The World According to Garp characters

Appears from the start

An independent-minded nurse from a wealthy New England family who wants a child but neither marriage nor a conventional sexual relationship. Social judgment has little influence on her choices, and she builds a life for herself and her son at the Steering School.

Appears from the start

A wounded airman under Jenny's care during the Second World War. Severe brain damage has left him able to say only the word that sounds like his name. Jenny chooses him as the biological father of the child she intends to raise alone.

Also known as Garp

Appears from the start

Jenny Fields's son, named for the dying airman who fathered him. Raised among the staff and boys of the Steering School, he is energetic, imaginative, and preoccupied with the hazards that can suddenly invade ordinary family life. He becomes a wrestler and aspires to write fiction.

First appears in chapter 3

The wrestling coach at the Steering School and Helen's father. Gruff, physically disciplined, and devoted to the sport, he trains Garp and gives the fatherless boy a durable model of adult attention.

First appears in chapter 3

Ernie Holm's intelligent, self-possessed daughter. She intends to become an academic and tells Garp she will consider marrying a writer, a challenge that links their courtship to his uncertain artistic ambitions.

First appears in chapter 4

A daughter of the wealthy Percy family near the Steering School. Bold and sexually confident, she is one of Garp's earliest friends and lovers and belongs to a social world more privileged and conventional than Jenny's household.

First appears in chapter 7

A transgender woman and former professional football player who becomes one of Jenny's closest friends. Warm, loyal, and physically imposing, she helps Jenny's household navigate the crowds of women drawn to Jenny for refuge and advice.

First appears in chapter 7

Garp and Helen's elder son. Alert and artistically inclined, he grows up inside a loving but anxious household in which his father's imagination continually anticipates dangers to the children.

First appears in chapter 8

Garp and Helen's younger son, still a small child when the family's ordinary routines become increasingly entangled with both parents' secrets and Garp's fears about sudden catastrophe.

First appears in chapter 10

A young student in Helen's literature course. Admiring and persistent, he pursues a relationship with his teacher despite the risks it creates for her marriage and for the people around them.

First appears in chapter 11

A girl whose rape and mutilation become the basis of a public cause. She opposes the activists who copy her injury by cutting out their tongues, insisting that their symbolic gesture appropriates rather than represents her experience.

First appears in chapter 12

A writer and editor who recognizes Garp's talent while also understanding the publishing world's appetite for sensation. He becomes a professional ally as Garp's increasingly disturbing fiction reaches a wider audience.

Also known as Pooh Percy

First appears in chapter 19

Cushie Percy's younger sister, who carries a longstanding hostility toward Garp and connects him with the losses and humiliations suffered by her family. By the time she confronts him as an adult, grievance has hardened into a wish to punish him.