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A Prayer For Owen Meany - March 2013
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Discussion Questions -- * May contain spoilers1. Though he's portrayed as an instrument of God, Owen Meany causes the death of John's mother. What other deaths was Owen indirectly involved with? Do you find Owen's close relationship with death to support or undermine his miraculous purpose?
2. Owen speaks and writes in capital letters, emphasizing the potency of his strange voice. At the academy, he is even referred to as the Voice. Why is Owen's voice so important? What other occasions can you think of in which Owen's voice played an especially meaningful role?
3. Reverend Merrill always speaks of faith in tandem with doubt. Do you believe that one can exist without the other or that one strengthens the other? Was your opinion about Merrill's views on faith and doubt affected by the revelation of his relationship to John Wheelwright?
4. Merrill experiences a bogus miracle and resurgence of faith when John stages his mother's dressmaker dummy outside the church. Later, John's involvement in Owen's rescue of the Vietnamese children spurs John's own faith: "I am a Christian because of Owen Meany," he says. Do you think the genuineness of Owen's miracle makes the birth of John's faith more valid than the faith engendered by Merrill's bogus miracle?
5. The Meanys claim that, like Jesus, Owen was the product of a virgin birth. Owen dislikes the Catholic Church for turning away his parents, but Owen himself makes the Meanys leave the Christmas Pageant. Name other instances when Owen's feelings toward his family seem conflicted. Do you think Owen ever considers himself Christlike?
6. An observer necessary to the Christmas Pageant but seldom an active participant, John plays Josephto Owen's baby Jesus. John refers to himself on other occasions as "just a Joseph." Do you see John's role as Joseph-like throughout the story? Are there other biblical characters with whom you identify John?
7. Did Irving's references to the armless Indian and the pawless armadillo prepare you for Owen's sacrifice? What other clues did Irving give about Owen's final heroic scene?
8. Throughout the novel, John gives hints to the forthcoming action, adding, "As you shall see." Did you find this to be an effective way to keep you reading and engaged in the story?
9. Owen Meany taught John that "Any good book is always in motion--from the general to the specific, from the particular to the whole and back again." Do you think Irving followed his own recipe for a good book? Supply examples in support of your position.
10. Given John's dislike of Gravesend Academy, which expelled Owen, did you find it interesting that John later taught at an academy in Toronto? In what other ways does John, as an adult, embrace issues or events that he was indifferent or hostile to as an adolescent?
11. John assists Owen in rescuing the children, but John always plays the supporting part in Owen's adventures. Based on the scenes in Toronto in the 1980s, do you think John ever escaped his support-ing role? How do you think John's retained virginity reflects on his sense of self?
12. Did your feelings about the U. S. involvement in Vietnam change after reading Irving's portrayal of the peace movement, the draft dodgers, and Owen's involvement in the army? Were you surprised by Owen's efforts to get to Vietnam?
13. John's reactions to and obsession with the Iran-Contra affair of the 1980s reflect his position as neither a true Canadian nor a true American. Do you think that non-Americans have a clearer vision of the machinations and deceptions within American politics? What did John's focus on American politics tell you about his adult character?
14. Irving frequently foreshadows tragedy; for example, hailstones hit John's mother on the head during her wedding day, providing a glimpse of her later death by a baseball. What other events does Irving foreshadow?
15. Several reviews call A Prayer for Owen Meany "Dickensian," and Irving himself incorporates scenes from Dickens in the story. In what ways does Irving's writing remind you of Dickens? What other writers would you compare Irving to?
(Questions issued by publisher.)
Thanks, Alias! Holy cow, I may need to study before I come back to this thread ;)I'm going to skip around a little on the Q&A.
2. Owen speaks and writes in capital letters, emphasizing the potency of his strange voice. At the academy, he is even referred to as the Voice. Why is Owen's voice so important? What other occasions can you think of in which Owen's voice played an especially meaningful role?
Owen's voice was interesting, but particularly when combined with his intelligence. I think his voice is important for a few reasons, especially as it is his way of balancing out his physical limitations when he is young and his way of connecting to people throughout his life. His words were critical at the academy - they made people think and provoked change.
Both the quality of his voice and the thoughts he conveys make people listen. Had his voice been ordinary, people may have ignored him, but he is able to catch their attention. This is true throughout the book, but the most poignantly at the end, with the children. There was an immediate connection with him because of his voice + his size + his words (in Vietnamese) - it saved their lives.
