Helen and T. S. Garp use the code word The Under Toad, a
play on the word "undertow," for a very powerful feeling of dread that they often feel,
especially Garp. In fact if there were one thing that Garp wishes for, it is that he
could make the world safe for his children. As a parent, Garp is overly anxious,
running after cars that drive too quickly through his neighborhood and peering into
windows of homes where his son sleeps overnight.
It is this
Under Toad against which Garp rails, but it is not until he is shot by the tongueless
Pooh Percy that he feels somehow assured about the Under Toad and wishes that he could
tell her to not be frightened of it anymore.
It surprise him to realize that the Under Toad
was no stranger, was not even mysterious; the Under Toad was very familiar--as if he had
always known it, as if he had grown up with it....The world was not
safe.
Garp realizes that
there is no need to be in fear of the Under Toad because it is something with which one
lives every day. And, so, one must go on living; one must be grateful "for small
favors"; one must savor life. There is life after Garp, he wants to tell his
wife.
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