Open Prompt 1981 revised

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.