Chapter 14 & 15

This chapter begins in a similar way to the book.  Jenny Fields becomes a nurse once again.  Garp’s car crashed into Michael Milton’s car which was parked in the driveway.  Irving describes the injuries: Duncan loses his right eye, Garp breaks his jaw, Michael loses ¾ of his penis only to get the remaining ¼ amputated, Helen breaks her collar bone and needs stitches in her tongue.  The chapter continues describing the recovery of family under the watch of Jenny fields at Dog’s Head Harbor.  However the reader gets a sense of loss.  It feels as though something is missing from the book.  The reader ultimately realizes that Irving has not mentioned Garp’s youngest son since the crash.  Eventually the reader realizes; Walt died in the crash.  Again Irving communicates emotion very expertly, making the reader feel upset over this loss.

            The family recovers at Dog’s Head Harbor, his mother’s refuge for damaged women.  The irony of Garp’s injury is realized while he is here; he is now just like those who he despises: the Ellen Jamesians.  Because he broke his jaw, he cannot speak, so he must communicate through notes.  While at Dog’s Head Harbor it is not only physical healing, but emotional.  Garp and Helen would barely speak after the crash.  They would not even sleep in the same room.  It takes some time before they recover from this, and they decide to have another child.

            Garp feels that to completely forgive Helen he must write.  Garp feels such turmoil during this time though, and it is reflected in his writing.  Garp writes “The World According to Bensenhaver”, which is truly a disgusting story.  The novel is about a woman who gets raped.  This woman kills her rapist and in order to feel safe, hires the man who found her after her rape to protect her.  However, her protector goes senile and kills her husband while she is having an affair.  The story is truly disturbing, and shows that Garp is having some disturbing thoughts during this time.