The World According to Garp

by John Irving

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What narrative point of view would best apply to John Irving's The World According to Garp?

Expert Answers

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I would say that it is third person limited (the narrator only knowing the thoughts and feelings of a single character, in this case, TS Garp.)

However, Irving complicates matters by toggling between two third person limited points of view:  that of Garp, ("Garp found that he could forget her; lust, as his mother called it, was tricky that way")  and that of his "official biographer"  ("In the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases.")

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