Close Reading 11/27

"Spring in St. Cloud's meant trouble: drinking trouble, brawling trouble, whoring and raping trouble. Spring was the suicide season" (6).

Spring in St. Cloud's is not a good time. In fact, this is the time of the year when trouble starts. It is not surprising, however. Spring in St. Cloud's is when it is impossible to travel. The dirt roads are all muddy and impassable. The people cannot leave their houses because of it. And when people cannot leave and are stuck in their homes or in their surrounding area, they start trouble. So instead of peace in the springtime, there is trouble in St. Cloud's.

In How to Read Literature Like A Professor, Thomas Foster explains how Spring is a time of renewal and a time of peace. Spring is supposed to be a time when everything has a fresh start and there is not supposed to be any trouble. However, spring is just the opposite in The Cider House Rules. The book uses spring in a completely different context. Spring instead of being peaceful is trouble and is nothing like the symbol that spring is supposed to be according to Foster.

Yet, Foster also explains later on in his novel, that irony trumps everything. If something is the opposite of what it is supposed to be a symbol of, it is irony, and thus alright to do. So Irving uses spring to symbolize the trouble in St. Cloud's instead of peace, and thus the irony of the concept makes it alright to use. So whenever something is used and is done ironically it is fine.

This time can also be foreshadowing to what is to come. Maybe there is going to be a bigger problem than the individual town problems that occur. Maybe something will happen to Homer Wells in the spring time. It seems right now that many of Homer's problems occur during the winter, but maybe a larger problem other than him not being able to stay with a foster family for very long, will occur in the winter and thus show how the spring can be used as a time of problems instead of peace and new beginnings. Or maybe, the spring will serve as a new beginning for Homer. Maybe in the spring, he will finally find a home in which he can stay longer than a few weeks and maybe even be adopted into. But, for now, many of Homer's problems do not occur in the spring, but actually in the winter and stem from him wanting to be at the orphanage more than trying to live in an actual home.

Overall, spring could play a large part of the story or it could be a minor detail. As the story progresses, perhaps the idea of spring could change or be the same, or never be brought up again. Whether Homer will be affected by the season or not is yet to be determined.