i hated how he treated her like *beep* for having an affair but he had 1 with the babysitter. thats all i could think about for the rest of the movie. i was like y r u so mad and upset at her u had sex with the babysitter and he didnt even have the decency to admitt it to her when she mentioned it.
share[deleted]
I must admit I was angry about the affair as well. I mean yes, it happens everyday but when there is cheating in a marriage (in movies or real life) it can get to me. I mean I get over it but it does get to me.
I think I'm pretty much like you, only successful.
[deleted]
I know people have flaws but that does not mean they can't bother me. Movies are supposed to stir up emotions, and not all are going to be positive......
I think I'm pretty much like you, only successful.
not to condone the fact that he did cheat on his wife with the babysitter but there is one irrefutable difference between the two situations. he slept with the babysitter once where as his wife had a full blown affair. not to mention after he busted her and told her to never see him again he came home and ran into her giving him a bj in the driveway.
share[deleted]
In the book, it is made clear that Garp *beeped* quite a few babysitters that he was just supposed to drive home. And (this isn't in the movie), he has a REAL affair, with the wife of someone who's supposed to be his friend. It's implied that Helen has some kind of affair with the other husband, but actually it's an emotional affair as the two commiserate over their spouses. Her affair with Michael was, apparently, her first physical entanglement--- the chaopter is entitled "It Happens to Helen."
"Shake me up, Judy!"
In the movie, they kind of allude to the fact Garp has messed around with a lot of female babysitters in that scene when the young boy babysitter comes to the house, and Garp and Helen were supposed to go to a movie, but instead sit in the car and talk. It's alluded to when as they're exiting the front door, Garp keeps looking around at the boy babysitter and says, "that's a babysitter?"
It also shows Helen was obviously aware of Garp's past with the female babysitters, and that they had resolved all the infidelities between them both.
I'm just going by the movie.
--------------------------------
Look into my eyes and hate me.
It wasn't JUST the affair that he was treating her like sh*t for....it was also the bitterness of losing one of their children. If she hadn't allowed her lover to park in the driveway and proceed to give him a BJ.....their child probably wouldn't be dead. So, her affair contributed to the death of their child....in his eyes. Hers too. Nothing is more traumatic than losing a child. They were able to get past it, move on, and stay together.....which is HUGE in my opinion. I think the two characters loved each other very deeply.
shareThe book, as I recall, included something about them wife-swapping with anothe couple. I agree that he shouldn't have nailed the babysitter...nor should she have had an affair with a student.
If one is okay, is the other? My take was that Irving pushed that issue. Could Garp be justifiably outraged? The ultimate outcome is not that the penalties offset each other, but that they lost a child in the process, so everybody lost.