why the affair


i didnt get why graps wife has a lover
why??
p

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I've never read the book...but have seen the movie countless times. Garp *beep* the babysitter BEFORE Helen has an affair. Don't think Helen is dumb....she knows Garp *beep* the babysitter. When she decides to have the affair with Mr. Milton, she tells him to keep calling her "Teacher" because it underlines the differences in their ages and reminds her why she is doing it in the first place. I always assumed that by her saying being called Teacher reminds her why she is doing it is her way of saying: "I'm teaching my husband a lesson and getting even for him screwing the babysitter".

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I have read the book numerous times since it was published - in fact I am reading it again now and always look for the movie on TV but it never comes. It is not only payback time with Helen for Garp being with babysitters but also Garp has become very boring and never really was romantic to begin with. She needed the adventure but also needed to be dominant. Wimpy Michael was perfect. She states that she "lets him" think he's in charge.

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from the book i got the impression that her affair had little to do with the numerous affairs that garp had. she knew about garp's affairs yet still rejected her student. i feel it had more to do with the contrasting personalities that they had which made her kind of unhappy in their marriage. he was a writer who wrote one style and she was a reader who preferred another. the student embodied the opposite of what garp was. the student may have appeared wimpy but it seemed like he was the dominant one. she rejected him yet he pushed her into the affair. she ended the affair yet he forced himself on her for one last time and then the tragedy happened in the car.

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The Movie never showed or point out that Garp had a affair with the baby sitter, all he did from what I saw(I did not read the book)is him flirting with the baby sitter.

Cocaine's a hell of a drug

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Actually the movie showed Garp asking her if she was 'really 18' and then pulling over the car in a secluded dark area to presumably do the dirty.
Or perhaps she lives in the woods.

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"Or perhaps she lives in the woods."
I had to comment!
That made me laugh right out loud.

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The Movie never showed or point out that Garp had a affair with the baby sitter, all he did from what I saw(I did not read the book)is him flirting with the baby sitter.

I know, right? That's one of the things that pissed me off about the movie. It's as if they were trying to make him look better than he was, because he's the protagonist. He's a flawed human being and he makes no excuses for that in the book, even though he deeply regrets his lusting after young girls and the various babysitters, and how it affects Helen. But in the movie? nope, he has to be the saint.

For every lie I unlearn I learn something new - Ani Difranco

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Why does anyone have an affair?

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