a reason to think this, and work. Jeanette hates that. She shouts at her and tries to find out what’s wrong about her work.
B What do you not like about the main-character and why?
What I don’t like about Jeanette is that she is so often busy with God, she thinks and talks about him all day. Even in school they tease her, cause she’s so obsessed with God.
5.
A What messages are there in the book?
One of the messages in the book is also an explaining of the title. There’s not only God, there are other religions too. There is not only love between men and women, also between women and women, or between men and men. There are not only people who live for God, you can also serve him while you’re not thinking There are not only oranges, there are other fruits too. Oranges are not the only fruit.
B What have you learned?
I’ve learned that there exist awful mothers like Jeanette’s mother. Her religion goes for everything, even Jeanette, her very own child. And of course I learned that you must always believe in yourself, even if you’re wrong, you are not yet a bad person or something.
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