Chapter 1 & 2

In the opening chapters of John Irving’s novel The World According to Garp, the reader gets a sense of oddity.  These chapters deal with very sensitive issues which would have been very controversial during the time the book was written.  The book deals with rape, sex, assault, feminism, and other very raw topics.  It begins with Jenny Fields, a woman who hates men but wants a child.  She does this by raping a terminal case in the hospital so she can raise a child without a man in her life.  Jenny resents the idea that a woman “needs” an man, so she intends to prove otherwise.  When Jenny finally has her child it is a baby boy whom she names T.S. Garp.  It is ironic that a woman who hates men would have a child who is a boy.  Regardless Jenny loves the child and works her life around him.  Jenny continually does peculiar and controversial things throughout the chapter which are sometimes actions which make her seem like a bad person.  However, she is only doing what is in her child’s best interest.

As Garp grows he becomes a different child.  He becomes a curious, but also serious child.  He is not as care free as the children he plays with, and he is much more obedient.  It seems that his mother’s serious nature has been passed to Garp.  In fact, without a father figure, it seems he is becoming very much like his mother.  This is one topic that will become interesting in the following chapters.