"The prostitute is dead.’’
While in Vienna, Garp developed a close relationship with a prostitute named Charlotte. While Garp used her to satisfy his sexual needs, the two also became close friends and Garp reached the point where he felt as if he could trust Charlotte. When Charlotte died, her death was announced to Garp in a non-official manner, as if Charlotte’s life was not as important as the other patients’ life just because he was a prostitute. Garp was not affected by the way in which Charlotte’s death was presented but rather by the fact that even though Charlotte took every precaution possible, she still died like a whore, from a sexually transmitted disease. Also, even though Charlotte had accumulated wealth during her life time, all the money she had could not save her and this proves that humans are powerless when faced with death.
"She had dropped out of college when she suspected that the chief purpose of her parents’ sending her to Wellesley had been to have her mated to some well-bred man.’’
Jenny, Garp’s mother, was the child of respectable parents who wanted her to have a bright future. For them, the only way their daughter could be happy was if she married a wealthy man who could take care of her. Unfortunately for the parents, Jenny had other ideas about her future and she knew from the start that she did not wanted to become a good housewife and do only what her husband tells her to do. Because Jenny chose to go against her parent’s wishes, she had to learn how to get by on her own and how to deal alone with the problems that occurred later in her life. In this sense, Jenny can be called a feminist, because she did allowed society to dictate how she should live and chose instead her own path in life. Also, through this quote, it is revealed that the reason why Jenny’s parents wanted her to marry into a good family was not because they wanted her to be happy but because they wanted her to breed with someone they deemed as being acceptable.
"In the case of Garp and Helen, they hardly knew each other…’’
The narrator leaves the impression that Garp’s actions were not deliberate at all. Every action he took in his life was an impulsive one and not the result of careful deliberation. When Garp married Helen, the two barely knew each other but that didn’t stopped Garp from trying to persuade Helen to marry him. surprisingly, the relationship between the two lasted until Garp’s death and even though the two were not always faithful to one another, they respected each other to some extent.
