Exploring Culture and Disengagement in the Twentieth Century through “Sons and Lovers” and “Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit”

 By Welisarage Onila Fernando 

Profound social transformations characterized the twentieth century. The era was shaped by industrial growth, the ruins of war, changing gender and family dynamics, and eventually, heated discussions surrounding faith, sexuality, and identity. Literature did not merely reflect these changes but actively interrogated them, questioning cultural authority and suggesting ways individuals might resist or detach themselves from its pressures. D.H. Lawrence’s “Sons and Lovers” (1913) and Jeanette Winterson’s “Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit” (1985) confront these issues with striking intensity. Although written in very different contexts, D.H. Lawrence in the world of early industrial England and Jeanette Winterson within a late twentieth-century Pentecostal community, both works grapple with the intertwined themes of culture and disengagement.

In D.H. Lawrence’s novel, culture emerges as the entanglement of class constraints, industrial labor and maternal dominance that leaves Paul Morel unable to move forward emotionally. In Jeanette Winterson’s narrative, culture appears as a rigid system of religious belief, which Jeanette must reject in order to claim her independence. While D.H. Lawrence’s novel concludes in emotional paralysis and loss, Jeanette Winterson’s Novel ends in defiance and liberation. Both, however, reveal the heavy toll of cultural authority. Strikingly, each writer’s narrative style embodies the spirit of their era. Through psychological realism, D.H. Lawrence portrays the oppressive weight of industrial existence, while Jeanette Winterson employs postmodern techniques such as allegory, irony, and fractured storytelling to mirror the era’s struggles with truth and identity.

             

While engaging with these works, I am compelled to consider the lessons they impart. As culture keeps pressing upon our lives, through class, ideology or religion, how do we react? Do we, like Paul, succumb to emotional paralysis, unable to act against the forces that shape us? Or do we, like Jeanette, find the strength to walk away and rewrite our own story, creating space for personal freedom and self-definition? These novels invite reflection on the ways individuals navigate cultural expectations and challenge the structures that attempt to define their lives.

                       

Culture

Are we in control of culture, or does culture control us?

In reading “Sons and Lovers”, the heavy influence of its cultural setting becomes impossible to ignore. The Nottinghamshire mining town in Lawrence’s work is vividly rendered, with coal dust, grueling labor, and strict social expectations shaping everyday existence. The writer presents culture as an inescapable system. Culture here is represented as a fixed structure of industry and class. Paul’s father, Walter Morel, embodies this. He is exhausted and confined by the mines. Gertrude Morel, Paul’s mother, resists the limitations of this world. She places her dreams of culture and education squarely on her children, with Paul at the center of her ambitions and care. The line, “Mrs. Morel’s life now rooted itself in Paul,” conveys the immense emotional and cultural burden laid on a single youthful man. Paul becomes both his mother’s expectation and his class’s product, suspended between the mines and her ambitions. Her aspirations echo early twentieth-century concerns with social mobility. She wants her son to rise above his working-class background, yet her possessive influence prevents him from forming independent bonds. In the world Lawrence depicts, culture is burdensome, passed down through generations, and almost inescapable (Nagra, 2018). It controls not just societal positions, but also feelings and personal longings. This defines the culture of England in the early twentieth century. What emerges clearly is that culture extends beyond labor or class status, seeping into Paul’s inner life, shaping his longings, and constraining his ability to love. For Paul, culture pierces so deeply that it shapes his very capacity for love. D.H. Lawrence demonstrates that in an industrialized society, detachment is nearly unattainable because culture infiltrates the core of one’s being.

In contrast, Jeanette Winterson’s “Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit” depicts culture in an entirely different form. Jeanette is raised in a rigid Pentecostal church where faith governs every detail of life. Here, life follows not the patterns of industrial toil but the rhythms of sermons, hymns, and the insistent voice of Jeanette’s adoptive mother, certain of her daughter’s missionary calling. Cultural identity in this setting is secured only through unquestioning submission to religious authority. At the beginning, Jeanette finds belonging and guidance in this community, but her love for another girl leads the community to condemn her as under demonic influence. The stark line, “These children are full of demons,” captures the violence of this rejection. Here, culture operates ideologically rather than materially. It lays down who Jeanette is meant to be and penalizes her for stepping outside its boundaries. Jeanette Winterson’s narrative shows how, by the late twentieth century, industrial class structures had lost some of their dominance, while religious ideology still enforced conformity, especially in matters of gender and sexuality (Bijon, n.d.).

Culture may be defined as the collective values, knowledge, and practices of a community, embracing its language, faith, cuisine, social customs, and artistic traditions (McKelvie & Pappas, 2022). In comparing the two novels, I see two equally forceful cultural systems. For Lawrence, culture is both bodily and familial, anchored in the tangible worlds of work and home. Jeanette Winterson depicts it as ideological and textual, rooted in scripture and upheld by religious authority. Still, both underscore a common truth that culture holds sway over people, whether through familial and class structures or through doctrinal and religious authority.

Disengagement

Does choosing disengagement reflect frailty, or is it a purposeful form of defiance?

