Garp's Lessons on Writing

Writing is a major subject matter within The World According To Garp for several reasons. Obviously if you’re reading a book it was written by someone, and for that reason tips and techniques on writing can be learned simply from reading the text, regardless of what it’s about. So far, there are three characters with a strong focus on writing, all of which contribute to the lessons Irving was trying to give to the reader. Garp, Jenny, and Alice all focus on writing and provide numerous insightful quotes and opinions on the process of writing, here are a few I’ve found, along with a brief explanation of my thoughts.

“‘And you’re always telling me,’ Helen said, ‘that autobiographical fiction is the worst kind.’” Pg. 225
This quote doesn’t specifically say a lot about writing as a whole, but I found it quite humorous considering how ironic it is. While Garp is a fictional character, after doing some research I discovered that many of Garp’s traits and actions are reflective of Irving’s, making The World According To Garp somewhat of an autobiography itself.

“…he would learn all his life, nearly everything seems a letdown after a writer has finished writing something.” Pg. 170
Another pessimistic point of view from Garp, this serves as a letdown from the temporary high provided by completing a writing project.

“You only grow by coming to the end of something and by beginning something else.” Pg. 223
While this could easily be taken as a negative lesson, I like to look at it with a sense of optimism. It’s like trial and error, sure you may have to fail a few times, but it is determination and willpower that will eventually push you past the failure and into the success you’ve been seeking all along, and those are both traits evident in Garp’s character.

“But he bitched about the reviews of Procrastination, and he moaned about the sales. He carped at his mother and roared about her ‘sycophantic friends.’ Finally Helen said to him, ‘You want too much. Too much unqualified praise, or love—or something that’s qualified anyway. You want the world to say, ‘I loved your writing, I love you’ and that’s too much tow ant. That’s really sick, in fact.’” Pg. 196
“’What do you expect?’ John Wolf wrote him. ‘If you want to be rich and famous, get in another line. If you’re serious about it, don’t bitch. You wrote a serious book, it was published seriously. If you want to make a living off it, you’re talking about another world. And remember: you’re twenty-four years old I think you’ll write a lot more books.’” Pg. 195
Both of the above quotations go well together, and suggest a similar point. Writing isn’t about others loving your work, it’s not about praise, and it’s certainly not about money. If you’re seeking those you’re likely in the wrong profession. Writing is about doing what you want, and being proud of your own work. Focus on what you’re goals as a writer are, not how the public views you. More importantly, don’t forget that your first efforts are likely to not be perfect, remember that you’ll have several more chances to prove yourself.

“It is only the vividness of memory that keeps the dead alive forever; a writer’s job is to imagine everything so personally that the fiction is as vivid as our personal memories.” Pg. 167
One of my personal favorite quotes from the book, in my opinion, this near perfectly depicts a writers task. This proves to be a daunting challenge for all writers, but serves as an excellent goal for the writer to one day successfully reach.

“…but writers, Garp sadly knew, were just observers—good and ruthless imitators of human behavior.” Pg. 225
This excerpt shows an extremely pessimistic view on writing, but one with great truth behind it. Writers gather their inspiration from their observations, and spend their careers attempting to capture the essence of human behavior onto paper. The melancholy tone also fits well into Garp’s general characteristics.

A Brief Style Analysis

While reading The World According To Garp, I’ve seen and learned a lot of things that I’ve never found in other literature. For this post I’d like to focus on a particular technique that is used several times throughout the book.

“Cushie Percy, whose young life would terminate in childbirth while she tried to deliver what would have been only her first child, saw Garp bleeding on the Steering family heirloom; the remarkable rug.” Pg.61

“Stewart, Jr., who was called Stewie Two, graduated from Steering before Garp was even of age to enter the school; Jenny treated Stewie two twice for a sprained ankle and once for gonorrhea. He later went through
Harvard Business School, a staph infection, and a divorce." Pg.65

These are just two small examples I’ve picked out, but the method used to write these passages is used on multiple occasions throughout my reading so far.

