The World According To Garp

Content Warning: This section discusses graphic depictions of sexual violence and rape; derogatory language toward gay, trans, and women characters; violence against children, including sexual violence; self-mutilation; and suicidal ideation.

It’s 1942, and Jenny Fields is arrested. Irving provides more of her backstory; she is a college dropout from a wealthy family who is studying to become a nurse, much to the chagrin of her upper-class parents. Her parents, especially her mother, try to monitor her sexuality, and she feels increasingly detached from her parents and brothers. They fear that she will have premarital sex that will prevent her from finding a wealthy husband.

She is arrested when a soldier assaults her in a movie theater and she retaliates by stabbing him with a scalpel that she always carries with her. Bleeding heavily, the soldier flees to the lobby, where Jenny (still in her nurse’s uniform) is asked to provide medical care; however, since she was covered in blood when she entered the lobby, the onlookers soon realize that she is the one who stabbed him. The police try to force her to admit that she was on a date with the soldier, but she adamantly tells the truth.