Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Aren't the Only Fruits and Craig Thompson's Blankets Are Coming-of-Age Stories adult that focus primarily on the religious beliefs of their respective authors. Winterson grew up in an evangelical family. His mother was a very religious woman with a totalitarian parenting style. This, in turn, corrupted Winterson's young mind and his understanding of the world was greatly skewed. Later, during her young adult years, her lesbianism and being rejected by the family she found within the church allowed her to break this mentality. Thompson, on the other hand, grew up in similar circumstances. His parents were fundamentalist Christians. They were extremely religious and conservative with a rather abusive parenting style. To add to this, Thompson and his brother were also assaulted by their babysitter. His parents' religious abuse and the babysitter's physical abuse left him in a real conundrum when it came to his sexuality. To come full circle, the authors’ upbringing had a detrimental effect on their mindsets. Winterson and Thompson lived their lives in fear of disappointing God and their earthly gods—their parental figures—by attempting to live free from sin and temptation. Winterson's mother raised her in a very evangelical and very totalitarian home. His word was law and the biblical scriptures guided his word. The story of Winterson's adoption is this: My mother, while walking that night, had a dream and held him up into the light of day. She would have a child, train him, build him, consecrate him to the Lord: a missionary child, a servant of God, a blessing. (Winterson 10)Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Her mother wanted to create the perfect child, impeccably crafted by the erroneous notions of the Church brainwashed into her mother's mind. She had dreamed of Winterson as holy and pious, obedient and submissive, a perfect Christian in the eyes of God; and she made sure Winterson knew how “special” she was (3). As a child, she was homeschooled by her mother. He was taught “to read the book of Deuteronomy because it is full of animals” (Winterson 42). Her religious upbringing left her very closed to the truths of the world and led her to believe that other people outside of her church were "heathens" (54). Once she had to attend public school, she had a very difficult time transitioning into the real world. She believed that hell was a real place and terrorized other schoolchildren with detailed stories of burning in hell for eternity. When completing a sewing project, Winterson chose to add the pattern "SUMMER IS OVER AND WE ARE NOT SAVED YET" (39). The other children and his teachers were very concerned about his behavior; however, his mother beamed with pride. Winterson had turned out to be the child she had always hoped to raise: a devout, submissive Christian girl. Even as her mother beamed with satisfaction, Winterson herself sank deeper into confusion. She couldn't understand why other children didn't find what she enjoyed as interesting as she did, thus making her a social outcast, just as Thompson was during her childhood. Thompson and his younger brother were raised in a fundamentalist Christian family. His family was very poor and openly religious, which led to altercations with other children at school. Like Winterson, Thompson attended apublic school where he was a social outcast and constantly bullied. During a fight, some bullies would mock: You know... it's not just you we hate, it's your whole family. Your father looks like a Mexican - too poor to feed you, and your mother is so religious that everyone in town is sick, and your brother... your little brother with his messy hair and stupid voice must be retarded. (Thompson 21) Thompson was angry over something that was totally out of his control. This began his separation between himself and his religion. He grew to despise his religious upbringing due to the negative reactions that followed, and when he tried to fight back, he was upset by his teacher for writing "an eight-page poem about people eating feces" ( Thompson 28). The teacher scolded him, telling him how embarrassed and ashamed his mother would be because “she’s a good Christian” (Thompson 28). No matter which side he chose, there would always be opponents to discourage him. He used his religion as a security blanket because it was the only way of life he knew. He felt it was safest for him. After the professor finished scolding him, Thompson thought, “If only God could forgive me all the times I imagined people eating their own excrement” (29). Even though he tried to distance himself from his religion, he still needed God's forgiveness for having such sinful thoughts. Church was the only place he truly felt safe. At the church's Sunday school, Thompson was further removed from his faith. As one of his teachers explained that their heavenly job would be to sing praises to God for all eternity, Thompson explained that he could not sing and preferred to direct his praises to God. The teacher laughed at him and mocked him: "I want to say, 'Come