At the end when Garp is being taken to the hospital he looks out the window of the helicopter and says "I'm flying". It's almost as though this is the first time he has ever flown. I know he was always fascinated with flying ever since finding out his father was a fighter pilot. So, was the day he died the first time he finally got to fly ?
I was hoping that maybe somebody who read the book could give an answer here.
I have the book around somewhere (one of the foil-paperbacked late 1970s editions which came out with a variety of cover illustrations--- mine was Garp and his mother) and read it a dozen times back in the day, but not for a few years, so I'm going on memory here. Don't read this if you don't want spoilers.
In the book, Garp DOES attempt to "fly" by dangling from the roof as a youngster, but it's not because he PLANNED it, it's because he wanted to get rid of pigeons roosting on a roof gutter. Flying is not so much an obsession as a recurring theme (little Walter whispers "It feels like flying" before the accident, which kills him at roughly the same age his father was when he fell from the roof.)
Also in the book, Garp and Jenny travel to Vienna rather than NYC, but I can't remember if they flew there and back, or took an ocean voyage. It seems there would have been scenes from a long crossing in the story, and if they flew, it wouldn't have been worked into a flying obsession only to be fulfilled by death. Flying in a helicopter is only mentioned in passing in one of "Garp's" short stories included in the novel.
In the book, Garp dies right in the wrestling room while awaiting an ambulance, after signalling to his wife to always remember (because that and the continuation of generations were the only immortality in that book. In "Prayer for Owen Meany" Irving finally got into spirituality and religion.)
Actually, if I had to choose a dominating theme, it would be the inablility and corresponding struggle to communicate. Garp's father gradually loses his power of speech after being shot in his ball turret--- repeats his surname until he's down to gurgling "Ar" at which point Jenny gets him to impregnate her. Garp the son wins over his future wife with writing, and when their marriage becomes strained, his writing turns her off--- it's his true voice, and the most meaningful way they communicate.
The worst time is when he becomes aware of the Ellen Jamesians, then ironically becomes temporarily mute himself and in grief and from necessity, suspends his real writing to scribble brief notes. Ellen herself cannot understand why anyone would voluntarily want to silence themselves--- she herself writes to communicate until she her writing hand becomes abnormally muscular, and eventually writes volumes of poetry. (This was in the pre-computer age, obviously.)
Pooh, of course, scarred by her bizarre childhood and envy of her sister, joins the Jamesian cult, and thus is only able to gag out inarticulate sounds when she is tackled after shooting Garp. Finally, dying Garp can only "talk" to Helen with his eyes.
This, like all of Iriving's lengthy and complex works, would probably have been better translated into TV miniseries--- they would have worked well (even with some censoring) back in the "golden age" of network adaptations. If current, they'd work even better on unfettered cable networks like Showtime and HBO, but that would cut them off from non-subscribers (at least until released on DVDs.)
Don't know, but someone did take their last flight for real in the same helicopter. On 4/26/1985 it had a power failure shortly after takeoff and made a forced landing into the water. One passenger drowned while still wearing their seat belt.
The real W9GFO