The Cider House Rules

by John Irving

Here in St. Cloud’s we would waste our limited energy and our limited imagination by regarding the sordid facts of life as if they were problems.

“There is no excuse for cruelty, but—at an orphanage—perhaps we are obliged to withhold love; if you fail to withhold love at an orphanage, you will create an orphanage that no orphan will willingly leave. You will create a Homer Wells—a true orphan, because his only home will always be at St. Cloud’s.

He was an obstetrician; he delivered babies into the world. His colleagues called this “the Lord’s work.” And he was an abortionist; he delivered mothers, too. His colleagues called this “the Devil’s work,” but it was all the Lord’s work to Wilbur Larch.

“Have you forgotten what life is like at St. Cloud’s?” Dr. Larch asked Homer. “Have you drifted so far away from us that you find a life of compromise to be unacceptable? And you, an orphan—of all people. Have you forgotten how to be of use? Don’t think so badly of compromises; we don’t always get to choose the ways we can be of use. You say you love her—then let her use you. It may not be the way you had in mind, but if you love her, you have to give her what she needs—and when she needs it, not necessarily when you think the time is right. And what can she give you of herself? Only what she has left—and if that’s not everything you had in mind, whose fault is that? Are you not going to accept her because she hasn’t got 100 percent of herself to give? Some of her is over Burma—are you going to reject the rest? Are you going to hold out for all or nothing? And do you call that being of use?”

Yet Ray did not disrupt a single snail while he sat on his dock; he knew that it took a snail too long to get where it was going.

“Every time you throw a snail off the dock,” Ray teased Homer Wells, “you’re making someone start his whole life over.” “Maybe I’m doing him a favor,” said Homer Wells, the orphan. Ray had to admit that he liked that boy.

“Right,” said Homer Wells. “I think it’s wrong, but I also think it should be everyone’s personal choice. What could be more personal than deciding whether you want a child or not?”