on, Craig.' How can you praise God with pictures? (137). This discouraged young Thompson even more. Drawing was the thing he loved doing most in life. He thought that if he couldn't praise God the way he wanted, then why praise him? Why praise a God who does not accept his children as they are? Why praise a God who allows abuse and assault to happen to little boys like Craig and his brother? His parents were loving and caring, but also had very crude methods of punishment that bordered on mental abuse. When Thompson and his brother were very young, they had to sleep in a bed together; their parents could not afford to buy another bed. One night, while Thompson and his brother were fighting over the blankets, their father came to intervene. In a tone of feigned diplomacy, their father said: “Very good. Don't you boys want to sleep together? (Thompson 14), placed Thompson in their bed and forced his brother into the compartment in the playroom wall that was used for storage. He was made to sleep there in the dark, with spiders and other insects crawling around him all night. His brother was completely horrified, and Thompson felt like a failure as a big brother because "[he] neglected [his] protective role in dangerous situations" (18). This also applied to their childhood babysitter who tricked the boys into a play, saying he had "a really funny joke." So funny, I can only tell it to you one at a time” (Thompson 29). He then began molesting them, which made Thompson feel like he had completely failed as his brother's protector and was harming his view of sexuality even more than his fundamentalist parents already had. In theMost religions, non-heterosexual sexualities, sexual intercourse, and anything related to sexuality are considered sinful. Winterson was taught from a young age that all forms of sexuality were sinful and would send you straight to hell. One day, after returning from church, Mrs. White, her mother and Winterson were greeted by the sound of next-door neighbors engaging in sexual intercourse. This caused his mother to lose her rocker. She launched a retaliatory attack with hymns and prayers and sent Winterson to the ice cream truck. Winterson reflected, “I didn't really know what fornication was, but I had read about it in Deuteronomy and I knew it was a sin” (54). His mother had engraved this knowledge into his brain. Sexual intercourse was a sin, as were Winterson’s “unnatural passions” (105). His love for another woman was considered an abomination in the eyes of God. Her mother was mortified by her daughter's sexual identity and attempted to exercise Winterson's demon. Her mother exposed her lover Melina and Winterson to the entire church. The congregation then began blasting them with hymns and Bible verses to teach them the divine way of life – to show them that their love was “a love reserved for a man and a woman” (105) – thus leaving Winterson wondering which one she liked. more: his sexuality or his God. Thompson was also raised to believe that many forms of sexuality were sinful. His conservative family feared the idea of ​​their son being sexually active in any way. On page 167, the reader sees a conversation between Thompson and her mother in which she seemed physically disgusted by the fact that "sex education" was being taught in public schools. She then said, “Why we let these people teach our children, I will never know” (Thompson 167); she shared the same ideals as Winterson's mother. Thompson's mother believed that those who are ungodly should not teach their children. Although she doesn't say it directly, her behavior suggests that she also believed that good Christians were better than everyone else. Another example of his parents' fear of sexuality was when they chastised him for his drawing of a naked woman, asking him, "How do you think Jesus feels?" (Thompson 207). Young Thompson was ashamed and embarrassed that Jesus would disapprove of his interest in female anatomy. Ultimately, this fear of sin and sexual shame had a significant effect on Thompson as a teenager. On page 146, the reader sees an image of Thompson sexually aroused by the letters he and Raina exchanged. Thompson then went on to tell the reader that “this was the ONE and ONLY time [he] masturbated [his] senior year – but such are the forces of will provided by faith” (147). His belief and fear of God were enough to bend his lust and temptation; however, his will wavered this time, and he was emotionally distraught. After the incident, he lay naked on the ground, in a fetal position, and felt the full weight of his actions and sins against God (Thompson 148). Thompson felt crushed by the figurative weight of his errant actions. With Raina, however, his fear of losing God's approval disappeared. Teenage Thompson thought sexual exploration was OK because he was in love with Raina. Thompson associated Raina's naked body with religious connotations, stating that "she had been created by a DIVINE ARTIST...sacred, perfect, and unknowable" (429). God created her beautifully. Every curve, dimple and inch of flesh was perfect. He considered, 1985.