Picking apples
"The Cider House Rules"

Our memories register on a conscious or unconscious way almost everything that happens around us. Even when we are focusing on an specific subject, when we spend our attention with someone or when we try as hard as possible to concentrate on a book or movie, everything that is only "a part of the scenery" is also being registered on our own data base, our brains.

This is the reason why we can remember details of places in which we lived, studied, worked or had fun. This explains why we can't forget the clothes that some of our teachers used often, the curtains of the house that we used to rent to spend summer on the beach, the ugly colors that our aunts used to paint their nails or even some odd outdoors that we were not even looking for.

Even though, I have to recognize that we are limited and don't know much about the world we live in. If, by instance, we could add the knowledge that we acquire by reading books, going to museums, watching television, searching internet, going to the theater, informing ourselves by magazines or newspapers and watching movies, I still have to say that we are very tiny and small comparing to the huge amount of informations and happenings that circulate and occur everyday in the world (we must remember that I am not only talking about what is on the news, but refering to everything that happens on the lives of billions of people that live in this planet).

This was more obvious to me after I watched the moving film "The Cider House Rules" from the director Lasse Hallström.

Even though I had already gone to institutions that help orphans; even knowing that I contribute regularly with campaigns that aid people that are very poor; although I read on the papers or in the internet about what is being done by government institutions or by non-govenment groups and try to be helpful (with all the limitations we have because of personal or professional commitments); I have to admit that I am not able to tell exactly how is the life of a child that is raised in an orphanage.

Neither would be capable of telling anyone exactly how someone is supposed to pick an apple or determine the qualities of such kind of fruit. Never had, also, the opportunity of fishing lobster (however, happily, I already had the chance of eating this delicious dish). I don't know how to deliver a baby and, because of that, I don't feel that I am helpful in a situation like that. These experiences are not a part of all the things that I lived throughout my existence (on the other side, I can assure that there are many experiences lived by me and each one in particular, that will never be lived or known by anyone, unless we tell them).

I could see how those things happen on the movie starred by Tobey Maguire, Charlize Theron and Michael Caine.

The Movie

Homer Wells (Tobey Maguire, well known all over the world because of his role as Spider Man) is a child that doesn't seem to have a happy future. He is an undesired child, abandoned by his mother on the clinic of an orphanage that helps pregnant women that don't want to have and care about these children.

Twice, when he was a baby and a child on his first years, he was adopted and given back to the orphanage. But Dr. Wilbur Larch (Michael Caine in another convincing interpretation) and the nurses of the orphanage liked him. He was raised in the orphanage and had an excellent medicine teacher on Dr. Larch. He learned how to deliver a baby and could see (with no participation) many abortions made by the request of young women (that would rather see the devil than have those kids).

He lived on the orphanage and didn't know much about the world. Homer kept sharing room with other children. Helped doctor Larch and the nurses in many situations and functions. Used to tell stories and organized in the projection of the only movie of the institution, a copy of the classic "King Kong". Heard every night, when Dr. Larch was going to sleep, a warm compliment:- "Good night, princes of Maine. Good Night, Kings of New England".

He had the opportunity to meet a young couple that went to the orphanage for an abortion before the third month of gestation. Homer asked them to give him a ride so that he could get to know the world. From that moment on, his life changed a lot. He was not one of the orphans any more or the assistant of Dr. Larch and went to experiences that were brand new to him.

He could see the ocean. Became an apple picker (and how fast he could learn this job). Saw how lobsters were caught and ate some of it. Lived among simple people, on a barn that was set to shelter temporary workers specialized on apple picking. Got aware of the disgraces of war. Fell in love and had to decide wheter he would stay in this new world or would go back to the orphanage...
Amuse yourself and enjoy this beautiful story!

For Teachers

1- Motivate your students to look with more attention to the world and to the things that happen around them. Ask them to look more to other people, to learn more with the experience of others. We look to much to ourselves, to our own problems, to our daily routine. We lost the capability of being more supportive, more comprehensive; we want to talk and impose our thoughts, we don't know how to listen and accept what other people have to say.

2- Since we have been acting this way very frequently, we thing this behavior is natural and acceptable. Because of that we are afraid of other people, of their attitudes, we think that everybody is trying to cheat on us (this is not untrue unless we change our attitudes). Suspicion is the rule. This, of course, pollutes our inhabits and doesn't allow us to grow, to improve.

3- Each and every change means that we must evaluate our behavior, our parameters and, in many cases, reformulate our philosophy and ethics. It is, indeed, a very hard task, it asks for a lot of strenght and, beyond all, inteligence and sensibility. Teachers can and must help their students in this journey. The first step must be done by the teachers themselves, they are the first ones to change.

4- There are no cake recipes that can help us with those changes. The changes must be made in a way we can privilege respect, consideration, serious work, dignity, friendship and love among men. It seems to be a small task however, many people were, literally, crucified because of that...

João Luís Almeida Machado
Master Degree in Education, Arts and History of Culture (Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, in São Paulo); Professor at Faculdade Senac in Campos do Jordão; Middle and High School teacher; writes weekly columns for the website Planeta Educação

Send e-mails, comments, suggestions and critics for:
profjoaoluis@planetaeducacao.com.br

Technical Information

The Cider House Rules

Country/Year of production:- USA, 1999
Lenght of time/Gender:- 130 min., Drama
Director: Lasse Hallström
Screenwriter: John Irving
Cast:- Tobey Maguire, Michael Caine, Charlize Theron, Delroy Lindo, Paul Rudd, Jane Alexander, Kathy Baker, Kate Nelligan, Kieran Culkin.

Links

- http://e-pipoca.cidadeinternet.com.br/filmes_zoom.cfm?id=148 (portuguese)
- http://www.adorocinema.com/filmes/regras-da-vida/regras-da-vida.htm (portuguese)
- http://www.cineguia.com.br/index.shtml?cod_filme=CNA0063&rg=0 (portuguese)