The World According To Garp

The Garp family’s thoughts are dominated by the anxiety-inducing presence of the “Under Toad,” but this appears in different ways for each of them. What does Garp suggest is the difference between male and female anxiety? Would Helen agree with this assessment?

Garp initially takes on the role of homemaker in his marriage for several reasons. How does his stance toward his and Helen’s progressive/nontraditional arrangement evolve throughout the text? What factors influence his attitude toward his marriage and their division of labor?

The views toward and interpretation of “feminist” characters have significantly changed since 1978. Is Garp a true feminist (he genuinely believes women and men are equals) or a performative feminist (he says he believes women and men are equals, but his actions do not always corroborate this)? Offer examples from the text to support your argument.

Throughout the text, Garp struggles with his readers’ and his publisher’s views of a creator’s influence on their creation; whether he admits it or not, Garp’s “stories within a story” often grapple with concerns that he is facing in real life. Would Garp agree or disagree with the claim that all fiction is at least somewhat autobiographical? Offer examples from the text to support your argument. 

How does Garp’s relationship with Vienna evolve throughout the text? Does it reflect a real space or an idealized space? 

How does Garp’s relationship with authority figures like teachers and police officers evolve as he ages? 

What does Garp suggest is the relationship between writing and voyeurism? How does this differ from his perceptions about the relationship between reading and voyeurism?

This text contains many violent scenes. Are these gratuitous and unnecessarily violent, or do they serve a purpose? As authors, do Garp and Irving utilize violence in the same way?