Foreshadowing In A Prayer For Owen Meany

A Prayer for Owen Meany Literary Analysis In A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving, the author, uses symbolism, theme, and foreshadowing in order to convey a deeper message to the reader. John Irving uses these literary devices throughout the story to continuously reflect a message back onto the reader. The constant message that Irving attempts to convey is the conflict of faith. A Prayer for Owen Meany is told in the first-person perspective of John Wheelwright, as an adult, talking about growing up with his best friend, Owen Meany. The two boys grew up in from Gravesend, New Hampshire during the 1950’s and 1960’s. Owen and John were raised in a religious community, and almost every scene from the story involves a reference to their religious

At the beginning of the story, Owen Meany kills John’s mother, Tabitha, by hitting her in the head with a foul ball. This event is the foundation for everything else that happens in this story. The baseball that killed John’s mother is a symbol that represents the wildness and unpredictability of God’s will. At the funeral, people begin to blame themselves for Tabitha’s death. The coach, Mr. Chickering, blames himself for allowing Owen to swing at the ball, and Reverend Merrill blames himself for praying that Tabitha would die. Additionally, Owen Meany feels the guiltiest because he was the one that swung the bat. Since these people are religious, they shouldn’t blame themselves for the death of someone else. By using this symbol, Irving shows how people will begin to doubt their faith when they are grieving. Another symbol in this story is Owen Meany. Owen is a symbol of faith, and he embodies the relationship between natural and supernatural. Everything Owen does, has some kind of effect on John’s belief in god. This is evident when John claims “I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice-not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person, or even because he was the instrument of my mother’s death, but because he

The theme of A Prayer for Owen Meany is to allow God to guide you through life. Throughout the story, Owen Meany is “God’s instrument”. This causes him to believe that fate and predestination are real. These concepts are believed to exist through God’s will in all of forms of Christianity except Lutherans. When Owen was a kid, he walked into Tabitha’s room and saw an ‘Angel of Death’ beside her bed. Owen claims that because he interrupted the ‘Angel of Death’ from taking Tabitha’s life, God has chosen him to carry out her fate. Owen obviously did not intentionally kill John’s mother, but he accepts that God has used him in order to kill Tabitha. It becomes apparent to the reader that Owen has accepted his role as God’s instrument and become fully submissive. After Tabitha dies John explains, “It made(Owen) furious when I suggested that anything was an “accident”—especially anything that had happened to him; on the subject of predestination, Owen Meany would accuse Calvin of bad faith. There were no accidents; there was a reason for that baseball—just as there was a reason for Owen being small, and a reason for his voice. In Owen’s opinion, he had INTERRUPTED AN ANGEL, he had DISTURBED AN ANGEL AT WORK, he had UPSET THE SCHEME OF THINGS”(102). This brings the focal point back to Irving’s original message of religious faith and doubt. Owen believes in God so much that he has become completely submissive to him.