The Problem With The Red Dress In A Prayer For Owen Meany

The Problem With the Red Dress
The novel A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving tells the story of how John Wheelwright came to believe in God because of his friend Owen Meany. Early on in the story, John's mother Tabitha is said to have gone on trips to Boston, staying one night every week. While she says that she was going there for singing lessons, that was not the only thing she did on these trips. At night she would sing at a club called the Orange Grove where she was nicknamed the Lady in Red for the poinsettia red dress she would always wear there. Tabitha is said to have disliked the dress no matter what was added to accessorize with it and she seems uncomfortable in the dress when she wears it, this likely being because she views the

It is mentioned multiple times that the red dress was out of place in Tabitha's wardrobe as it was bright red, extremely different from her usually black and white clothing which was the reason why she chose it. She claimed that she just intended to copy its design for another dress and she intended to return it. When she attempted to give it back, she supposedly found that the store had burned down with almost everything being burned. She was told to keep the dress and though she clearly did not like it, she refused to give it to the local theater group, Gravesend Players, to use as a costume. The one time she wore it was for a dress rehearsal for a play called Angel Street she would be acting in, though it is stated “... she never stopped itching around, as if the material of the dress made her skin crawl” (Irving 102). The way she acted towards the dress here shows how uncomfortable she was in the dress in front of people from Gravesend in the dress, likely because of her worries that someone might recognize her as the Lady in Red. She dress was chosen for its bright color, something so different from her usual monochromatic outfits that it made her seem almost like she was a different person. When she wore it for Angel Street, she likely felt uncomfortable because to her the Lady in Red was practically a different person, someone who would go out to a