Why is the movie called The Cider House Rules? I know that there is a paper with rules in the cider house, but I don't understand the significance of them. Could someone explain?
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Morgan: You had a tone.
-Signs
Well, I'm certainly no expert, but I took the title of the movie to refer to the fact that the cider house rules were made by people who did not have to live in the cider house. I inferred that we in the audience were meant to generalise that to the other situations in the movie we may not have had to face, eg abortion or leaving newborn children in an orphanage ... a "Judge not, lest ye be judged" kind of situation.
Please, others, more informed, let's hear your views too.
^ I think it means exactly that.
*I saw in your eyes that you hate the world, I hate it too...*
I think you're exactly right on the money... but just to elaborate (since I think these points were made more obvious in the book), in the book there were rules on the wall of the cider cabin. Mr. Rose could read, but he never read the rules to his workers. He preferred his own set of rules, the "knife business" and he looked after them his way. The concept of rules actually becomes a unifying theme in the book and somewhat in the movie (although I was less convinced in the movie). Homer had his own "rules" regarding abortion, he didn't disagree with them occurring, just that he would never perform one. But eventually he and Mr. Rose realized that there are exceptions to the rules.
shareGreat answers from everyone! This story is classically theme-centric, and also classically a close examination of morality. On the one hand you have the abstract, orderly, prescriptive codification of behavior presented by the rules, then you have the messy, passionate, chaotic, and whimsical fact of human life.
This theme is echoed throughout: most obviously in Homer's attitude toward abortion, but also in his relationship with Candy (his friend's woman) and in Mr. Rose's sexual relations with Rose Rose (his daughter).
Sometimes the rules seem to have been written by people from another world ...