The World According to Garp Literary Elements

Tragic novel

The action of the novel starts during the Second World War when Jenny gets pregnant and then it continues for the rest of Garp’s life. The action is set in different locations, in America but also in various European countries such as Austria.

The novel is told from a third person omniscient point of view.

Tragic, playful, chaotic

The protagonist is Garp and the antagonists are the feminist group that calls themselves the Ellens.

The major conflict is an internal one and is the result of Garp’s desire to become a writer and his incapability to write something that can be considered good enough to be published.

The novel reaches its climax when Garp crashes into the car where Helen and Michael were. After the accident, Garp’s life is changed forever and his whole perception about life changes completely.

While at the prep school, Jenny enrolled Garp in a wrestling class. The wrestling class and the brutality of the sport foreshadows the struggles Garp will have to face in his quest of becoming a writer.

When Garp talks about the first encounter he had with the women that will eventually kill him and when he calls the encounter as being harmless is an understatement as it is later proven that the woman is actually really dangerous and unstable.

While in Vienna, Garp befriends a prostitute named Charlotte and the two become close in a short period of time. Unfortunately, Charlotte dies suddenly from an illness that remains unnamed. It is however alluded that the illness had something to do with her profession and that it was most likely a sexually transmitted disease.

One of the most important images appears at the end of the novel when Garp is killed. Helen runs towards him after he is shoot and she held him in her arms until he dies. This image is important because it shows that despite the problems they had, Helen still loved Garp and cared about him.

An element that is paradoxical is the relationship between Garp and Helen. Even though the two constantly hurt one another, they chose to remain together and when Garp dies Helen decides to remain alone and not to remarry.

In the tenth chapter, the narrator mentions a story written by Garp, a story about a young dog that is tempted each day by a cat. The dog is tied to a post and he is unable to move while the cat is free to roam and do whatever it likes. Through this, the narrator drew a parallel between Garp and the dog. In a way, Garp was just like a dog, tied to his current situation and with no hope about the future. Meanwhile, the cat, or the endless possibilities in life, continued to tempt him from a distance.

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