Paul Morel’s misfortune lies in his inability to achieve freedom. His connection with Miriam falters, his relationship with Clara fades, and his mother’s dominance overshadows everything. When he admits to Miriam, “I can only give friendship – it’s all I’m capable of – it’s a flaw in my make-up. The thing overbalances to one side – I hate a toppling balance,” we witness the voice of a man frozen, unable to separate himself from maternal and cultural influence. Even after his mother’s death, he cannot move forward. He finds no liberation, even after the death of Gertrude Morel. Lawrence portrays Paul as “very thin and lantern-jawed. He dared not meet his own eyes in the mirror; he never looked at himself. He wanted to get away from himself, but there was nothing to get hold of.” For me, this underscores the intensity of Paul’s emotional immobilization. Once culture is so tightly bound to identity, its disintegration leaves nothing in its place (Ali & Hossain, 2025). For Paul, disengagement means emotional stagnation. Rather than offering liberation, Paul’s disengagement results in emptiness, reflecting the constraints of early twentieth-century culture and the nascent understanding of the subtle traps embedded in human desire.

           

Jeanette’s journey provides a contrasting example. For her, stepping away becomes a means of asserting resistance. When her church betrays her and her community condemns her, she confronts harshness and social ostracism. She recalls, “I made her ill, made the house ill, brought evil into the church. There was no escaping this time. I was in trouble.” Instead of yielding to despair, Jeanette chooses to stand strong. Reflecting, “I loved God and I loved the church, but I began to see that as more and more complicated. It didn’t help that I had no intention of becoming a missionary,” she begins to carve her own path. Jeanette remains emotionally engaged, actively forging the path of her own life. For her, withdrawing is a form of persistence and an intentional challenge to a culture that aims to control and suppress her. In contrast to Paul, she is not emotionally stunted, she redefines her future. For Jeanette, disengagement is survival, a deliberate refusal to let culture dictate her life.

Together, these stories illustrate two very different outcomes of disengagement. Paul embodies tragedy, the inability to break free from cultural control, while Jeanette represents defiance and the possibility of rewriting identity. Such a contrast points to a broader twentieth-century literary shift, from stagnation to rebellion, from quiet submission to the assertion of voice.

Narrative Techniques

In what ways does the style of storytelling shape our perception of culture?

In his narrative, Lawrence captures the early twentieth century’s preoccupation with psychological exploration. His use of psychoanalytic narrative allows the reader access to the inner life of the protagonist, focusing on thoughts, feelings and unconscious impulses (Narrative techniques in sons and lovers., n.d.). By employing free indirect discourse, Lawrence immerses us in Paul Morel’s consciousness, making his struggles resonate personally. After losing his mother, the narration reveals his desperate fear of void and loss. “‘Mother!’ he whispered – ‘mother!’ she was the only thing that held him up, himself, amid all this. And she was gone, intermingled herself. He wanted her to touch him, have him alongside with her.” Such passages highlight the novel’s psychological depth, mirroring a cultural moment beginning to wrestle with theories of the unconscious and the intricacies of desire. D.H. Lawrence also relies on symbolism to reinforce his realism. The dark, oppressive coal mines and grey houses stand in stark contrast to flowers and open fields, embodying the tension between industrial suffocation and the persistence of personal energy (Narrative techniques in sons and lovers., n.d.). These differences embed cultural struggle directly onto the landscape.

            

By contrast, Jeanette Winterson employs a distinctly late twentieth-century postmodern style. She structures “Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit” around biblical chapter titles, intertwining her narrative with scripture while also undermining it. The narrative is punctuated by allegories and fairy tales, emphasizing that culture is a product of storytelling. Her wry reflection demonstrates how irony and humor can subvert authority. “My mother has always given me problems because she is enlightened and reactionary at the same time. She didn’t believe in Determinism and Neglect, she believed that you made people and yourself what you wanted.” Through its playful, self-conscious tone, the narrative invites readers to challenge conventional “truths” and share in Jeanette’s creative autonomy. Shifting among personal recollection, allegorical tales, and biblical parody, her fragmented narrative mirrors the fractured and contested character of contemporary identity (Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, n.d.).

How a story is told is central to its literary power. Even when an author maintains a consistent voice, the choices in narration create depth, diversity, and impact, making each work distinct in its engagement with the audience (Lamb, 2020). Lawrence’s psychological realism captures the claustrophobic emotional world of industrial life, whereas Jeanette Winterson’s postmodern experimentation exposes the fluid rewriting of identity in a late twentieth-century context. Each author effectively immerses readers in their characters’ struggles, inviting either empathy for Paul’s emotional inertia or optimism for Jeanette’s resilience.

Conclusion

In my view, these works extend beyond simple narratives. Each serves as a testament to both the weight of tradition and the potential for liberation. Together, they show that literature operates as a dialogue with society, not simply a reflection of it. By dramatizing entrapment and resistance, Lawrence and Winterson show how stories shape cultural memory. They urge us to see narrative itself as a tool of survival, critique, and transformation across generations. Collectively, they remind us of humanity’s persistent fight for liberty. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers portrays the suffocating force of culture in early twentieth-century England, where personal autonomy collapses under class and family pressures, and disengagement becomes emotional stasis.   Winterson’s “Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit” exposes the constraints of religious culture on sexual identity, yet reframes disengagement as a pathway to resistance and self-redefinition. Each writer’s forms reveal their eras. Lawrence’s realism, steeped in psychology, mirrors a society wrestling with class obligations and the hidden self, while Winterson’s playful postmodernism reflects a culture intent on defying authority and restoring suppressed voices.

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