Beloved And A Prayer For Owen Meany

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Family and Friendship are the two things that define who we are. These two things are what we belong to and they help create our identity. In Beloved and A Prayer for Owen Meany this is evident because our main characters are who they are because of the loved ones surrounding them. We see it with Sethe and the amount of love she has for her family that is so strong that she is willing to kill her own kids. We also see it with John Wheelwright and how the death of his mother at the hands of his best friend Owen has affected him but also changed him for the better because he has Owen by his side who will never let anything bad happen to him. The importance of family and friendship is seen within the slaves in Beloved and with John and Dan Needham …show more content…

We see this with Owen Meany when John tells us that Owen “gave me more than he ever took from me” (A Prayer for Owen Meany 2.509-511). Even with the death of John’s mother at the hands of Owen these too prove to be the best of friends. A friend is someone who is “A positive influence on your life” (What is Friendship? Friendship.about.com), this friendship proves this theory by the boys helping John finding his identity and Owen’s destiny. Along with friendship in the novel we see the importance of family and the role that it plays throughout the novel. John does not know who is father is but that doesn’t matter because Dan Needham plays the role of a father and he does a great job doing so. Throughout the novel we see examples of how Owen and John are more like brothers than friends. Also, we learn from A Prayer for Owen Meany that sometimes those who are not blood-related may be closer than …show more content…

We see it first in Beloved with the men working the prison chain gang. Day after day these men struggle and work in grueling conditions but they still came together to achieve the common goal of escaping. Paul D explained this best by saying “if one lost, all lost” (Beloved). With A Prayer for Owen Meany, Owen is there for John before and after he kills his mother. When he kills his mother Owen shows John that he truly is sorry and with their exchange of gifts we learn that Owen is going to be there for John for the rest of his life. We learn that John is saved from experiencing an awful time in Vietnam because of his friend Owen who chops off his finger. "Maybe. But if she 'd only come, I could make it clear to her." (Beloved), Sethe says this quote in a conversation with Denver about Beloved’s ghost and how she is raising hell throughout the house, but “Sethe is still defending her when Denver criticizes her” (Dramaticfictionquestions). Sethe shows this love for her family throughout the novel even when her family is going through rough times. “She did not want children, she wanted me, just me, and she got me” (A Prayer for Owen Meany 2.3) John is talking about how even though his birth is unplanned his mom loves him utterly and the relationship that they have is one that John treasures and values. In the end of Beloved the ghost of Beloved

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