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1[[quoteright:315:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/image_717.jpeg]]
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3->''"In [[TitleDrop the world according to Garp]], we are all terminal cases."''
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5Creator/JohnIrving’s fourth novel, published in 1978, ''The World According to Garp'' was a bestseller for several years. Written in the style of a biography, it chronicles the quirky life and times of author, husband, and father T.S. Garp from his unusual conception to his tragic early death. The book was a finalist for the National Book Awards for Fiction in 1979 and its first paperback edition won the Award the following year. Its success permitted Irving to quit his day job and become a full-time novelist.
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7A [[TheFilmOfTheBook film version]] directed by Creator/GeorgeRoyHill, who wrote the screenplay adaptation along with Steve Tesich, was released in 1982. It stars Creator/RobinWilliams as Garp, along with Creator/MaryBethHurt, Creator/GlennClose, Creator/JohnLithgow, Creator/HumeCronyn, and Creator/JessicaTandy.
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10!!Tropes:
11%%* AuthorAppeal: Sex, bears, and wrestling.
12* AuthorAvatar: Garp for Irving. Irving's CV strongly resembles that of Garp. An illegitimate child, he grew up at a prestigious prep school where he wrestled and ran track. After school, he toured Austria. As an adult, he worked as a wrestling coach and a novelist and had two children [[spoiler: although both are alive]]. Young Irving also bears a strong physical resemblance to the fictional Garp.
13** Most of the books written by Garp echo Irving's previous novels. ''Procrastination'' is Irving's ''Setting Free the Bears''; ''The Second Wind of the Cuckold'' is similar to ''The 158-Pound Marriage.'' Following this pattern, Garp's third novel, ''The World According to Bensenhaver,'' is similarly titled to ''The World According to Garp'' (Irving's real third novel, ''The Water Method Man,'' bears no resemblance to ''Bensenhaver'') The book Garp is planning to write [[spoiler: just prior to his murder]] contains elements of Irving's novel ''The Hotel New Hampshire,'' which was published after ''Garp.''
14* AutoErotica: Ends in the most tragic way, including [[spoiler: GroinAttack wherein one party has his penis bitten off, and EyeScream where Garp's son loses an eye to the gearshift. Ouch.]]
15* BettyAndVeronica: Teen Garp is drawn to both dark, serious Helen and bubbly blonde Cushie.
16* BigFancyHouse: Garp ends up owning both Jenny Fields's impressive childhood home on Dog's Head Harbor and the Steering family home at Steering Academy.
17* BoardingSchool[=/=]OneGenderSchool: The prep school where Garp is allowed to attend as the son of a staff member. A fictional version of Irving's own prep school, Exeter.
18* ChildByRape: Garp is conceived after his mother rapes a dying technical sergeant in order to become pregnant.
19* CreatorBreakdown: InUniverse. Garp's third novel, ''The World According to Bensenhaver'' into which he projects all his grief over [[spoiler:Walt's death]].
20* CreatorsFavoriteEpisode: InUniverse, Garp regards his first real story "The Pension Grillparzer'' as his best work.
21* CreatorCameo: John Irving makes a blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance in the film, playing a wrestling referee.
22* DeadGuyJunior: [[InvertedTrope Inverted.]] Though Jenny Fields asks her son not to name a child after her while she's still living, the Garps name their first daughter Jenny. [[spoiler: Soon after her birth, Baby Jenny becomes a Dead Guy Junior for real after the elder Jenny is murdered.]] Later in life, Jenny Garp bears out the name by becoming a doctor, echoing Jenny Fields' career as a nurse.
23* DeathOfAChild: [[spoiler: Poor, poor Walt.]]
24* DisguisedInDrag: Garp must do this [[spoiler: to attend his mother's women-only memorial service]].
25* DirtyOldWoman: "Mrs Ralph." Garp is tempted.
26* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: Jenny's conception of Garp. Most definitely not okay, as Garp's father was a bed-bound patient in the hospital where she worked. Later, when Jenny publishes a tell-all autobiography, she matter-of-factly admits to the rape, which is largely interpreted as a highly empowering feminist act that inspires many women to "do a Jenny Fields" of their own.
27** TheFilmOfTheBook at least pauses to call the act rape, and Dean Bodgers expresses horror over it. In all fairness, the dying Garp did say "Good" during the act, according to Jenny's recitation of the event.
