Essay on A Prayer for Owen Meany

I am Struggling with an essay i have to write on this novel. I have a rough draft that is pretty disorganized, unfortunately i have to write about how mental or physiological events play a part in the outcome and importance of the novel. If someone could help me by reading over what i have and giving me some feedback i would greatly appreciate it.

Owen Meany believes he is God's instrument, throughout the novel "A Prayer for Owen Meany" both Owen and Johnny meet many strange anomalies for regular mortals that confirm to each other that Owen is indeed God's instrument. The events that most greatly affect Owens's life and essentially the outcome of the book are encountered through physiological discoveries. Owens's claimed vision of the angel of death in Johnny's mothers room, Owen seeing a date upon Scrooge's gravestone, and when Owen dreams of his own death.

Tragedy is introduced early in the novel with the death of Mrs. Wheelwright; however, it plays a vital role in the remainder of the story. Owen Accidentally kills Mrs. Wheelwright during a baseball game, and as the novel progresses it's learned that this death was fate. "He had interrupted the angel of death at her holy work; she had reassigned the task...to him" (Irving 103). Owen, during one of his visits to Mrs. Wheelwright's room claims to have disturbed the angel of death and prevented it from killing her. This is one of the first signs to Owen that he is God's instrument, he feels that god guided him to hitting the baseball at Mrs. Wheelwright, for this was the way fate dealt with her escape from death. Owen described the event as "The fated Baseball". The author, until after the actual death of Mrs. Wheelwright withheld this information, by doing this he manipulated the reader into thinking as Johnny had, that Owen is divine. As the novel progressed Owen encountered similar dealings that continued to reaffirm his faith as well as Johnny's.

Arguably the most integral and plot defining moment of the story is introduced during the play The Christmas Carol. "It wasn't just my name... I mean not the way I ever write it-not the way I wrote it in the baby powder. It was my real name-it said the whole thing"(Irving 254). Owen during a play had seen his full name and a date upon a gravestone; this proved to Owen that he had the hands of god, and that his destiny was scripted. This is the first introduction of some type of conflict in the novel, for it foreshadows the death of Owen, and it poses the question, will Owen die upon this predetermined date? In Owens's eyes and later Johnny's, the occurrence of Owen seeing when his final day will come during Christmas, the Christian holiday that symbolizes the resurrection of Christ, that Owen is a possible child of God, but most definitely supernatural. Here again the Author decides to wait until later in the story to unveil that Owen was a virgin birth. This Knowledge settles that matter that Owen is godlike, yet the reader is handed shock when much later in the book this information is unleashed. These occurrences to Owen seem to build upon each other, for as years pass, Owen receives his culminating message.

Throughout the novel Owens's most disturbing vision was the seeing of his own (full) name upon a gravestone, however much later in the story it is described to the reader that Owen had a recurring dream depicting his own death and the manner in which it would occur. "I know when I am going to die-and now the dream has shown me how I am going to die, I am going to be a hero! I trust that god will help me"(416 Irving). During this stage of the novel it is clear to Johnny and the reader that Owen has been entrusted by god to do some heroic action. This sets the book up for an eventful finish, where all of the previously mentioned events and others unify together for Owen to fulfill what he saw of himself.

The Books main theme is Owens's extraordinary life, and the main conflict is if all of Owens's physiological occurrences will lead him to fulfill his one destiny? This question finds closure in the final pages of the book; Owen manages to perform gods will and he saves a group of Vietnamese children from death by utilizing the "shot" that he and Johnny had practiced so abundantly. The author cleverly used many of Owens intrinsic events to build a conflict and story line behind. The Author took the reader upon the same journey Johnny did by slowly leaking information of Owens's physiological life until Owens final act made sense.

A Prayer for Owen Meanie is one of my favorite books. It is a well-crafted piece of literature.

Yes, your essay has some issues with organization and well as grammar. One thing to keep in mind when writing a literature essay is that you should use the present tense. Even when talking about things that happened in the past in the novel, you use present tense. It gets tricky, but eventually you will get the hang of it. Also remember those apostrophes when you are talking about a possessive . . . God's instrument (you did it right the first time, but not the next), Johnny's mother's room, Johnny's mom, Mrs. Wheelright's room . . . and those are just from the first paragraph.

Some other grammar rules to keep in mind: in American English, the punctuation (generally) falls within the quotation marks. Keep your capitalization of the word God consistent. With this book and this essay, you will always want to have God capitalized. Names of books should be italicized. It looks like you are using MLA style for your in-text citations . . . put the period after you give the page number in parenthesis: . . . it said the whole thing" (Irving 254). There is at least one place where you are missing a period and at least one more where you don't have the page number for your quote.

Sometimes when proofreading our own work, we don't see the forest for the trees and other times we don't see the trees for the forest. I think you might be missing some of the trees here in your proofreading. As you do some of your rewriting, look over your sentences to make sure that they are complete, that they aren't run-ons, that your verbs agree, and that you aren't missing small words like a or the.

Here's one example of what I am talking about:


Huh? Three are a lot of words here, but I am not sure that they form a sentence (the missing period doesn't help) or that they make any sense.

I suggest that you clean it up to the best of your ability (using the things mentioned here) and the repost for detailed commentary. I know that I, for one, don't want to go too deeply into corrections until you have done some of the rewriting.

thank you for the reply, ill read through it and attempt to eradicate as many of the grammar issues as possible, also i was wonder how the content is and if the are transition sentences suffice.

Hopefully its a little bit better, the tricky part is the paper cannot exceed 2 pages, thanks again for helping me out.

More questions . . . do you have to write about mental OR physiological events in the book? Did you mean physiological as in the normal bodily functions of a living thing or did you mean psychological as pertaining to the mind and mental phenomena? Could you post the prompt, as it is written, here?

You still have some Gods that aren't capitalized and the word author capitalized where it shouldn't be. John Irving, even if he is an egoist, wouldn't agree with be elevated above God.

I don't think that you have to worry about the number of pages. I cut and pasted it into my Word program (because it looked like exactly two pages and I am a dork like that so I had to know) and it came in PRECISELY at two pages--that was using MLA standards of 12-point Times New Roman and one-inch margins. The margins on your Word program might not be set to one-inch margins as a default.

I'll come back to this. Being that this is one of my favorite books, I have taken quite the interest in this essay. It would help A LOT if you could post your prompt.

It is not a direct prompt, however, it is basically saying that the most important events in a novel are Physiological or mental, such as awakenings discoveries, dreams. I felt that this could be easily used with this book for Most of What Owen encounters is mental, or so we are led to believe, im sure Owen would think that he was just seeing reality.

Thankyou so much, is there any chance you could do a quick edit of my paper, it would be greatly appreciated.

Okay, I will focus just on the editing/proofreading and not on the content.

Owen Meany believes he is God's instrument[.]T hroughout the novel[,]A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving, both Owen and his best friend Johnny Wheelwright [,]meetface many strange anomalies for regular mortals that confirm to each other that Owen is indeed God's instrument. The events that most greatly affect Owens's life[,] and essentially the outcome of the book[,] are encountered through physiological discoveries.

Ugh. I said I wouldn't comment on content, but I can't help it here. Physiological discoveries mean things that pertain to the physical being--the body. It would be comments on Owen's unnaturally high voice or his short stature. You are focusing more on the supernatural aspects of the book.

Owens's claimed vision of the angel of death in Johnny's mothers room, Owen seeing a date upon Scrooge's gravestone, and when Owen dreams of his own death.

This is a incomplete sentence. All these things do what? Are they indications of the supernatural undertones in the novel? You could try rewriting it something like this: Owen's claimed vision of the angel of death in Johnny's mother's room, Owen seeing a date upon Scrooge's gravestone, and Owen's dreams of his own death are supernatural elements in the novel.

Tragedy is introduced early in the novel with the death of Mrs. Wheelwright; however, ither death plays a vital role in the remainder of the story. Owen a ccidentally kills Mrs. Wheelwright during a baseball game, and as the novel progresses it's learned that Owen perceives this death w as fate.

"He had interrupted the angel of death at her holy work; she had reassigned the task...to him" (Irving 103). When using MLA style, you don't need to state the author when you are using just one source. You have already stated in your introduction who the book is by and the title. You do still need page numbers though.

Owen, during one of his visits to Mrs. Wheelwright's room[,] claims to have disturbed the angel of death and prevented it from killing her. This is one of the first signs to Owen that he is God's instrument, and he feels that G od guides him to hitting the baseball at Mrs. Wheelwright, for this was the way fate dealt with her escape from death.as fate's way of dealing with her escape from death.

Owen described the event as "The fated Baseball". You are going to need a page number here. With citations, the period will go on the outside of the parenthesis, but otherwise, they would go on the inside. I am not sure what to do with this quote here. In the book I think it is "THAT FATED BASEBALL," but for the essay I would think you could put all of the letters in lowercase.

The author, until after the actual death of Mrs. Wheelwright[,] withholds this information[.]B y doing this[,] he manipulates the reader into thinking as Johnny does , that Owen is divine.

As the novel progresses[,] Owen encounters similar dealings that continued to reaffirm his faith as well as Johnny's.

Arguably the most integral and plot- defining moment of the story is introduced during the play The Christmas Carol. You will need to italicize the name of the play here.

D uring athe play[,] Owenhad sees his full name and a date upon a gravestone; this proves to Owen that he is the hands of G od, and that his destiny is scripted.

This is the first introduction of some type of conflict in the novel, for it foreshadows the death of Owen, and it poses the question, will Owen die upon this predetermined date? This really isn't the first introduction of conflict in the novel. Omit that part. It could read something like: The tombstone foreshadows Owen's death and poses the question to the reader of whether or not Owen will die on this predetermined date.

In Owens's eyes and later Johnny's, the occurrence of Owen seeing when his final day will come during Christmas, the Christian holiday that symbolizes the resurrection of Christ, indicates that Owen is a possible child of God, but most definitely supernatural.

Here again[,] the a uthor decides to wait until later in the story to unveil that Owen was of a virgin birth.

This Knowledge settles that matter that Owen is godlike, yet the reader is handed shock when much later in the book this information is unleashed. I am not following the chronology here. Why is knowledge capitalized? Is the mater settled for all readers? Are all readers shocked? Would it be better to say that the author portrays Owen as godlike?

These supernatural occurrences to Owen seem to build upon each other, for as years pass,until Owen receives his culminating message.

Throughout the novel [,] Owens 's most disturbing vision was the seeing of his own (full) name upon a gravestone[.]muchL ater in the story[,] the authorit is describesto the reader that Owen'shad a recurring dream depicting his own death and the manner in which it would occur. "I know when I am going to die-and now the dream has shown me how I am going to die, I am going to be a hero! I trust that god will help me"(416 Irving ).

During this stage of the novel[,] it is clear to Johnny and the reader that Owen has been entrusted by G od to do some heroic action.

This sets the book up for an eventful finish, where all of the previously mentioned events and others unifycome together for Owen to fulfill what he sees of himself.

The b ook['] s main theme is Owens 's extraordinary life, and the main conflict is if all of Owens's physiological occurrences will lead him to fulfill his one destiny[.]Because it is a rhetorical question that you are not expecting your reader to answer, you don't need the question mark.

This question finds closure in the final pages of the book; Owen manages to perform God's will as he saves a group of Vietnamese children from death by utilizing the "shot" that he and Johnny had practiced so abundantly.

The author cleverly used many of Owen['] s intrinsic events to build a conflict and a story line behind .

The a uthor took the reader up on the same journey as Johnny did by slowly leaking information of Owens 's physiological life until Owen['] s final act made sensebrings the elements of the story to its inevitable ending .

Okay, I may not have done a perfect job. In fact, I am sure that I didn't. Unlike Owen Meany, I am only human. I'd love to see comments from others. We have some very smart cookies on this site.

I think you mean "psychological," not "physiological." At any rate, the former makes much more sense with what you have actually written.

hey thanks so much and as sean said i meant to write Psychological, which i think makes sense for most of the essay. Notoman Thanks your edits are perfect, but if you feel inclined to you can rip apart the content of the essay as well. Thanks

Ok i made most of the changes you had, and the essay reads much smoother, thanks, still i think the content is weak, and you seem to know alot about this book, so if you have nothing better to do (probably do) you could suggest some more content.

The content seems weak because its mostly plot summary. Yes, there are three clearly supernatural seeming events that impact Owen psychologically and interest the reader by hinting at Owen's association with the divine. Anyone who has read the book, or even a summary of the book, already knows this. How does this develop a theme of some sort?

Well the theme pertaining to my essay is that what affects the book the most are the supernatural events that happen to Owen Meany, These three events shape the book into what it is and give it a conflict and a story line.

What Owen represents the the bridge between the divine and the mortals.
I would like to know where a good place would be to put some more analyzing for the essay cannot be much longer and i dont want it to screw up the underlying foundation of the essay.

There you go. Use this as your thesis statement, and explain how each event does this. That should strengthen your essay considerably.

i would love to and i would love to compare owen to many characters in greek mythology, however i fear that this strays to far from my target, do you have any suggestions on how i could implement more substance into this essay whilst still keeping the same foundation.

Thanks again for all of your help, on a side note the essay is due tomorrow, i am also in the midst of writing another essay on pride and prejudice.

Yes, yes it would. Stick with the Christian paradigm. As for my original suggestion, you wouldn't really need to change that much. Mostly the intro and some of the transitions in the bodies, then add some analysis in at the end of each paragraph. That's what you're really missing at the moment. You try to analyze, but you have no theme to tie the incidents into, so you just end up saying that the events make Owen seem divine, which is true but too obvious to be a good foundation for your essay.

Not sure i understand in the novel all religions are almost categorized as just religions and the author frowns upon them all yet in a paradoxical way. However i implemented the "owen is a bridge between blah blah" as analysis however if show how these phycological events make up the story and make it what it is.

Thanks im off to bed thanks for all your help

Ahhh . . . it makes *so* much more sense to talk about the PSYCHOLOGICAL aspects of the book. That is why I asked for the exact prompt.

Sean is right in saying that you need to stick to the Christian paradigm. Irving, through the character of John Wheelwright, is very spiritual, but has great difficulty with organized religion. The book makes fun of organized religion while still being very religious. Owen Meany is set up as divine, almost like a son of God, and there are many parallels in the book between Christ and Owen.


Bingo! One of the reasons that the characters in the book have difficulty with organized religion is that the churches don't accept the divine qualities in Owen. The Meanys leave the Catholic Church because the church does not believe their story of Owen's virgin birth. The Meanys and John see Owen as a miracle--proof of God's existence. The churches of the town do not and herein lies the paradox. Owen's father asks, "If you actually believe that miracles have happened, why is it impossible to believe that a miracle could occur in one's own life?" It is this denial of Owen's divine nature that is the gap between faith realized and the faith teachings of organized religion.

Sean gave you perfect advice on how to beef up what you already have with transitions and analysis. He is one of those smart cookies that I was referring to.

I am off to bed too!

This is just so wonderful. Yes, by all means, talk about this in your essay, if you have the time to rework it. This would be an excellent thesis.