The World According to Garp

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The stylistic devices of “The World According to Garp”

Introduction

“What are the stylistic devices used in the novel “The World According to Garp” by John Irving, how are they implemented in the story, and how do they contribute to the development of the plot?”

This essay intends to focus on the stylistic devices of “The World According to Garp”. It will be examined what styles are used throughout the novel, and how these are distinguished. Most significantly, there will be focused on how they are integrated in the story, what that means to the plot and what it does to the one reading it.

”The World According to Garp” by John Irving is a tragicomedy. ‘Tragicomedy’ is a peculiar genre, in the sense that it succeeds in combining elements from two vastly different parts of literature: tragedy and comedy. Tragicomedy is not an easy genre, as it sets certain requirements to the style of the novel. To truly achieve the fine balance between tragedy and comedy, and make these intertwine with one another is not easily done, and requires help from various stylistic elements to truly be successful. Irving writes with an ironic force, mixed with black humour to really set the scene and play with the reader. Just as significantly, he uses foreshadowing, and to some extent, a special style called bildungsroman. These stylistic devices are not there to appear fancy or act as mere literary show-offs, they have a purpose and a reason to be included, just as important as the side characters, or the protagonist for that matter. The various styles contribute indirectly to the plot development, just as much as classic, staged plot twists and contextual elements.

  1. Bildungsroman

‘Bildungsroman’ is a German word meaning “novel of formation”, and refers to a specific genre that arose during the German Enlightenment, but was most commonly used during the Romanticism. In a bildungsroman, the plot focuses on a character of the novel, usually the protagonist, studying his or her growth and development throughout the book; usually from child to adult.

In “The World According to Garp”, the reader follows T.S. Garp from his birth to his death, even though the novel initially starts out by introducing Garp’s mother, Jenny Fields:

“Jenny was twenty-two. She had dropped out of college almost as soon as she’d begun, but she had finished her nursing-school program at the head of her class and she enjoyed being a nurse.” (Page 13)

Garp is introduced in the second chapter of the book, and stays in centre throughout the entire novel as its protagonist.

Being the main character of a bildungsroman, Garp learns about life through all of its ups and downs and by interacting with people around him as well as the bonds he forms. Along this process, the reader follows closely, thereby learning the things Garp experiences, which undeniably leaves the reader with strong sympathy towards Garp, due to the fact that the reader is let in on every single detail of Garp’s life, just as close-up as Garp himself.

This is exactly what makes this style of writing so central to the novel, and one might even say that it forms the very structure of the plot: “The World According to Garp” is a novel based on Garp’s life and how it unfolds. It is therefore a story stretching from point A to B, and hence by using ‘bildungsroman’ as the main style or core, it becomes a part of how the story is told, and how the plot is advanced. Garp’s life, and hence the entire plot are tied inseparable to its ‘backbone’, the bildungsroman, and is in fact therefore the main motive force of the plot.

However, are we certain that Irving uses bildung as we formally defines the term, as described above? Not at all. Bildung  is essentially a very romantic term, which originally favours a very sensitive and gifted protagonist, striving to be perfect in all aspects of his life, whom the reader can sympathise quite easily with. T.S. Garp is not that kind of protagonist.

First off, he is raised by a very prominent feminist without a father figure in his life – not exactly the most 'romantic' way to spend childhood. Next, Garp makes a lot of mistakes in his life, which one may argue is, indeed, essential to the genre, in order to have the protagonist learn from his mistakes. However, the Romantic interpretation of a  bildung protagonist is more like “The Ugly Duckling” by Hans Christian Andersen. In short, the protagonist (the ugly duckling) has a difficult time and makes mistakes along the way, but ends up blooming into a beautiful swan. Garp is not like that at all. He continues to have his ups and downs throughout the entire book, and never fully 'blooms' like the ugly duckling, which makes it impossible for the audience to sympathise with Garp at all times. Instead, Garp's life is a turmoil to the very end where he is assassinated. Looking back on Garp's life, it is clear that he has made just about as many mistakes as accomplishments, and hence making it a rather 'normal' life compared to the life of a Romantic bildung protagonist, in which Garp's 'blooming' is displayed by his impact on the people close to him, and the through his work as a writer.

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This interpretation of bildungsroman, is very ironic and even mocking to the genre. Irving thwarts the Romantic elements of bildung by making irony so essential, and constantly challenging the Romantic idea of Garp as a 'heroic' protagonist. Garp is never fully successful in the classic sense of achieving a specific goal, and hence Garp would be defined as a failure regarding the classic interpretation of bildung.

This is, however, the essence of Irving's interpretation of the bildung genre. He wants his audience to think beyond that of a cliché plot and protagonist, and to accept and reflect on bildung as seen ...

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