Fruitful Connections
People are becoming enamored by fruit again, and it's not because of some wellness trend. The pomegranate and peeling orange theories highlight the intensity behind all kinds of love, both romantic and platonic.
The Dreamers, 2003 (Film still)
Pomegranates are used in media as metaphors to symbolize an undying devotion or love for another human being. The art of opening a delicate pomegranate involves actively deciding to carefully preserve each moment and savor each shiny aril.
“To love someone is to know them inside and out, and it can be messy and time-consuming, but being splayed bare for someone who took the time to lovingly take you apart is the closest I’ve ever been to religion.”
Despite the mess that it may make to open up a pomegranate (or to open up to another human), it is worth it for the sweet seed inside. Pomegranates serve as a symbol of a love that is worth the hardship, despite being a time-consuming task that may stain one’s fingers. Throughout history, pomegranates have possessed a symbolic relationship with the idea of cannibalism as a romantic gesture. The highest, purest form of love is to sacrifice part of yourself to sustain another’s life or ensure their survival. Once you have been consumed, you can never be attached to or connected with another. The flesh of pomegranates resembles that of an organ, a heart with dripping red juices mirroring blood. You rip open yourself as you rip open the fruit, offering its bearings to the ones you love to keep them fulfilled. It is a desperate, dark need for such an intense physical intimacy. A human may also strongly desire to be “one” with their lover that they consume them whole; a need to be a part of someone forever. This represents a love that can survive even death. The trend of analyzing the “pomegranate theory” has become controversial, as the idea has shifted to demonstrate the differences between how gentle a woman is compared to how rough a man is when opening the pomegranate fruit. This trending ideology receives much flak because of how it has strayed from the original meaning – instead of the fruit being a beautiful representation of undying love and gentleness, it has now devolved into the limiting argument of “delicate woman good, big violent man bad.” These debatable pomegranate theories represent whitewashed feminism, gender roles, and white woman fragility, the opposite of the original importance of pomegranates from Greek mythology or Middle Eastern traditions that represent gentle love, fertility, and femininity. If you’ve already taken everything good from the pomegranate, why does the question become, who did it in a prettier manner? Both man and woman have destroyed the fruit and tossed aside the flesh, one just took more time to carefully do so.
“As gentle as possible, yet still mutilated.”
The theory behind the “peeling orange trend” demonstrates knowing that someone else is capable of completing a task (such as peeling an orange for themselves) but doing those small things to make their day easier or smoother – or even just to make them smile. They do things for you that they don’t need to, but rather want to. Social media platforms have taken this theory and applied it to a new trend. You ask your significant other for an orange and “test” their love for you by seeing if they will give you an already-peeled orange. The trend has since become more lenient; will your partner peel the orange for you if you ask? It can either be an adorable interaction or a video that makes you cringe with secondhand embarrassment. Clementines and oranges have been used in poetry to represent a quiet love, delicately sharing a perfectly peeled orange slice with someone you admire. Three of the most popular poems about oranges are “The Orange” by Wendy Cope, “Oranges” by Jean Little, and “Oranges” by Gary Soto. The poets demonstrate finding joy in the small things in life, realizing there is beauty in everything – even a moment of sharing fruit with the ones you love.
“This dynamic fruit has been used as a symbol by plenty of poets who have found that the sweetness of oranges goes beyond just taste.”
The orange, and the mundane task of peeling it for someone else, becomes a symbol of gentle love, passion, and warmth. Oranges have been used as a symbol for years, in more than just poetry. The color and fruit relate to warmth, wealth (both monetary and emotional), amusement, and energy.
“I love you. I’m glad I exist.”
Handling fruit has been an action of love throughout history and cultures: when your Asian parents cut fruit for you, when you share an orange in the cafeteria at lunch, making grapes into enchanting wines. As the forbidden fruit that Eve eats in the Garden of Eden is actually never described, it is possible that she ate an apple, grapes, a pomegranate, a fig, carob, etrog or citron, a pear, quince, or mushrooms. This is the original story of temptation and lust – evidence that fruit have had an intense connection with human emotion for as long as memory can serve. Fruit represents a passionate love, a love that is all consuming.
