A Prayer
for Owen Meany by John
Irving tells the story of John Wheelwright and how his life changes as a result
of knowing Owen Meany. At the beginning
of John’s life, he is not religious. He faithfully
attends church but does not actually believe in God. After Owen Meany enters his life, he begins
to change his opinion and begins to believe in God. This novel uses a reference between Owen
Meany and Jesus throughout the novel to show how important God can be in
someone's life, even if you don't realize it.
Owen Meany is a strange
character. He has a damaged voice box
that causes his voice to remain high-pitched and he has stunted growth. These traits cause him to both resemble and
sound like a child throughout his life. At
the beginning of the novel, the audience sees that Owen’s parents seem to be
afraid of him. This mystery is continued
until close to the end of the novel when we learn that Owen was a result of a
virgin birth. This is the first
comparison between Owen and Jesus. Just
like how Mary was a virgin and gave birth to Jesus, Owen’s mother was also a
virgin when she gave birth to Owen.
As Owen
grows up, he begins to consider himself a messenger of God. At a school play, Owen plays the baby
Christ--another reference to Owen and Jesus.
Owen passes out from the heat and experiences a vision that he believes
is from God. In this vision, he sees a
gravestone with his name and a date-the day that he is to die. Owen takes this as a sign that he is living
as a messenger of God and once he has accomplished his role, he will die. We do not know what this role is until the
end of the novel. Jesus was also a
messenger of God. He experienced a
vision and believed that it was his responsibility to spread God’s message to
all the people. Both Owen and Jesus
believe that their purpose in life is to be God’s servant and do as God tells
them to do despite knowing that they will die prematurely.
At the
end of the novel, we discover what Owen’s purpose in life is. On the day that Owen is supposed to die, he
and John accompany some Vietnamese children at an airport. Dick, a young man who is angry at the Vietnam
war and the military sees the children and decides to kill them. He throws a grenade at John but Owen catches
it and shields everyone from the impact, sacrificing himself to save John and
the children and fulfilling his life’s purpose.
Just like how Jesus sacrificed his life for his beliefs and the people,
Owen sacrifices his life to save the children.
This final comparison between Owen and Jesus emphasizes the impact of
Owen’s sacrifice. By comparing it to
Jesus’ sacrifice for mankind, Irving makes the audience feel a greater
connection with Owen’s actions.
This
allusion to Jesus and the comparison with Owen is the way that the audience
understands how John Wheelwright’s life changes. For the rest of his life, John realizes that
maybe God does exist. He realizes that
all of the events in Owen’s life happened for a reason and that they weren’t just
coincidences. A story about a person who
sacrifices himself is powerful, but creating a Jesus-like character who
sacrifices himself to save a group of kids makes the story even more
powerful.
