Assassination in the Sixties and Seventies

Assassination can be defined as killing someone by sudden attack. The term assassin in the twentieth century generally refers to the hired or delegated killer of some politically important personage. Recent assassins have seem deranged and obsessed with notoriety. Although there have been many assassinations throughout history, it seems as if there was an epidemic of assassination in the last half of the twentieth century, especially in the United States. Irving has stated that the political events in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s had no effect on the writing of Garp. This is rather difficult to believe considering the important role assassination plays in the novel's plot.

There were four notorious American assassinations during the 1960s. These deaths dealt shocking blows to American idealism. The assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22nd, 1963, was the first of the...