Structural Analysis (Chapters 10-12)

Structural Analysis:

Chapters 10 and 11 are connected to one another. Though both are formed around separate subjects, they both are a part of the same issue.

For whatever reason in chapter 10, after telling a story to Walt about not running into the street, Garp has a nightmare about Duncan. Garp's story for Walt was a complete ficticious tale that he made up on the spot. Though he told it as though he were there and had seen the plot of the tale take place, none of the story was true expect for the fact that it was about a dog. He fabricated an entire tale about a dog and its goal to kill a cat that kept teasing it, just so that Walt would not run into the street. He could have made up any story but he chose one where the ending did not seem to fit how the reader would have expected it to end. One would have expected the cat to be eaten and the moral of he story to be that teasing gets you nowhere. But the cat gets away from the dog only to be hit by a truck. After hearing the story, Walt has a nightmare about being hit by a truck after running into the street. Therefore indicating that his father's story worked and he is now afraid to run into the street. Garp, as well, has a nightmare, but his nightmare seems to come from nowhere. His nightmare is about his elder son (who did not hear the story) getting sucked out of the door of an airplane after his fathering yelling at him to figure out for himself which of the doors on the plane was the men's room.

Though the nightmare is about an incident on an airplane and Duncan is sleeping at a friend's house, Garp feels it necessary to check on the boy. Garp's desire to check on his son and make sure he was safe turned into an odd episode involving Duncan's friend's mother. After throwing out a man the woman slept with and cleaning up after her, he finally makes his way home with his son and is pulled over by cops who believe he is a molester. One of which was a cop that helped Garp years ago when he stopped a child molester in the park.

These two chapters, though connected by the same issue, have very different plots and stories going on within the chapters. If not for one paragraph at the end of chapter 10, these two chapters would seem to have no connection whatsoever.

This holds true in chapter 12. Chapter 12 seems to have no relationship to chapters 10 and 11, other than they are part of the same story and have the same characters.

In chapter 12, Garp tries to comfort a friend whose boyfriend left her when she calls in the middle of the night. After numerous phone calls, Helen can no longer sleep and begins to grade papers, one of a young man who is attracted to her. She starts to grade one that belongs to a graduate who is attracted to her. This chapter seems all over the place. It begins with a phone call, then it goes to Helen grading papers, then a flashback, then it is interrupted with a story written by Garp, and then it ends in a fight between Helen and Garp over love and his story.

--Kerianne

Literary Criticism (Chapters 10-12)

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