ally constructed limit self-development according to Winterson. For example, in order to take us into a universe in this love story that is not limited by these binaries, the author gives us a genderless narrator who is sometimes male and at other times a female. This is done in order to free the experience of preconditioned values of sexuality and gender. The author makes an appeal through her characters to remove these kinds of limitations from our thinking and acting. As she repeats many times throughout the book “It’s the cliches that cause the trouble. A precise emotion seeks a precise expression. If what I feel is not precise then should I call it love?” (Winterson 10). In other words, cliches and dogmatic thinking limit our experience to develop but also our ability to fully communicate.
The paradox is that the narrator herself/himself must come to understand that cliches are most often cliches because there is some kernel of truth within them or they would not be transmitted generation after generation. For example, the narrator is quite against what he/she views as the trappings and cliches of romance and love, like marriage “Marriage is the flimsiest weapon against desire. You may as well take a pop-gun to a python” (Winterson 78). Earlier, the narrator has used humor and condescension when talking about the cliches of romance “Settle down, feet under the table. She’s a nice girl, he’s a nice boy. It’s t
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