Title and Theme Garp's world is a world of extremes. Happiness often lies too close to sorrow, new life is too closely connected with death, joy is followed by disaster too quickly, so much that one wonders how anyone can remain optimistic in such circumstances. It is a world for people for whom family life is very important, but who also constantly worry about the dangers that threaten the safety of the family. Extreme feminism is one of its most dangerous threats. Setting The story is set at the Steering School and at Dog's Head Harbour, the house of Jenny Fields, both in New Hampshire.
Some important events take place in Vienna and New York.
The story actually begins in 1942, when Jenny Fields is 22. Garp is born in 1943 and dies in 1976. Summary Garp's mother, Jenny Fields, hates men chasing girls. In 1942, when a soldier reaches under her skirt, she wounds him with a scalpel. She is a nurse in a hospital where many war casualties are treated.