Multiple Themes In John Irving's The Cider House Rules
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There are multiple themes demonstrated through The Cider House Rules novel written by John Irving. The most prominent of them being that it is an individual person who decides the set of rules for their own life, not only deciding the rules but also holding the right to choose. An example of this theme is when Dr. Larch had to make a decision to perform an abortion on a woman in desperate need. Even though society and religious teachings have all told him that abortions were wrong and against the law he still made a personal choice to perform abortions and that the consequences were not outweighed by the payoff he felt abortions brought to the table. He also knew that if he wouldn’t give an abortion to a woman in need she would take desperate and unsafe measures to find someone that would.
With every Dr. that has wrote their own set of rules there is a women writing her own set or rules as well and specifically articulating what she feels is best in her life. Dr. Larch expresses his frustration with the government for trying to steal a woman’s right to choose and articulate, “I thought that freedom of choice was obviously democratic—was obviously American!” he heatedly writes in a letter to President Roosevelt. “Is it a democratic society that condemns people to the accident…show more content… An example being Dr. Larch who chooses to preform abortions because he has a full understanding of how sad, lonely and unfulfilling life can be for a child stuck in an orphanage. Because Dr. Larch understands this aspect of life that not everyone does, it has caused him to make up his own set of rules and preform abortions for women because of the simple fact that he knows the effects of being an orphan on children and doesn’t wish that for any innocent