Notice the first excerpt, which takes place when Garp and Cushie are both children and the dog Bonkers has bitten Garp. Why would the author include the information about Cushie’s death in such a strange place? It’s far too blatant to be foreshadowing of any kind, and yet the fact is placed in the sentence with a purpose that puzzles me. Perhaps as I progress through the book I’ll discover the reasoning behind some of the sentences like this.

The second excerpt uses a similar technique, but it seems slightly more logical in this case. All of the Percy children are being described, but upon reaching Stewart, the description extends beyond his childhood and reaches into the future and informs the reader of events that are yet to happen. I believe that this is done for two reasons. The first appears to be to use the signature dark sense of humor that is so often presented in the book. By listing the things he went through as a child, and continuing through some of his negative adulthood experiences, the author pokes fun at Stewart Jr. The second reason seems to be to enhance the pessimistic tone that both Jenny and the author seem to possess, and further demonstrate the general dislike of the Percy family.

During my recent reading I’ve also noticed many quotes about writing as Garp becomes more interested and begins to pursue his career as a writer; I hope to soon incorporate them and dissect them in one of my blog posts in the near future.

Rhetoric Study

“The dog was slow enough so that Garp could spin behind him; he pulled the dog’s forepaws from under him and dropped his own weight, from his chest, on the dog’s back. Bonkers buckled forward, he slid into the ground nose first—his hind legs still clawing. Garp now controlled the crumpled forepaws but the great dog’s heavy head was held down only by the weight of Garp’s chest. A terrifying snarling developed as Garp bore down on the animal’s spine and drove his chin into the dog’s dense neck. In the scuffle, an ear appeared—in Garp’s mouth—and Garp bit it. He bit as hard as he could, and Bonkers howled. He bit Bonker’s ear in memory of his own missing flesh, he bit him for the four years he’d spent at Steering—and for his mother’s eighteen years.” Pg. 113

When browsing through some of the passages I had marked while reading, I stumbled across this one and knew I had to pick it for my Rhetoric Study post. Not only does this terrifically demonstrate the author’s style, this excerpt is among my favorite from the book so far.

One of the most notable characteristics is the use of short, choppy sentences to convey action. The frequent pauses allow the reader to interpret the situation in a step-by-step manner that provides a better comprehension of the event described in the text. The use of hyphens also contributes to this, as demonstrated when Garp bites off the dog’s ear.

Along with the method used to convey the action, is the use of diction, comprised of fairly simple vocabulary, but presented in a way that gives the perfect description of what is happening. Bonker’s growl is characterized as a “terrifying snarling”, an explanation that provides great appeal to the senses.The entire situation slowly builds and climaxes to the moment that is sure to please all the readers of the novel, and that moment is Garp’s Revenge. For those who don’t know, the dog Bonker’s mauled Garp as a child and bit off a piece of his ear. As the situation becomes more and more intense, as mentioned earlier, the author builds suspense by creating extremely short sentences, separated by hyphens to quickly spurt out short and simple announcements of what is happening.

“In the scuffle, an ear appeared—in Garp’s mouth—and Garp bit it.”

I hate to sound cruel, but that dog deserved every bit of what Garp did to him. I personally view this moment as the highpoint of Garp’s childhood; everything he did as a kid was incorporated in this situation. From the revenge sought after the dog hated by both Garp and Jenny, to the wrestling moves Garp learned while at school, this passage was more than just about Garp getting back at the dog, it was about his childhood and growing up enough to tackle the obstacles that once tackled him…literally.

Main Characters Analysis

I’ve progressed significantly further through the book since my last post, and I believe I’ve encountered most of the main characters within the story.

Jenny Fields

Jenny Fields is the mother of T.S. Garp. She worked as a nurse for most of her life because she found nursing to be a worthwhile occupation, amongst a world filled with too many “nonsense” jobs.

“Nursing was the first thing I took to, and the first thing I ever wanted to do. It simply seemed very practical…” Pg. 186

Despite eventually moving away from her nursing profession and becoming a writer, her motherly support and care for those around her continued on through her life. “In Garp’s opinion, his mother never stopped being a nurse.” Pg. 186

Another major trait Jenny possesses is her feministic viewpoint. Despite claiming to not know what the word meant, Jenny’s powerful sense of independence and self-determination proved her to be an excellent role model for women everywhere who were struggling during the time period. A perfect example of Jenny’s character is shown in her reasoning behind writing her book in the first place, “She said shyly that she’d only thought she made the right choice about how to live her life, and since it had not been a popular choice, she’d felt goaded into saying something to defend it.”