You guys can choose to use the Discussion questions or not. I find they are good for getting a discussion going. Enjoy !
I was just teasing! They are good questions. 3. Reverend Merrill always speaks of faith in tandem with doubt. Do you believe that one can exist without the other or that one strengthens the other?
I have always thought that questioning is a good thing - whether talking about one's beliefs or what we hear from our leaders or from the media, etc. Therefore, I think having doubt is a good thing. And I think having faith tested is a good thing.
On a personal level, doubt has made me think about what I believe and how that fits with the more formal doctrines of faith. It has also made my faith much more "real" to me and has, in some sense, made me choose rather than just accept what I have been told.
So, I believe that they go together and doubt CAN make faith stronger - that may depend upon what is doubted and what happens to sustain or diminish the doubt. If doubt is not addressed or confronted, then a person may lose faith.
4. Merrill experiences a bogus miracle and resurgence of faith when John stages his mother's dressmaker dummy outside the church. Later, John's involvement in Owen's rescue of the Vietnamese children spurs John's own faith: "I am a Christian because of Owen Meany," he says. Do you think the genuineness of Owen's miracle makes the birth of John's faith more valid than the faith engendered by Merrill's bogus miracle?
I don't think "valid" is quite the right word and I think whatever gets a person to the endpoint is what that person needed. So:
For John, he needed Owen and the dream and the shot and that package to stop floating through life and espouse something. He found something unexpected and it brought him to a new place where he could believe in something.
For Merrill, he needed to see Tabby (in whatever form) to latch onto something. He was searching; he wanted to find something and grabbed whatever he saw, even if it was not real. This led him to a new place - one of greater confidence and faith.
I guess!
I'll come back and answer a couple more later - these are a little addictive.
Susan wrote: "I was just teasing! They are good questions. ------------
No, I know. :) Some people don't like discussion Q's. Too much like school. Still even if people just read them it helps them to form their thoughts. I know it works for me.
OK, I was really irritated with the declawed armadillo! I realize that Owen was processing a lot and he was a child at the time, but really? His best friend's mother is dead and he declaws his favorite toy - making it unable to stand? In the book, Dan explains that Owen feels like he and Johnny were "maimed and mutilated by what happened" and that taking the claws was an expression of that - of losing a part of oneself.
I think this is more useful as a literary device than it is as something that a character world do, particularly when these are best friends and the object in question is a cherished item. To me, it comes off as another thing that Johnny has lost and that Owen has "taken", even though he obviously didn't mean to kill Johnny's mother. It broke my heart reading how Johnny kept trying to make the armadillo stand. It made Owen's act seem very selfish to me. It didn't ring true.
Carol, did you delete a comment? I swear there was a question about being "armless" and it asked about the armadillo's claws. That's what prompted my armadillo declawing rant!Maybe I just need to go to bed!
Sorry I wanted to edit it.I was wondering what is the significance regarding being "armless?"
Throughout the book, Irving shows examples are being armless -- the totem of the Indian tribe, the declawed stuffed armadillo, the dressmaker's dummy, Lydia's amputated leg, the Mary Magdalene statue he put in the auditorium and at the end, John's amputated finger, and, in the end, Owen loses his arms in the explosion.
I looked up the word arm, I found it could refer to combat in the military -- "to bear arms" (wars mentioned); "arm in arm" (linked together which to me represented their friendship); But what I liked most was "give up one's right arm" which means to be prepared to make ANY sacrifice. This is what Owen did in the end of the book. (Also what Jesus did on the cross).
I didn't understand why Owen would return the armadillo without his front claws.
"After keeping it for two nights, Owen returns the armadillo, just as John returned the baseball cards. But John is outraged to find that Owen has removed the armadillo's claws; with its claws amputated, it cannot stand upright. Dan Needham explains, surprised, that Owen must be making a comment on what has happened -- John, Dan, and Owen are all like the armadillo; they have all lost a part of themselves.
Later, John thinks that Owen was also referring to the armless totem of Watahantowet, which represented the idea that, to Watahantowet, losing the land that became Gravesend was like losing his arms: everything has a price. According to John, what Owen intended to say with the armadillo was this:
"GOD HAS TAKEN YOUR MOTHER.
MY HANDS WERE THE INSTRUMENT.
GOD HAS TAKEN MY HANDS.
I AM GOD'S INSTRUMENT."
Owen was saying that he was appointed by God to carry out a specific purpose.
Carol wrote: Sorry I wanted to edit it.Ahhh. Editing. That makes sense! I was a little worried I was seeing things ... or not seeing them.
