Garp Masculinity

The stereotypical male in today's world is usually the disciplinary, hard working, caring but has a rough side when needed (while playing with the children) etc… In The World According to Garp, Garp seems to be today's stereotypical father with a little bit of feminine characteristics. For example, when Walt was sick he would listen to his breathing while he was sleep to make sure he did not stop breathing. On the masculine side he would take his boys to the gym with him to wrestle since he played in college. But, sometimes his feminine side of being a father overshadowed his masculine side. While Garp is a stay at home dad he still has his masculine ways of raising his boys. For instance, if one or both of his children get out of hand he tells then what they did wrong, tells them to “shut up” or stop, and may enforce a rule or two. As mentioned before he does take them to the gym for wrestling with him when its not raining and they look forward to this trip sometimes. Although Walt was sick Walt still wanted to go to the gym and wrestle but due to his cold Garp decided to go see a

Also, Garp has a little hint of separation anxiety more common in children and their mothers. One night Duncan stayed the night at his friend’s house but since Garp did not like the mothers parenting style he decided to drop in, clean up, and carry his son home when he was ready to leave. In addition, to make sure Walt sweated out as much of his cold as he could in the tub Garp got in with him, they playfully fought in the water and stayed in the tub for what seemed like hours while Garp poured hot water inside when needed. In summary Garp has more masculine characteristics when it comes to parenting but his remind characteristics also display depending on the