Literary Analysis (Chapters 10-12)
Chapter 10:
In chapter 10, Garp tells a story about a determined dog to his 5-year-old son Walt. He tells Walt of a dog that had been in World War II and was now the protector of a café in Germany. According to Garp, the dog protected the café at night and slept in an ally during the day. The dog was so intimidating looking that no one dared break into the café or bother him while in his ally. No one, however, except for an obnoxious cat that teased him day in and day out. The dog was so bothered by the cat that everyday, he tried to get it, even though he was on a chain and the cat was always just out of reach. The determined dog works everyday to move the truck he is chained to so he can reach the cat, physically and emotionally draining himself in doing so. Finally, he works hard enough to move the truck just enough that his mouth is over the cat's head. He has just enough length to be over the cat, he can't even shut his mouth and so the cat runs off. One would have thought that the moral of Garp's story to his son was to see the problem with teasing. Garp's wife even thought this was the moral of the story and wondered why he was telling this to their younger son instead of their older son who always teases the other. However, at the end of Garp's story, the cat is hit by a truck due to running into the street to get away from the dog. The true reason for his story was to show Walt the horrors of what could happen if you run into the street. Walt has a nightmare about being hit by a truck after teasing a dog, showing that Garp's story had an effect on him.
After his son goes to bed, Garp's wife talks to him about the story he told. She asks him about the different aspects of the story and it turns out that none of the story that he has told is true. The dog was a small dog that was often frightened by other people. The storeowner was just a widow. And the car that the dog was tied to was actually a garbage sled. There was no cat that teased him and no one ran into a street. As a matter of fact, Garp has no idea what happened to the dog because he moved before the dog died.
After making up more fake parts to his story during his conversation with his wife and after checking on Walt, Garp has a dream about his elder son, Duncan. In his dream, he loses patience with the boy on an airplane and sends him to figure out which door is the bathroom on his own. Frustrated and embarrassed, the boy opens the plan door and is sucked out. Garp, trying to figure out what has happened, opens the same door and is sucked out as well. Though this part of the chapter doesn't really connect with the rest, I felt it was the author's way of trying to show that Garp puts too much pressure on his older boy and that it may in the end be bad for the boy as well as Garp.
Chapter 11:
After having a horrible nightmare about Duncan, Garp decides to go check on his son. However, Duncan is sleeping over his friend Ralph's house, not that this would stop Garp. Garp threw on jogging shorts and walked over to Ralph's house at 1AM. He looked like a molester and scared a girl on a bike on his way to the house. When he arrived there, he found Ralph's mother stark naked and tipsy. He went into the house to help her after she fell down the stairs and she asked him to throw a young man she was sleeping with out of the house. For whatever reason, Garp obliged and did. He then conversed with Ralph's mother about her failed marriage and the sexual tension between them until she fell asleep. When she did so, it was 3:30 in the morning and he didn't know whether or not to just leave Duncan so he stayed and cleaned until his wife called looking for him and their son. He tried to explain what had happened, but she jumped to conclusions. (Many of which, she probably had reason to believe). She then made Garp carry Duncan home.
As he was bringing his son home, cops stopped him and inquired what he was doing. The cops said an apparent molester was out after they received a call from a girl almost attacked by one on a bike. (That man was Garp, although the girl was completely off with what he was doing out so late). It turns out that the cop was one who helped Garp when Garp stopped a child molester. The cops brought Garp and Duncan home and Helen questioned Duncan about Ralph's mother and his home situation.
I found it odd that Garp would just go to check on his son after a bad dream just because he had a bad dream. I found it even odder that he would go into the house after seeing the woman fall down the stairs and not leave right away with his son. It was clear that she was drunk and had been having sex. I don't know anyone who would get drunk or commit sexual acts with children, especially someone ELSE'S children, in their house. I find it even odder that the Garp's would allow their child to stay at this woman's house. Surely they must have had some inkling that this woman was off-centered to say the least. They don't even know the woman's name and yet they allowed their son to spend the night at the house.
Chapter 12:
At the start of chapter 12, a friend, Roberta, whose boyfriend has just left her, disturbs Garp's sleep. After she calls him two more times in the middle of the night, Helen can no longer sleep and begins to grade papers. She starts to grade one that belongs to a graduate who is attracted to her. She feels an attraction to him as well but doesn't act upon it and she brings up the subject of sex to Garp, who replies with a story he wants her to read. She does and when she says she doesn't like it, they fight and she goes to bed alone.
--Kerianne
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