Jenny Garp understood that in the world of her father’s ideas, we must have a certain supply of energy. Her famous grandmother Jenny Fields once perceived {and classified} people as “external”, “vital organs”, “absent” and “over”. But in the world, the eyes of the harp, we are all just “terminal cases”.
John Irving The World According to...
(0 Reviews)

In "The World According to Garp," the character Jenny Garp recognizes the importance of energy in responding to her father's philosophies. This understanding highlights the necessity of maintaining a certain vitality to navigate life's complexities. Her grandmother, Jenny Fields, categorizes people in unconventional ways that reveal her unique outlook on human existence, seeing them as entities defined by their connection to the world around them.

Within this framework, Garp perceives individuals as "terminal cases," reflecting a more existential view of life. This perspective underscores the transient nature of existence, where everyone ultimately faces their mortality. The contrast between her grandmother's classifications and Garp's interpretation suggests a deeper exploration of how one's environment and relationships shape one's understanding of identity and fate.

Categories
book quote
Book
The World According to...
Author
John Irving
Votes
0
Page views
17
Update
March 16, 2025
Report
Report a Problem

Rate the Quote

Add Comment & Review

User Reviews

Based on 0 reviews
5 Star
0
4 Star
0
3 Star
0
2 Star
0
1 Star
0
Add Comment & Review
We'll never share your email with anyone else.
More »

Other quotes in The World According to Garp

But Vienna was in its death phase; it lay still and let me look at it, and think about it, and look again. In a living city, I could never have noticed so much. Living cities don't hold still.
John Irving The World According to...
But Vienna was in its death phase; it lay still and let me look at it, and think about it, and look again. In a living city, I could never have noticed so much. Living cities don't hold still.
Once a Garp, then an Arp, now only an Ar; she knew he was dying. He had just one vowel and one consonant left.
John Irving The World According to...
Once a Garp, then an Arp, now only an Ar; she knew he was dying. He had just one vowel and one consonant left.
In the words of Garp, "a man grows only by finishing one and starting another".
John Irving The World According to...
In the words of Garp, "a man grows only by finishing one and starting another".
And naturally, to be fair, the best of the ellenjamesianas had consisted of making known the general dread that threatened women and girls. For many Ellenjamesianas, the imitation of the horrible discharge had not been "entirely political." It had been a very personal identification. Of course, in some cases the ellenjamesianas were women who had also been raped and what they wanted to say was that they felt as if they were missing their language. In a world of men, they felt that they had been reduced to silence forever.
John Irving The World According to...
And naturally, to be fair, the best of the ellenjamesianas had consisted of making known the general dread that threatened women and girls. For many Ellenjamesianas, the imitation of the horrible discharge had not been "entirely political." It had been a very personal identification. Of course, in some cases the ellenjamesianas were women who had also been raped and what they wanted to say was that they felt as if they were missing their language. In a world of men, they felt that they had been reduced to silence forever.
They were involved in that awkward procedure of getting to unknow each other. That
John Irving The World According to...
They were involved in that awkward procedure of getting to unknow each other. That
though there was nothing wrong with Garp's hands – they just seemed to be clumsy at masturbation. 'Garp!
John Irving The World According to...
though there was nothing wrong with Garp's hands – they just seemed to be clumsy at masturbation. 'Garp!
More »

