An epilogue is more than a body count. This idea is written by T.S. Garp a fictional writer that was dreamed up by John Irving. John, in stating this, isn't just coming up with a nice sounding quote for Garp to say that will gain him more interest; he already had too much of that. On the contrary, he was actually using this statement as a warning to the world, the people that are reading, and more importantly a message that would have been life saving, for multiple people, for Garp himself to hear.
This begs a question, what is an epilogue; and why/ how is it a warning.
An epilogue (as described by the dictionary) is “A section… at the end of a book... that serves as a comment on or a conclusion to what has happened.” (dictionary.com). Simple enough. It's an ending, a conclusion, an addendum. The epilogue (in most cases) serves as a way to sum up what happened next, after
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But how is it a warning? You are probably thinking.
First, take a look at what happens in the book; but specifically Garp's raunchy, yet incredibly famous third novel “The World According to Bensenhaver”. A book that within the first chapter covers rape, murder, lust, a near death experience for a child and woman. The first chapter. The rest of the book is riddled with more and more worsening situations. The crazy thing about the book is that if you look at the parallels of John Irving's book and Garp’s book they are both considered risque and “bad”, but at the same time they are really good (respectively).
What does this all mean for our message encoded epilogue? The third book that Garp writes, along with parts of his other books, is him writing about his fears. He himself describes his writing as autobiographical fiction. He is trying to dispel his fear that his sons' will get hurt, or that something will happen to his wife. He thinks that if he worries about it that it will protect his family from the danger when in reality all it will do is make him blind to the real danger…