The emotional damage that results from the tragedy of the loss of his son reflects in the way Garp continues living and in how he writes his new novel. The family soon after moves in with Jenny in her childhood home, where she now runs a women’s refuge house, here the family goes through a period of recovery Garp writes a book, Duncan comes to terms with his disability, and Helen makes peace with Garp. The book Garp writes is about a woman who is raped and this causes a paranoia in her husband that leads to the demise of their family the novel is so graphic and controversial that Garp’s mother and his publisher John Wolf convince him to leave the country for a while. Both Garp and Helen agree for they fell as if they must set a new tone to …show more content…
After they returned from their trip, Helen and Garp decided to settle into their childhood home Steering were they buy the old mansion. The day of Garp’s death came at his prime as the book foreshadowed in the beginning by Pooh Percy someone who he had known his whole life walked into the Steering wrestling room and shot him in front of his wife who sat in the corner reading as the wrestling team practiced. Helen in a panic rises from her seat and places Garp’s head in her lap. As he laid there in the arms of his wife, he thought to himself “If he could have talked, he would have told Helen not to be frightened of the Under Toad anymore. It surprised him to realize that the [it] was no stranger, was not even mysterious; [it] was very familiar… he had always known it…” (Irving 575). The under toad is the symbol of death throughout the book it was a joke from when Walt was young who thought that the undertow was a toad out to get him and not until Garp is at his last breath those he make peace with it. He realizes that there was always a probability of death, yet death will only strike once therefore a person should not fear it. As Helen holds her husband Garp looks around at the people around him reminiscing on how much he truly appreciates them. The last person he looks at as he takes his dying breath is his wife he looks her straight in the eyes trying to tell her one last message. Garp wants his wife to be at peace and to see that “if you have life …there is hope you'll have energy. And never forget, there is memory…” (Irving 576).As a writer, Garp knows that there is only one thing that truly never dies memory this is an important realization for a man who has been terrified of death this is the defining moment of Garp’s life. He realizes that his legacy will live on even if he is not there to live it himself. Garp took