How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
He knew he was an overwatchful, worrisome father and he felt he might relieve Duncan of some of the pressure of fatherly fears if there was another child to absorb some of Garp's excess anxiety. (7.115)
Garp has inherited his mother's penchant for over-parenting, but in trademark fashion, he goes twice as hard and acts twice as crazy.
Quote #2
He suddenly saw Jenny as a potential victim, exposing herself, through other victims, to all the hatred and cruelty and violence in the world. (8.163)
Jenny's sudden fame plays a big part in Garp's fear of violence. After all, there really are people out there who want Jenny dead.
Quote #3
Garp suspected most people to whom his wife and children were drawn; he had an urgent need to protect the few people he loved from what he imagined "everyone else" was like. (9.26)
It's easy to forget that Garp grew up in relative isolation: It's just him and Jenny in the early days. His bizarre behavior around strangers becomes less bizarre when placed in this context.
Quote #4
Helen knew Garp was thinking up a story to tell Walt after dinner. She knew Garp did this to calm himself whenever he was worried about the children—as if the act of imagining a good story for children was a way to keep children safe forever. (10.27)
Garp sure is good at imagining stuff. But it's true: The same wild imagination that fuels his novels also fuels his paranoid fantasies.
Quote #5
Garp thought himself to be psychologically unfit for parenthood. Then he worried about that, too, and felt all the more anxious for his children. What if their most dangerous enemy turned out to be him? (10.170)
Garp realizes, on some level, that his anxiety isn't beneficial for the family. This idea will come to fruition in the themes of The World According to Bensenhaver.
Quote #6
One sign that he hadn't been writing enough, Garp knew, was when he had too much imagination left over for other things. For example, the onslaught of dreams: Garp now dreamed only of horrors happening to his children. (13.5)
By writing, Garp can safely release the internal pressure of his overactive brain. But what happens if that safety valve stops working altogether?
Quote #7
Though the worst of the real world has been visited upon Hope, it is her husband who fears the world most. (16.29)
Isn't this the case with Garp and Helen? Although Garp's paranoia makes his life more difficult, it's Helen that receives the brunt of the damage.
Quote #8
"The World According to Bensenhaver," the book jacket flap said, "is about a man who is so fearful of bad things happening to his loved ones that he creates an atmosphere of such tension that bad things are almost certain to occur." (16.128)
It could certainly be argued that Garp creates an "atmosphere of tension" that causes Helen to have an affair—plus, we all know how that one ends up.
Quote #9
Between Helen and Garp, the Under Toad became their code phrase for anxiety [...] Garp and Helen evoked the beast as a way of referring to their own sense of danger. (16.332)
Quote #10
Of course Garp had always had this obsession about protecting his children; now, at last, he saw that Jenny Fields' old notion of wanting to continue living with her son was not so abnormal after all. (18.4)
Garp finally realizes that he's a lot more like his mom than he thought. Of course, Garp is far more fearful than Jenny, who seems perpetually fearless.