Annotate With Sara

THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS

Oranges, A Quiet Symbol of Dangerous Denial

When a child in Parable of the Sower eats a ripe, homegrown orange, a devastating loss of innocence soon follows. California oranges are a quiet, but potent symbol in the book, akin to the Garden of Eden’s forbidden fruit.

Parable of the Sower contains a wide array of Christian imagery. The walled community in Robledo is one example. Since it is a paradise (relative to the world outside) and its impending fall preoccupies the beginning of the book, it feels natural to describe it as a dystopian Garden of Eden.

In Genesis, Eve’s decision to eat the forbidden fruit is the catalyst for the loss of Eden. In contrast, the Edenic walled community in Parable of the Sower is going to fall no matter what: the act of eating an orange (or any fruit) will have nothing to do with its demise. But fruit does represent something damning and (what Lauren would like to make) forbidden: the temptation of denial. People in Lauren’s community want to believe nothing bad is going to happen. They want to continue living with a false sense of sweetness and safety, so much so they do not realistically prepare for any type of doomsday scenario.

In this book, when Amy, Lauren, Joanne, and Keith eat an orange, they’re looking for a sweet distraction from their reality, too. But, unlike the adults, who can blame them? They’re kids. For the reader, though, when these kids eat oranges, it is a warning signal. Something bad is going to happen to the community soon, and that something will specifically affect that kid.

Let’s Get Into the Text

Chapter 5 – Amy, Lauren, Joanne

First Oranges Eaten

On Tuesday, March 4, 2025, Lauren and Amy eat navel oranges straight off of a tree during a rare rainstorm. That same day, a stray bullet breaches the wall, killing three-year-old Amy.

Lauren’s grief is punctuated by the fact that she believed she had a chance to save Amy. Amy’s violent premature death doesn’t give her any time to see if she could have. Lauren was just starting to show Amy a little bit of sweetness, not just by sharing oranges under the tree but by taking her under her wing at school. Long before Lauren could truly help her, Amy’s life is taken.

“I think, though, that if someone doesn’t help Amy now, someday she’ll do something a lot worse than burning down her family’s garage.”

Chapter 4: Saturday, February 1, 2025

Second Orange Eaten

Later, in Chapter 5, on Wednesday, March 5, 2025, Joanne eats an orange in Lauren’s room, while Lauren is scaring the shit out of her about how fragile their community is.

And if we’re not ready for it, it will be like Jericho.

– Chapter 5: Wednesday, March 5, 2025

Of note, Lauren is eating “dried fruit and nuts” in this scene too. But her favorite food is rendered bland by the topic at hand. She eats it “without tasting it,” a sign that she’s not indulging in the sweetness of denial like Joanne.

Seven days after eating an orange in Lauren’s room, Joanne cannot deny how right Lauren is. On Wednesday, March 12, 2025, Lauren writes about how garden thieves breached the wall, stripped citrus trees of their fruit, and destroyed gardens.

The stolen oranges symbolize how no one can indulge in the sweetness of oranges anymore OR the sweetness of denial about their community’s infallibility. And they don’t. The community organizes a robust, armed neighborhood watch.

Chapter 12 – Lauren and Joanne

Oranges Picked But NOT Eaten

Chapter 5’s security breach is when Joanne and her family start giving up on Robledo and looking for a safer community. A year and a half later, they have a way out. They’ve planned to move to a garden-less company town called Olivar that’s promising jobs and security but little else.

On Saturday, November 14, 2026, Lauren and Joanne basically say their goodbyes picking—but not eating—barely ripe oranges together. The fruit isn’t super sweet and neither is their friendship. This harvest is an acknowledgement that there’s no sweetness in denying reality for either of them anymore. Their friendship ended a while ago, and Joanne is leaving Robledo for Olivar anyway.

Chapter 10 — Keith and Lauren

Oranges on a Different Level: Orange Juice

In this chapter, Lauren and Keith drink orange juice together on Thursday, June 25, 2026. They enjoy the juice during a precarious, sweet-ish truce over a meal. They eat and talk, even sharing some real truths with each other.

Keith reveals something pivotal, for example. The relative period of peace the community has been enjoying is because of him. His group on the outside protects the community. “And my friends,” he tells Lauren in an argument about their parents, “…my friends know she lives here, and they let this place alone.”

Lauren stops drinking after one glass. She is done with fake sweetness. She can’t pretend with Keith anymore. Keith, however, vocally indulges in more sweetness, more illusion.

“He drained the last of his second glass of juice. ‘I told you. I live real good out there.’”

The delusion of Keith’s safety and security is shattered a month later. On Wednesday, August 26, 2026, Lauren writes: “Today, my parents had to go downtown to identify the body of my brother Keith.”

With the loss of Keith, comes another loss, though no one but Lauren knows it. The umbrella of protection Keith secured for the community is also gone too.

In Ch 14, their community truly falls. For Lauren, for all the kids, there will be no return to Robledo.

More Annotating Options

All the Oranges, Citrus, and Fruit in the Book

There’s more instances of fruit and citrus in the book that I have not fully dug into. (But will one day!) I have them all annotated for future reference, and I’m sharing the list below with you in case you have the energy for this kind of deep dive now.

Significantly, there are no acorns on the list below. Acorns, the fruit of the oak tree, play a huge full circle role in this book and also offer some insight into Lauren’s relationship with Bankole. Don’t worry: I have another post planned just talking about acorns in the book!

To annotate the rest of the fruit in the book, use this list below. I recommend using orange tabs to mark the page and an orange highlighter to mark the specfic passage.

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