Randy

Randy is a homeless and neglected boy whose chance encounter with T. S. Garp turns into a brief, unsettled connection. After reading Garp’s novels in jail, Randy comes to regard the injured, temporarily speechless writer as a guru. His arrival tests Garp’s instinct to protect vulnerable outsiders at a time when Garp is consumed by grief and unable to write; when Randy leaves, Garp discards the note the boy has left behind.

Identity and Reappearance

Randy is the boy in a purple caftan whom Garp had escorted out of Mrs. Ralph’s boudoir long before the two meet again. The passage frames that earlier encounter as feeling remote to Garp, “what seemed to Garp like years ago.” Now the boy is in police custody. A policeman explains that Randy has no money, does not live nearby, has no job, and is not enrolled in school. His parents, contacted by the police, do not know where he is and show little interest in finding out.

Randy claims he is staying with Garp and that Garp will speak up for him. Garp considers pretending not to recognize him, but finally nods. The moment is an awkward reunion rather than a formal rescue: Garp recognizes the boy, while Randy presents himself as someone with nowhere dependable to turn.

The Arrest and Garp’s Response

Garp cannot speak because his mouth is still encased in wire mesh. Instead of answering the policeman, he points to the mesh and imitates writing a note on his palm. His inability to speak makes the request for help especially immediate: he must respond through gesture while the police describe Randy’s lack of money, work, schooling, and parental support.

The circumstances surrounding Randy’s arrest are connected to the violent aftermath of Garp’s accident. When Randy later grins and asks what happened to the other man, Garp privately recalls the severe injury, but does not write it on a traffic-violation form or anywhere else. The story withholds that thought from Randy and from the official record, distinguishing Garp’s inward response from the practical, limited help he offers the boy.

Reader, Fan, and Dependent

Randy has read Garp’s novels while in jail. Learning that Garp is their author changes his attitude: he says he would not have been so disrespectful had he known. He becomes an ardent fan and approaches Garp as though the writer were the only guru he obeyed. His admiration is not simply a response to Garp’s public identity; it gives Randy a personal reason to attach himself to a man whose family and body have been profoundly injured.

Randy’s arrival also unsettles Garp. He imagines that Randy will tell Duncan about his drug experiences and criminal history, and writes out his suspicion that everyone wants to be a writer. Yet the writing immediately turns inward: Garp no longer wants to write. When he tries, the deadliest subject rises before him, and memories of death crowd out every other subject. His silence toward Randy thus coincides with a larger silence: Garp is not merely unable to speak easily but unable to resume the work that once defined him.

Helen assures Garp that Randy is not on drugs, adding that Jenny asked him. This reassurance addresses one of Garp’s suspicions without resolving the deeper unease of having an unfamiliar boy in the household. Roberta Muldoon takes responsibility for briefing Randy about the accident and its effect on Garp’s family. Randy’s awed question about the “great big lovely chick” shows that he is trying to orient himself within this new household, even as the adults manage what he is told.

Departure and Significance

Garp does not turn Randy away. The decision recalls Jenny’s home at Dog’s Head Harbor and the principle of shelter associated with it: however awkward the boy’s presence, refusing him would contradict the household’s established welcome to people in need. Randy’s vulnerability is made concrete by his estrangement from his parents and his lack of a stable place in work or school, while his devotion to Garp gives the stay an emotional dimension beyond temporary lodging.

Eventually Randy leaves. Duncan is sorry to see him go, but Garp feels relieved. Randy’s departure therefore divides the household’s responses: the boy has become someone Duncan will miss, while Garp experiences his absence as a release from an additional responsibility during an already overwhelming recovery. Randy leaves a note, but Garp does not show it to anyone. He thinks that he is not kind, throws the note away, and refuses the intimacy or reassurance it might have offered. The discarded note closes Randy’s brief place in the household without resolving the distance between his admiration and Garp’s grief. In that small, private refusal, the novel sets the boy’s need for a guide against Garp’s depleted capacity to be one.