Close Reading 3/15

"Garp didn't want a daughter because of men. Because of bad men, certainly; but even, he thought, because of men like me" (174).

At the end of the chapter, Helen is pregnant with their second child. Helen wishes for a daughter, while Garp realizes that he does not want a daughter. After seeing a girl who was raped while on his run, he knows just how bad men can be. He sees what sort of things can drive men and it makes him wish that he does not have a daughter who has to deal with men like that in the world. In a way, it seems as though he is afraid for the sort of people that his daughter could potentially meet.

The use of the italicized words help to bring extra attention to the meanings of the words and how all of the words are interconnected. The words, men, bad, and me, are all italicized in this quote, used at the end of the chapter. The use of the italics helps to bring attention to how they are all tied together. In a way it shows how Garp thinks of himself, as a man who could be considered bad. He does this as an analysis of what he has done in his life, and his cheating on his wife and having sex with prostitutes makes him think of himself as a bad person. He believes he caused people pain in his life and the people he is always hurting are women. He realizes that he does not want a daughter of his own to have to experience the pain that men cause, knowing that he was one of those men that caused women pain.

The word, bad, shows that the author seems like he is against the idea of men or Garp seems to be against men in general. He feels as though men have a negative side to them. Men are the ones who are hurting the women. He thought, "the girl in the park, his image of the tongueless Ellen James, his own mother's difficult decisions" (174). He realizes that men are the ones who caused all of these things. A man raped Ellen James and the 10-year old girl in the park. Men, in general, caused his mother to never want a relationship and never want to have to deal with the problems of men.

Garp seems that he does not ever want a daughter and have to see her go through the pain that he has seen other women go through. He knows how much pain women go through and how much hurt men can cause. He considers men to be bad, and him as one of those bad men. He is afraid of what could happen to his daughter if he had one.