John Irving - Recurring Subjects

Recurring Subjects

Recurring subjects, symbols or character types in Irving's work include New England, Sex workers, wrestling, Vienna, bears, deadly accidents, a main character and/or supporting characters who are writers of some sort (novelists, journalists, children's book authors, diarists, family historians, etc.), a main character dealing with an absent or unknown parent, a main character who is involved in film making, and unusual sexual relationships (and often what Irving as referred to as "sexual outsiders") such as incest, bestiality, or between young men and older women. Females who are both brash and ostentatious, while simultaneously fragile—from "Susie the Bear" and Franny Berry, to "Hester the Molester" and Emma Oastler—recur thoroughout most of Irving's novels. Severing of body parts (tongue, finger, other) appears in several novels. Oddly, although they only play a significant part (symbolically and narratively) in three of Irving's novels ("Bears, "Garp" and "Hotel"), and matter-of-fact part in two others, most interviewers and readers seem to think that bears are a commonly recurring metaphor in his novels. In fact, the role of the writer (novelist, essayist, journalist, diarist, historian, etc.) is the most oft-used symbol and/or character-type in John Irving's oeuvre. Broadly-speaking, Irving's novels tend to involve characters in the recent past (particularly, the twentieth-century), often outsiders (particularly in terms of sexuality or politics), and their attempts to find their way in life.

Irving has often used the literary technique of a story within a story.