Analysis Of A Prayer For Owen Meany

A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving, tells the story of a boy named Owen Meany, whose miraculous life and abilities inspire the people around him, as told by his best friend, John Wheelwright. Love in Owen Meany takes multiple forms, and those forms grow and evolve throughout the story. Caring relationships existed between Owen and Dan Needham, Tabby Wheelwright, and Harriet Wheelwright, who acted as father, mother, and grandmother figures to Owen, respectively. Hester Eastman was the romantic interest of Owen, and he was the only boy she ever loved. But the book is narrated by John, and because John is his best friend and -- in a sense -- soulmate, we see Owen’s love for others (and others’ love for Owen) through the eyes of the person he loved most.

The first instance we see of John and Owen’s love for each other is after the death of John’s mother.

Owen, as both an apology and an expression of sentiment, gives John his prized baseball cards, and in turn, John gives his stuffed armadillo to Owen. Although the message was implicit in their exchange, an outright verbalization of their feelings was not reached at this point; since they were only eleven, this can be attributed to a certain emotional immaturity.
Later in the book (after they’ve grown up a bit), however, they are more forthright with their sentiment. Just before Owen cuts off John’s finger so that he won’t be drafted in the Vietnam war -- itself a grand gesture of trust, for John to allow it -- he tells his friend, “I LOVE YOU. NOTHING BAD IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO YOU -- TRUST ME” (509). Previously, there were numerous instances in which one told the other that he was his best friend; but telling someone you love them is a deeper commitment -- especially in the context of John and Owen’s

relationship.
Owen’s defining characteristic in the novel is that, from his birth to his death, he was a miracle. His mother claims that he was a virgin birth, “like the Christ child” (536); he predicted the date of his own death and how he would die, and was right, except for one detail. Immutable characteristics of his, like his small stature and strange voice, contributed to the purpose he was destined to serve. Owen saw himself as “God’s instrument,” and although he sometimes felt used, he was determined to fulfil his duty.
John was not as directly involved in the action as his friend was, and he never saw himself as an instrument, like Owen saw himself, or a Christ-like figure, as Owen seemed to others. But his role in his best friend’s fate was what ultimately allowed Owen to save the lives of dozens of children, and John’s life, too.
For years, John and Owen practiced a particular basketball shot until they could do it perfectly and in seconds; independently of that, Owen predicted that John would be present for his death. Neither of them knew that these two things could be tied together, until the moment came when Owen needed to save the children by performing “the shot” and throwing a grenade out of the way of the children, unfortunately resulting in his death. Owen -- too small to do any such thing on his own -- needed John to be present for the moment, even before he knew why. Their fates were inextricable; in a way, they were soulmates, which is why their love for each other was so important and so profound. The growth of Owen and John’s friendship throughout Owen Meany was the miracle among many that made all the other ones worthwhile.