Jeanette Winterson, a modern British writer handles the lesb ian themes in unique style in her novels. She is a feminist and a lesbian writer who bought to the forefront the issues related to female sexuality . In her novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit , Jeanette Winterson challenges the conventional thinking of bi nary oppositions which favors heterosexuality over homosexuality . Simone de Beauvoir implies that gender is “an aspect of identity gradually acquired. She states that gender is the cultural meaning and form that body acquires, the variable modes of that bo dy’s acculturation” (Butler, 35). The novel rests on the idea of self - exploration against the religious dogmas imposed by society . This paper attempts to highlight Jeanette ’s eternal search for freedom – freedom to express her, freedom to be her own self. The story of protagonist parallels the life of Winterson but it is chiefly analysed in the light of lesbianism ... In her search for self, Jeanette finds escape from her Bible obsessed mother, and re -frames her life and gave a new perspective to her story . This paper attempts to reflect upon the issues of lesbian identity among the orthodox patriarchal discourse in the novel Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit. The desire to move away from convention and normativity is the core of this novel