A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving - Essay Example

?Paul Naples English Literature (Modern and ical) Essay 2 December ‘A Prayer for Owen Meany’ John Irving Mortality- ‘Guiding the Path for Owen’ Most religions believe in life and death and also some if not all believe in life after death; Christianity is not left behind with this thought too as it clearly talks about death. The Bible which is the main scripture book for Christianity has clearly elaborated on the issues of death and even the way of life. John 14:1-3 says: "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." (NIV) The Christians believe in life after death and that there is a purpose for everyone in the world. The Christian religion defines how people should live, die and even what happens in the afterlife. This does not mean that the religion defines death alone instead the death also defines the religion. Not only is the Christian religion based on the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus, but it is the fear of death that defines the religious belief of people. In the story Owen Meany lived a life that was almost entirely based on death and the premonition of death, in many ways the death was intertwined with his belief on the religious system. Because of his thoughts and perceptions, Owen Meany defined the religious belief of the many people who were around him. Death was a powerful presence in Owen’s life from a very young age. He grew up around it. As a matter of fact later in the novel when Owen is already dead and during the funeral in 1968, Mr.Meany confides in John. He tells John that he had never slept with Owen’s mother and that Mr.Meany believed that Owen was a product of a virgin birth “like the Christ Child” this revelation was vehemently rejected by the Catholic priests. (This was the reason why Owen had a negative attitude towards the Catholics and Catholicism). By taking into account that the purpose of Christ Child in the world was to save us from our sins and at the end He died for the sake of humanity. The same comparison can be brought out when looking at Owen Meany. Although it is revealed later in the novel, this revelation serves as an eye opener of what Owen’s purpose on earth was. The revelation made John furious at Mr.Meany who told him that he had told Owen about this “fact” by the age of eleven and this made John believe that it was the driving force behind Owen’s belief that he was the instrument of God just like Jesus that he had a purpose on earth and at the end of the day he will die to save humanity in this case the Vietnamese children. The death here was to fulfill the promise just like Jesus therefore death defining Owen’s motive on earth. As a kid and also as an adult, Owen himself seemed only a step away from death at the best of times, with his tiny size, physical vulnerability, strange voice, and otherworldly skin. The author himself, when speaking of Owen and a similar character, said, "I wrote the same physical description for both characters: that they looked embryonic, like creatures born too soon; that their veins were blue; that the light passed through their ears. (They looked doomed, in other words.)" (Taylor). Owen had defied death by living with grave conditions that made him be the center of attention in most of the cases. By living with all these conditions Owen was in great danger of getting sick and dying thereby he was living with death every single day through the disabilities and conditions that he had. By the virtue of his father owning a granite business; it made Owen come close and associate himself with death more. This is because a major component of his father’s business was making gravestones. Of course the gravestones were mainly used on the graves of those who had passed on and this made Owen come into close contact with death. One incident that showed Owen was actually treating himself as a walking dead person was when Owen pretended to drown to see what his friends would do just in case he was drowning. His friends did nothing. ‘'YOU LET ME DROWN!' Owen said. 'YOU DIDN'T DO ANYTHING! YOU JUST WATCHED ME DROWN! I'M ALREADY DEAD!' he told us" (Irving 98). This foreshadows the course of the rest of his life. He is already dead, and lives the rest of his life for the death that his visions promise him. During the performance of “A Christmas Carol” Owen is overwhelmed by his performance and faints and once he regains consciousness he assumed that he had died and resurrected just like Jesus. Two parallel comparisons occur in this instance, first is that he plays as baby Jesus in the Nativity scene and also Ghost of Christmas yet to come. The performance as baby Jesus shows how he his life is closely related to how Jesus was born and lived and finally dying, when he faints he is associating the loss o consciousness to death and says he has seen his gravestone while he was dead and still he comes back or resurrects. It is after this that he starts to live a life that is largely religious, even holy, for all of its attachment to worldly pleasures (Ousby 14). He certainly does not move through the same limited, mortal world that the rest of the characters do. This Jesus analogy is repeated more than once later in his life. And more so the death perspective is closely related to the one Jesus underwent. At a young age Owen accidentally caused the death of a neighbor's dog, Sagamore, when he threw a ball and the dog chased it into the path of a truck. This early death foreshadowed the much more significant later death of John's mother, which bore so many similarities to it that it seems that the dog was a foreshadowing of it. Furthermore, in his earliest vision, the Angel of Death is standing by John's