Other quotes in book quote

All the things you can talk about in anyone's work are the things that are least important.
Edward Gorey Ascending Peculiarity:...
All the things you can talk about in anyone's work are the things that are least important.
For me the curse is a crutch, but the con is everything.
Holly Black White Cat
For me the curse is a crutch, but the con is everything.
I don't have anything against God. Far from it. But I don't understand Him. And I don't trust a lot of the people that go around claiming that they're working in His best interests.
Jim Butcher Grave Peril
I don't have anything against God. Far from it. But I don't understand Him. And I don't trust a lot of the people that go around claiming that they're working in His best interests.
Now that you're an adult, you might still feel a pang of guilt when you decline a dinner invitation in favor of a good book. Or maybe you like to eat alone in restaurants and could do without the pitying looks from fellow diners. Or you're told that you're "in your head too much," a phrase that's often deployed against the quiet and cerebral. Of course, there's another word for such people: thinkers.
Susan Cain Quiet: The Power of...
Now that you're an adult, you might still feel a pang of guilt when you decline a dinner invitation in favor of a good book. Or maybe you like to eat alone in restaurants and could do without the pitying looks from fellow diners. Or you're told that you're "in your head too much," a phrase that's often deployed against the quiet and cerebral. Of course, there's another word for such people: thinkers.
I found Esau's field guide at the bottom of my pack. Taking a candle into the bedroom, I read his book until my eyes grew heavy. From his vast notes, it seemed that almost every plant and tree in the jungle had a reason for existing. I caught myself wishing there was a page in his guide that had my picture on it with the reason for my existence written underneath in Esau's neat hand.
Maria V. Snyder Magic Study
I found Esau's field guide at the bottom of my pack. Taking a candle into the bedroom, I read his book until my eyes grew heavy. From his vast notes, it seemed that almost every plant and tree in the jungle had a reason for existing. I caught myself wishing there was a page in his guide that had my picture on it with the reason for my existence written underneath in Esau's neat hand.
Here's a nifty solution: Each couple that marries should take on an entirely new surname, chosen however they want as long as both agree to it, so that a day after the wedding, both husband and wife can hold hands and joyfully journey off to the municipal offices to change their passports, driver's licenses, signatures, initials, bank accounts, etc.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Dear Ijeawele, or A...
Here's a nifty solution: Each couple that marries should take on an entirely new surname, chosen however they want as long as both agree to it, so that a day after the wedding, both husband and wife can hold hands and joyfully journey off to the municipal offices to change their passports, driver's licenses, signatures, initials, bank accounts, etc.
More »

Popular quotes

The Red Lion was a four-ale bar with a handful of lowbrowed sons of toil who looked as though they might be related to one another in ways frowned on by the Old Testament. Sebastian Faulks
Taffy. He thinks about taffy. He thinks it would take his teeth out now, but he would eat it anyhow, if it meant eating it with her. Mitch Albom
All our human endeavours are like that, she reflected, and it is only because we are too ignorant to realize it, or are too forgetful to remember it, that we have the confidence to build something that is meant to last. Alexander McCall Smith
The value of money is subjective, depending on age. At the age of one, one multiplies the actual sum by 145,000, making one pound seem like 145,000 pounds to a one-year-old. At seven – Bertie's age – the multiplier is 24, so that five pounds seems like 120 pounds. At the age of twenty four, five pounds is five pounds; at forty five it is divided by 5, so that it seems like one pound and one pound seems like twenty pence. {All figures courtesy of Scottish Government Advice Leaflet: Handling your Money.} Alexander McCall Smith
In fact, none of us knows how he ever managed to get his LLB in the first place. Maybe they're putting law degrees in cornflakes boxes these days. Alexander McCall Smith
Look, if you say that science will eventually prove there is no God, on that I must differ. No matter how small they take it back, to a tadpole, to an atom, there is always something they can't explain, something that created it all at the end of the search. And no matter how far they try to go the other way – to extend life, play around with the genes, clone this, clone that, live to one hundred and fifty – at some point, life is over. And then what happens? When the life comes to an end? I shrugged. You see? He leaned back. He smiled. When you come to the end, that's where God begins. Mitch Albom
Small towns are like metronomes; with the slightest flick, the beat changes. Mitch Albom
You say you should have died instead of me. But during my time on earth, people died instead of me, too. It happens every day. When lightning strikes a minute after you are gone, or an airplane crashes that you might have been on. When your colleague falls ill and you do not. We think such things are random. But there is a balance to it all. One withers, another grows. Birth and death are part of a whole. Mitch Albom
we get so many lives between birth and death. A life to be a child. A life to come of age. A life to wander, to settle, to fall in love, to parent, to test our promise, to realize our mortality-and, in some lucky cases, to do something after that realization. Mitch Albom
But an ink brush, she thinks, is a skeleton key for a prisoner's mind. David Mitchell
All Categories »

Categories

love
inspirational
history
soul