Content Warning: This section discusses anti-LGBTQIA+ bias and abuse.

Jeanette is the protagonist and narrator of Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and over the course of the novel follows a journey of self-discovery in which she extricates herself from the toxicity of her church. Jeanette is raised in an evangelical household by a mother very involved with the local chapter of her church. She adopts Jeanette to dedicate her to God and works tirelessly to bring her into the church. Much of Jeanette’s early education is directly and exclusively from her mother, impacting her worldview and approach to others. With this education, Jeanette struggles to socialize with children her age at school but dismisses her loneliness in favor of devotion to her mother: “My mother didn’t have many friends either. People didn’t understand the way she thought; neither did I, but I loved her because she always knew exactly why things happened” (45). Jeanette’s devotion to her mother leads her to be a faithful member of the church, and despite not understanding her mother, Jeanette follows her every word and example, believing her mother infallible at first. This relationship between Jeanette, her mother, and the church begins to change as she gets older and fails to reconcile the outside world with that depicted in church sermons: “The sermon was on perfection, and it was at this moment that I began to develop my first theological disagreement” (62).