John Irving's The World According to Garp

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Recommended: Women's role in traditional society

John Irving’s novel, The World According to Garp, is the story of T. S. Garp (Garp) and his mother Jenny Fields is told. Jenny Fields was the daughter of wealthy parents in Dog Heads Harbor, New Hampshire. Jenny was a woman that hated to do things the conventional way. Because of the way Jenny raised Garp, and the unconventional things that she did in society, Jenny was ultimately responsible for Garp’s Death.
Jenny fields was expected to go to college like all of the other affluent young women in those days. Wellesley was the college that had been suggested by her brothers because “Wellesley women were not thought of loosely and were considered high in marriage potential” (Irving 3). Jenny reluctantly went to Wellesley, but felt like she was put on display for marriage and to be the perfect wife and mother. This was something that Jenny Fields couldn’t understand.
Because Jenny hated the idea of being on display she changed from becoming an English major to becoming a nurse. She felt like becoming a nurse was something she could do right away. Because of the soldiers and men that she met at the hospital, she came to the ultimate conclusion that compromising yourself with them they might be happy to see you again. Jenny ultimately decided that men were “full of the self-importance of college boys and… stopped having anything to do with men” (Irving 4).
As a result of Jenny becoming a nurse she heard a lot of jokes that were about male genitals. She found this to be revolting because she learned about all of the things that genitals could create, most of which disgusted her. She felt like men were just not useful for anything good except maybe being a sperm donor. After working in the hospital nursery for some time she decided t...

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... His mother was ultimately responsible for his death. It was an Ellen Jamesian, a woman who hated men and followed his mother as part of the feminist movement, who killed him.
The twisted events that occurred; Jenny not wanting to go to college to get married, becoming a nurse and getting pregnant with Garp, taking a job at Steering School and controlling Garp’s life, going to Europe, Jenny writing a novel that started a feminist movement, Garp and his family coming to live with her after the tragic accident, going back to Vienna, Jenny having been assassinated, Garp went to her funeral in drag , Walt and Mr. Percy died, Garp becomes the new wrestling coach, and is killed by Pooh Percy an Ellen Jamesian. Showing that Jenny was ultimately responsible for Garp’s Death.

Works Cited

Irving, John. The World According to Garp. New York: Ballantine Books, 2009. Print.

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