Molly appears to notice environmental differences between the countryside and the city, and she also notices similarities of American culture-at-large.Īt film school, she continues to observe and ignore the heterosexual culture that appears to saturate the world around her. She is critical of most of the circles she meets and, as she always has done, continues to define herself and go down her own path. In New York, Molly has her first experiences in lesbian communities. Possessing little money, she hitchhikes to New York to pursue an education in filmmaking. However, when Molly's relationship with her alcoholic roommate is discovered, she is put into their psychiatric ward and denied a renewal of her scholarship. Molly pushes herself to excel in high school, winning a full scholarship to the University of Florida. Her father, Carl, dies when she is in her junior year of high school. Molly also engages in sex with males, including her cousin Leroy when the two were younger. Bisland, and then again in a Florida high school, where she has another sexual relationship with another friend, the school's head cheerleader Carolyn Simpson, who willingly has sex with Molly but rejects the 'lesbian' label.

Molly has her first same-sex sexual relationship in the sixth grade with her girlfriend Leota B. Her relationship with her mother is rocky, and at a young age her mother, referred to as 'Carrie', informs Molly that she is not her own biological child but a 'bastard'. The novel focuses on Molly Bolt, the adopted daughter of a poor family, who possesses remarkable beauty and who is aware of her lesbianism from early childhood. The term 'rubyfruit jungle' is a term used in the novel for the female genitals. The novel is a coming-of-age autobiographical account of Brown's youth and emergence as a lesbian author. Published in 1973, it was remarkable in its day for its explicit portrayal of lesbianism. Rubyfruit Jungle is the first novel by Rita Mae Brown.

Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown