What is the role of Jane Eyre in The Cider House Rules?

Question

In The Cider House Rules, Jane Eyre and several works by Charles Dickens (such as David Copperfield and The Great Expectations) are repeatedly mentioned and cited. One of the roles of David Copperfield is the citation “Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.”, which applies to Homer. What is the role of Jane Eyre? I only see that they are both about orphans, but I think there should be another connection that explains why Jane Eyre is used in The Cider House Rules.

Answer 1

Jane Eyre was an orphan as were the boys in the home with Homer. Secondly, she thought that she was without family throughout most of the novel.

The connection or tracer line of all of these texts mentioned is that they are novels of education - meaning a "coming of age story" as is Cider House Rules.

How does the central character respond dynamically to the changes life presents him or her as they move from childhood innocence into adulthood?

That is a staple theme of all young adult fiction from Faust in our Start, Catcher in the Rye and David Copperfield. If you remember Holden in Catcher in the Rye says on page one that the reader should not expect any of that David Copperfield crap in his story.