Chapter 6 - Joshua

Personal Reflections

In this chapter, the narrator confesses her feelings for Melanie and both girls are suddenly, dramatically, and very publicly punished by the church for their "unnatural passions." This is the longest chapter in the story so far, and a lot happens, so I will try to go over the parts that are relevant to my interests as best as I can.

Also, while Jeanette and Melanie are separated, there is an interesting scene where Jeanette visits Miss Jewsbury for a while, and the older woman comforts her and offers her support. It appears that she is also a lesbian, but has kept it a secret in order to protect herself from facing the punishment of the church in the way that girls are currently. Then the two of them share a moment of intimacy together, which Jeanette seems to want (since she misses being touched and held in this way, the way that Melanie held her), but she describes it by saying, "We made love and I hated it and I hated it, but would not stop." This is a challenging scene that is difficult to interpret, and I'm not sure how to feel about it. The age gap between the two of them is an uncomfortable element for me, and I assume for many other readers as well. It's not entirely clear how consensual this interaction between them is either. That being said, I know that historically these types of age-gap relationships among gay people were more common and acceptable in many times and places than they are considered today, and in a society where any same-sex attraction or sexual behavior was heavily reviled and stigmatized as being inherently predatory and/or pedophilic, the situation may be more complex than the one-sided story of victimization we are used to hearing about in this context. It still feels a little uncomfortable to me though; I'm still not sure how to feel about it. From a character perspective it definitely makes sense for Jeanette to cling to this form of comfort from Miss Jewsbury even if part of her hates it, though.

Critical Response

While the narrator is confined to her room and denied human contact (as well as food) for a couple days in order to "drive out the demon" possessing her in the eyes of the church, there is a sequence in which she sees her demon and has a conversation with it. She notes that the demon is orange, which it says is because that is the color of her aura. It seems like this isn't an accident, given the title of this novel and the repeated references to oranges throughout it. So I'd like to analyze the imagery of this use of the color orange in this scene.

First, what does the demon represent? When Jeanette responds to it, concerned, that "demons are evil," it corrects her, saying that, "Not quite, they're just different, and difficult." When she asks what will happen if she keeps it, the demon confirms that she will "have a difficult, different time." Given the mention of auras above, I think the demon is meant to represent the dark (and supposedly "demonic") parts of her personality, which have so far been reviled by the church. Unnatural passions, fornication, and the like certainly are on the list. But it's mentioned that everyone has a demon, and different people have different colors of demons. For example, Jeanette's mother's demon "is brown, which is why she's so odd, and Mrs. White's is hardly a demon at all. We're here to keep you in one piece, if you ignore us, you're quite likely to end up in two pieces, or lots of pieces, it's all part of the paradox." From this, it seems that the demons and the colors they are (corresponding to people's auras) represent people's true natures, and that the trouble caused by these demons only arises when people deny their true nature, as the church expects many of them to do. We don't have enough information to really dig into what the different colors of aura mean or represent (beyond brown representing being "odd," for whatever reason), but I can speculate based on the properties of the color orange itself. It is not just a color, but also shares the name of a fruit, uniquely among the common colors. That alone (with the fruitiness of the name) suggests a queerness in Jeanette's aura, but the association with a plant also suggests freshness and vitality, a living quality that might make it harder to avoid than for others. Orange is a bright and unmistakable hue, the same color as fire, so it might mean a demon that is more insistent and persistent than for others with less vibrant colors.

This is only a partial analysis, but I believe this helps to clarify the importance of oranges and their presence throughout the novel, and to show how orange things metaphorically represent Jeanette's true spirit, which has been closeted and hidden away by her mother and the church elders, but ultimately cannot be repressed forever. That inner orange, vital light shines through in the end. Or at least, it does so far in the story. We'll see about the remaining two chapters.