28* DreamsOfFlying: Flight is a recurring motif in the film, most loudly exemplified by the iconic plane crash scene, but at the core of it is a treasured childhood memory Garp has of his otherwise exacting and severe mother joyfully tossing him into the air much to their mutual delight.
29-->''"Make it fly, dad. We wanna fly!"''
30* ElectiveMute: Of an extreme kind: The Ellen Jamesians are a group of [[StrawFeminist radical feminists]] who cut out their tongues in support of a young rape victim.
31* EmbarrassingNickname: Cushion and Pooh.
32* [[invoked]]FatalMethodActing: [[spoiler:Jenny is assassinated while giving a speech. Her last words are "Most of you know who I am"... a statement greeted by warm laughter from the crowd, as by then Jenny is internationally famous and her assumption that "most" of them know her is indicative of her characteristic modesty.]]
33* HotForTeacher: Michael Milton and Harrison Fletcher both fall for Helen Garp.
34** "Mrs. Ralph" gets her share once she earns tenure.
35* MostWritersAreWriters: Garp grows up to be a writer.
36* TheMuse: Garp starts writing because Helen tells him she'll only marry a writer. It works.
37* KnownOnlyByTheirNickname:
38** The Percy siblings ''have'' real names but end up with embarrassing cutesy nicknames--Cushie, Dopey, Pooh--that they all end up wearing well into adulthood, to the point that everyone's forgotten their real names. (In Dopey's case, he only gets back his real name--Randolph--posthumously, when his family realize that saying "Dopey's dead" sounds ridiculous.)
39** Garp is unable to recall the name of his son's friend Ralph's mother. In his head, he refers to her as "Mrs. Ralph," ultimately embarrassing himself when he slips and calls her "Mrs. Ralph" to her face. She's called "Mrs. Ralph" in the narrative right up until the very end of the book, when the epilogue finally gives her real name: [[spoiler: Florence Cochran Bowlsby]].
40* LaserGuidedKarma: Rabid feminist Pooh is swarmed and overpowered by an entire wrestling team of sweaty, half-naked , muscular men after she [[spoiler:shoots Garp.]]
41* OutWithABang: Poor Ernie Holms dies while masturbating. Thoughtful Dean Bodgers pulls up his pants and hides the porn before calling the paramedics.
42* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: A running theme in the book (though Jennie's rape of Garp's father is ''not'' referred to as being this).
43* ShowWithinAShow: Or, in this case, a story within a story. Some of Garp's early stories are included as part of the text, to show his development as a writer.
44* SparedByTheAdaptation: DownplayedTrope, as [[spoiler: the film ends before Garp succumbs to his gunshot wound, leaving his survival possible.]]
45** Most of the cast is technically Spared By the Adaptation, given that the film ends with [[spoiler:Garp's apparent death]], while the book carries on beyond that point and reveals how almost every surviving character dies.
46* StrawFeminist: ZigZagged. Irving explores feminism from a man's perspective, between Jenny's role as an "icon" to the Ellen Jamesians to his friendship with trans woman Roberta Muldoon.
47* SurvivorGuilt: For the rest of her life, Roberta [[spoiler: regrets that she did not take a bullet for Jenny Fields. As a large, muscular athlete in prime physical condition, she believes she could have survived the shot that killed the much older, frailer Jenny...and even if she didn't, she would have gladly died in her place.]]
48* WhatTheHellHero: Jenny, who is largely portrayed as a strong, practical, pragmatic woman who can always be counted to take up the right side of any issue, even if her position is unpopular, is held completely unaccountable for the rape of Garp's dying father. The rape is treated as an inspirational act at best, and a punchline at worst. In a book where one of the running motifs is the bad decisions of basically good people, where motivations and consequences are usually thoroughly explored, the omission is rather glaring. At least, as noted above, one person called it for what it was in the adaptation.
49* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: An amazingly thorough one follows almost every surviving character to the ends of their lives.
50* WhoNamesTheirKidDude: Jenny names her kid "Garp" because the only word his father could speak was his own last name--Garp. Jenny never knew his first name. When pressed, she tells her parents that the baby's first name is T.S. (for "technical sergeant," the father's military rank); otherwise his name would have legally been [[RepetitiveName "Garp Garp"]]. Later in life, young Garp has to explain to teachers that the initials are the only first name his mother gave him. Small wonder he just went with Garp.
51** A RunningJoke in the film adaptation is that Garp invents a name whenever someone asks him about the initials ("What's the T.S. stand for?" "Terribly Sexy. It used to be Terribly Shy, but I've changed.").

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