QUEST FOR SELF-FULFILLMENT IN JEANETTE WINTERSON'S ORANGES ARE NOT THE ONLY FRUIT

Jeanette Winterson, being a versatile writer of repute, has produced novels, short stories collections, film scripts, essays etc. Love, sexuality and story telling are the dominant themes in her works. Winterson questions the traditionally accepted feminist roles and deals with issues regarding distinct gender and sexuality. Her primary interest in the novel is to show how the dominant roles of behaviour and ideologies were used to fix traditional gender roles and sexual conventions and how these roles have fixed and specified women's roles and behaviour. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit is concerned with the protagonist's quest for self-fulfillment. The novel is also a lesbian Bildungsroman tracing the development of the narrator from early childhood to late adolescence. This paper tries to trace how Jeanette, the protagonist struggled hard to find her true self and her quest for selffulfillment. The protagonist strongly believes that there is nothing wrong in being a lesbian. She asserts her individuality and identity strongly. The novel ends on a optimistic note and shows how the protagonist is successful in her quest for self-fulfillment