Jenny was down to Earth, and didn’t set out in hopes of recognition from the public. She simply wanted to be independent, respected, and to make the right choices, all tasks she clearly accomplished.

T.S. Garp

Born without a Father, and a less than perfect mother, Garp has had his work cut out from him since day one. Despite the negative factors, Garp grew up to be an intelligent and certainly unique person. With his dark sense of humor, sarcasm, and wit, Garp becomes an entertaining centerpiece to John Irving’s novel. Garp continuously seems to bare resemblances to Holden Caulfield. (Not only with his pessimistic view of aspects of life, but even down to his relationship with hookers. I never thought I’d read two books where both protagonists are involved in paying a prostitute to simply chat with them.)

During his late teenage years and his early twenties, Garp was one of the most self-disciplined and intelligent people you’ll ever find.

“What made Garp older and wiser than his nineteen years had nothing to do with his experience or with what he had learned. He had some instincts, some determination, better than average patience; he loved to work hard.” Pg. 156

These “instincts” and “determination” would be what propelled Garp through his life, and enabled him to be successful in near any task when he set his heart to it.

Helen Holm

Helen Holm was the daughter of the wrestling coach at Garp’s school, and becomes Garp’s first love interest. Helen is a very independent person, much like Jenny, and she’s got an ego to match. One thing Garp could always count on Helen for was her honesty. Helen would be brutally honest and give Garp her opinion about the writing he had done. Thus, Helen motivated Garp and provided him with goals that assisted in moving his life in the direction he wanted to take it. Helen and Garp eventually get married and have a child.

That covers the three primary characters that have remained in the story throughout its bulk so far. As it progresses I plan to create another post focusing on the side characters, and their overall affect on Garp.

A First Look and First Impressions

I’ll be honest, I basically began reading The World According To Garp with no prior knowledge or idea of what it contained. After my original requested books were already taken, I simply signed up for the first blank I saw. Fortunately for me, The World According to Garp immediately proved itself to be much more than just another boring and stale piece of literature.

The initial reaction to the style of narration shown in the first chapter was a little confusing at first. The author narrates the book, but quotes and stories from both T.S. Garp and Jenny Fields are embedded to create the story. This provides three separate point of views that enhance the reading, and show insight into the main character’s thoughts and emotions.

Introduced, as the focus in the first chapter is Jenny Fields, a feminist and strong willed nurse, with an outlook on society that often reminded me of Catcher in the Rye’s Holden Caulfield. While her general pessimism and strange morals make her a bizarre person, they make for fantastic and entertaining characteristics of Jenny in the story. One of the oddest motives of Jenny in the first chapter is that she wishes to have a child, but wants nothing to do with a man.

This quickly turns into a running joke at the hospital, after several men approach and volunteer to impregnate her. Jenny turns them all down for various reasons, ranging from not wanting to be with a man who “obviously lacked confidence; she wanted a child who would be more secure than that”, to refusing to have a baby with an anesthesiologist because “his eyes were too close together, and his teeth were poorly formed; she would not want to saddle her would-be child with such handicaps.” The hospital staff soon began to distance themselves from Jenny and her odd objective by moving her to the intensive care unit. Here among the devastation and brutal consequences brought about by the war, Jenny would find Technical Sergeant Garp.

Garp was injured in the war and suffered severe brain damage, resulting in a near complete loss of speech, aside from uttering “Garp”. Jenny sees him as a perfect candidate to help her have a child. In a somewhat shocking move, Jenny rapes Garp and secretly impregnates herself. Garp’s brain continues to deteriorate in a manner that Jenny described as a backwards-aging process. What was initially the intelligence and naivety of a young child has turned into a baby in the womb, curled up in the fetal position, until eventually, Garp died. Jenny would go on to name her son “Garp” in honor of the boy’s father, and use the first initials “T.S.”, which stood for “Technical Sergeant”.

Clearly this is a unique and unordinary book, with a storyline I’m anxious to uncover.