mother's bed. This involvement with death shadows Owen for the rest of his life. More than this, it defines the rest of his life. When Owen sees the angel, he sees it as the Angel of Death, and tries to keep it away from John's mother by spending the night with her. This he knows that if he did not spend the night with Tabby then the Angel of Death would have taken her life (Podnar, and Irving 32). Owen later says he also did not know whether it was a good angel or a bad one implying that he knew there exist good and bad angles but he was used to associate himself with death to the extent believing that he can save people if he stays with them whenever something bad was about to happen to them. When he accidentally kills Tabby with a baseball he thinks he is the main reason since he had stopped the Angel of Death from taking her life. He believes that since he prevented her death earlier, God made him pay by being the cause of it later. This was a powerful moment for Owen. It was the first time that he had ever been allowed to bat in a baseball game. His apotheosis, knocking the ball out of the park on his first at bat, is the moment that he kills John's mother, and the effect of such a powerful concatenation of events brings him to a religious apotheosis. It convinces him that he is the instrument of God. He also believes that his purpose on earth is to make sure mankind are safe and therefore every event happening to him s a culmination of what will be expected of him once the time of death comes. Owen's visions of his death are what define his life. Not just in the broad strokes, but in every particular. It determines his religious beliefs, the sport he plays, the career he chooses. "Owen's future is determined, but because he is already an instrument of God, he lives in a way that makes him an instrument of God" ("A Prayer for Owen Meany"). His life, death, and religious devotion are all one thing, each interacting with the other. It is not surprising that Owen's complex relationship with death would define his religious beliefs. However, this relationship between death and religion is true for more people than just him. The manner of Owen's death, and the miracles associated with it, are the entire reason that John is religious. These miracles are also all associated with death, such as Owen's visions about it, and his subsequent possession of Reverend Merrill. Dick Jarvits was enough of a murderous psychopath to try to murder a group of children. His eagerness to kill is directly responsible for the event that God chose Owen to prevent. Like Jesus, Owen suffered and died so that the innocent did not have to. Death does more than just simply cause the conversion experiences of a few people. It dominates the lives of just about everyone who was connected to John's mother's death or even connected with Owen’s baseball game that killed Tabby. Harry Hoyt for example, was walked before Owen got to bat, later dies in Vietnam. If he had gotten out instead, John's mother would have lived. Buzzy Thurston, who got to base before Owen on an error, sank into drug use and alcoholism, and avoided going to Vietnam. However, he was subsequently killed in a drunk driving accident (Irving). Mr. Chickering, the Little League coach who ordered Owen to bat, was driven to despair by his hand in the death. Nor is the predominant theme of death restricted just to the people involved in the baseball game. As Lydia battles cancer, loses her leg, and grows senile, Mrs. Wheelwright starts using her to predict what she herself will suffer as she ages. The Vietnam War casts a pall across the entire book, and the many deaths there drive major elements of the plot. Any person Owen was associated with end up dying until the time that Owen dies meaning that Owen had to fulfill the promise of dying in order to save the “world’ just like Jesus only that this time round he was saving the humanity and people close around him. In conclusion; Christianity is mainly concerned in many ways with providing a valid answer to the question of what happens after one dies. It is based on the story of a man who died, and was resurrected and so does the story in the book in this case Owen Meany. That death is a powerful and important factor in religious belief in many other ways than just its presence in the founding stories of the faith is one of the central features of the book. This also implies that death is inevitable and cannot be avoided instead the aspect of dying should be embraced as one day one has to pass on. This is why it is so incredibly prevalent throughout, right down to the name of the town. Death defines religious belief. While this can be a negative thing, it can also be a very positive one: a call to heroism, and an acceptance of fate and God's greater plan. Owen lived a life like that of Jesus. He foresaw his death and its place in God's plan. He accepted it, and died willingly. In so doing he saved innocent lives, and even a soul: John's. As such Owen was living a world knowing he will fulfill his mission in saving lives and after that his purpose on earth will be complete. Works Cited “The Holy Bible.” New International Version. 2011. Irving, John. A Prayer for Owen Meany. New York: William Morrow, 1989. Print. Irving, John. A Prayer for Owen Meany: A Novel. New York: W. Morrow, 2012. Internet resource. Ousby, Ian. Cambridge Paperback Guide to Literature in English. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Print. Podnar, Diane, and John Irving. A Prayer for Owen Meany: John Irving : Curriculum Unit. Rocky River, Ohio: Center for learning, 1996. Print. Taylor, Michael Ray. ''A Conversation With John Irving.'' Academic Forum 26. Henderson State University, n.d. Web. 4 Nov. 2012. Read More