Image Study

“Garp hit the bottom of his driveway at about forty miles per hour. He came off the downhill road in the short uphill curve. He held the car in gear until he felt what grip he had of the road it was good enough, and he popped the sharp stick shift into neutral—a second before he killed the engine and flicked oug the headlights. They coasted up, into the black rain. It was like that moment when you feel an airplane lift off the runway” Pg. 374

Previously in the novel Garp used somewhat of a dangerous method to get into the driveway while entertaining the kids. He would turn off the lights making it nearly impossible to see and would coast up the pavement until he reached the garage safely. Garp had performed the maneuver countless times, but on this particular snowy night an unexpected obstacle awaited in the driveway. The chilling and ominous view of the snow covered windshield would be the last sight the author would described to the reader before they learned of the fatal car accident that resulted, and took the life of Garp’s son Walt.

“Later, there was still the body of a man in a hunting coat lying in a dark puddle of what looked like oil. Later still, there was a closeup of what the newsmen would only identify as ‘a deer rifle.’” Pg. 485

The excerpt above describes the dark, but important image Garp views while watching the news on television. Garp’s mother Jenny has been shot and killed, and he can only watch helplessly as the news station broadcasts their perspective of the assassination. Suspense is built by starting both sentences with “later” to slowly give details to the reader of what Garp is seeing.

“Garp tried to imagine it with him. Would it ever surface? Did it ever float? Or was it always down under, slimy and bloated and ever-watchful for ankles it coated tongue could snare? The vile Under Toad.” Pg. 474

After Walt’s death, Garp reminisces of Walt and his overactive imagination. Recalling when Walt mistook the “undertow” for an “Under Toad” dwelling in the ocean, Garp attempts to picture the world like his son did. A series of questions pass through Garp’s mind as he struggles with the fact that his child is no longer with him. The “Under Toad” soon becomes a symbol for when an ominous feeling encompasses either Garp or Helen, a situation that occurs often throughout the novel.

“Like a gunman hunting his victim, like the child molester the parent dreads, Garp stalks the sleeping spring suburbs, green and dark; the people snore and wish and dream, their lawn mowers at rest; it is too cool for their air conditioners to be running. A few windows are open, a few refrigerators are humming. There is the faint, trapped warble from some televisions tuned in to The Late Show, and the blue-gray glow from the picture tubes throbs from a few of the houses. To Garp this glow looks like cancer, insidious and numbing, putting the world to sleep. Maybe television causes cancer, Garp thinks; but his real irritation is a writer’s irritation; he knows that wherever the TV glows, there sits someone who isn’t reading.” Pg. 280

The description and insight into Garp’s twisted and pessimistic view of the neighborhood is fantastic. The environment is dark and lonesome; Garp’s only company being the faint pulsing glow of the poisonous device known as a television. This image is significant because it let’s the reader into Garp’s head and allows them to comprehend Garp’s outlook on the world around him. What might appear as a simple neighborhood and television set to the average person is portrayed as a sinister and evil set of surroundings.