Well, I understand the intellectual underpinnings of the declawed armadillo - in terms of losing a part of oneself, sacrificing oneself and being appointed to carry out God's plan - but I still think it's a stretch. For me, it just doesn't work in the story. On paper, it makes sense but I'm still not liking it. I just felt bad for Johnny - he needed a friend and consoling, not a symbolic or overly rationalized act. I realize that Owen is special, but it irritated me a bit that he got away with a lot. He needed consoling during that time as well and probably did not get it.
5. The Meanys claim that, like Jesus, Owen was the product of a virgin birth. Owen dislikes the Catholic Church for turning away his parents, but Owen himself makes the Meanys leave the Christmas Pageant. Name other instances when Owen's feelings toward his family seem conflicted. Do you think Owen ever considers himself Christlike?His mother seemed "out-of-it". But his father truly believed and stated that there was no "intimacy" between he and his wife. So obviously she must have been pregnant by someone else before her husband and maybe that's why she is "out-of-it" -- lost love?
But Owen did have great power over them as shown by their reaction to his demands at the Christmas Pageant. Maybe because he was in their eyes a virgin birth, that they did whatever he told them to do.
He did have a big ego but I wouldn't say that he thought of himself as Christ. I would say a prophet since he knew things (not the whole picture) to come.
I wondered whether she was raped, which could contribute to her being "out of it". Maybe it was easier for them both to convince themselves that it was a virgin birth - the mom to forget whatever happened to her and the dad to not have to think about it.
Susan wrote: "I wondered whether she was raped, which could contribute to her being "out of it". Maybe it was easier for them both to convince themselves that it was a virgin birth - the mom to forget whatever h..."That makes sense.
6. An observer necessary to the Christmas Pageant but seldom an active participant, John plays Joseph to Owen's baby Jesus. John refers to himself on other occasions as "just a Joseph."I think that most people think of Joseph (earthly father of Jesus) as not a major player but as John Wheelwright states that he is "just a Joseph." But actually Joseph was a major player in a quiet, obedient way. God chose him because he was the perfect earthly example of integrity and righteousness. When Mary told Joseph she was pregnant, he knew the child was not his own, and her unfaithfulness carried a grave social stigma. Under Jewish law, Joseph could have put her to death by stoning. Initially, Joseph wanted to break the engagement (the appropriate thing for a righteous man to do), but instead he treated Mary with extreme kindness. He did not want to cause her further shame. Joseph could have acted severely toward Mary's indiscretion, but he chose to offer love and mercy, even when he thought he had been wronged. Then God sent an angel to Joseph to verify Mary's story and reassure him that his marriage to her was God's will. Joseph willingly obeyed God, in spite of the public humiliation he faced.
"Though most of its events are fictional, the broad contour of Owen Meany's storyline conforms to the contour of Irving's life; it is probably his most autobiographical novel. The town in which the novel is set--Gravesend, New Hampshire--is modeled explicitly on Irving's childhood town of Exeter, and Gravesend Academy is simply a literary version of Phillips Exeter Academy. Like Irving, John Wheelwright grows up on Front Street, is the stepson of an academy history teacher, and does not know who his real father is. Like Irving, Wheelright is dyslexic, and attends the academy and the University of New Hampshire; like Irving, Wheelright becomes a teacher, and teaches at an all-girls school (Irving taught at Mount Holyoke College). At the time of the novel's narration, John lives in Toronto, where Irving now spends part of each year. Still, Owen Meany is hardly autobiography; though it features Irving's reflections on small-town life and on the events of American history during his lifetime, its central character, the miraculous Owen Meany, is entirely a product of Irving's imagination."
Carol wrote: "5. The Meanys claim that, like Jesus, Owen was the product of a virgin birth. Owen dislikes the Catholic Church for turning away his parents, but Owen himself makes the Meanys leave the Christmas P..."I agree that Owen doesn't really see himself as Christlike. I'm not sure how he would define it but prophet sounds like a reasonable interpretation of "instrument of God".
Carol wrote: "An observer necessary to the Christmas Pageant but seldom an active participant, John plays Joseph to Owen's baby Jesus. John refers to himself on other occasions as "just a Joseph."I think that ..."
Johnny was certainly quietly (and not so quietly sometimes) supportive of Owen, so in that sense, he was a Joseph. I don't think he valued the "quiet support" enough and perhaps that is true of Owen as well. By allowing Owen to largely dictate their activities, Johnny was certainly at the right place, at the right time for the saving the Vietnamese children.
Those who are more "out there" often seem to have the quiet supportive person/people in their circle - those who are content to be in the background. Johnny had mixed emotions, I think, in that he would have liked to be center stage but then really didn't want to be! I understand this and it takes some getting used to. I'm introverted and shy and, though I sometimes want to be the star, I really don't like the limelight.
13. John's reactions to and obsession with the Iran-Contra affair of the 1980s reflect his position as neither a true Canadian nor a true American. Do you think that non-Americans have a clearer vision of the machinations and deceptions within American politics? What did John's focus on American politics tell you about his adult character?I'm not sure Americans have a clear vision of the machinations and deceptions within American politics! I think John's politics are interesting in that he was so forceful in his views that it was a bit obsessive. It was interesting in that he was somewhat wishy-washy on Vietnam, which had a more direct effect on him, and so vitriolic on Iran-Contra.
Have to get back to work - more later!
6. Do you see Johnny's role as Joseph-like throughout the story? Are there other biblical characters with whom you identify Johnny?I think that John, The Beloved Disciple was more like Johnny in A Prayer for Owen Meany than Joseph. Owen was always the one in charge. Johnny trusted Owen, they were very close and they did whatever Owen wanted to do. I would even say that Owen loved Johnny. In the same way “the disciple whom Jesus loved” not only loved, and trusted Jesus, and he gave up his livelihood to serve him. Jesus was so close to John that when He was on the cross "Jesus saw his mother standing there beside the disciple he loved, he said to her, Dear woman, here is your son." (John 19:26)
9. Owen Meany taught John that "Any good book is always in motion--from the general to the specific, from the particular to the whole and back again." Do you think Irving followed his own recipe for a good book? Supply examples in support of your position.I think the book is in motion, in one way or another. The trick to being in motion is to make sure that there are smooth transitions that make sense given the characters and the story, rather than just to surprise the reader or have the story/character be unique. For the most part, I believe this is done beautifully.
Owen matures from being an odd and insecure child to a powerful adolescent to a fairly normal man who has a very abnormal dream that he sees as his destiny. Johnny is an average kid who becomes a quiet and insecure adolescent and then an angry/bitter and rather lost man. Other characters also transition during the story, but a lot of the "motion" of the story is in the plot and the changes in these two main characters, IMO.
To be honest, I think that there are times that the "motion" is a little too far and veers into the symbolic. For example, John and his virginity - to some extent, this just seemed too far to me (or maybe it just went someplace that I didn't care about). Another example was Owen and his reaction to his parents at the Nativity play. Yes, he was upset, but it just seemed extreme and a bit unbelievable. Aside from these places that took me out of the story a bit, the flow was lovely.
Susan wrote: "9. Owen Meany taught John that "Any good book is always in motion--from the general to the specific, from the particular to the whole and back again."I agree that the book is in motion -- jumping back and forth from past to present, unexpected events, etc. I also agree that John and his virginity and Owen's over-the-top reaction to his parents at the play was (to me) a loose end that was forgotten.
I've watched a few interviews with John Irving and didn't know a lot of things about his life that keep surfacing in all his books. This interview I found interesting --
John IRVING on InnerVIEWS (26:58) -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dyjHL...
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A Prayer for Owen Meany (other topics)A Prayer for Owen Meany (other topics)
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When: Discussion begins March 27, 2013
Where: Discussion will take place in this thread
Spoiler: Put chapter # at top of post.
Synopsis: In the summer of 1953, two eleven-year-old boys—best friends—are playing in a Little League baseball game in Gravesend, New Hampshire. One of the boys hits a foul ball that kills the other boy's mother. The boy who hits the ball doesn't believe in accidents; Owen Meany believes he is God's instrument. What happens to Owen, after that 1953 foul ball, is extraordinary.
Book Details:
Mass Market Paperback: 640 pages
Publisher: Harper; Reprint edition (April 3, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 006220422X
About the author:
John Winslow Irving is an American novelist and Academy Award-winning screenwriter. Irving achieved critical and popular acclaim after the international success of The World According to Garp in 1978.
Born: March 2, 1942 (age 71), Exeter
Movies: The Cider House Rules, The Door in the Floor, Simon Birch, The Hotel New Hampshire, The World According to Garp
Education: Phillips Exeter Academy, More
Spouse: Janet Turnbull Blunt (m. 1987), Shyla Leary (m. 1964–1982)
Awards: Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay