Johnny Lifts Owen example essay topic

A Prayer for Owen Meany, written by John Irving in 1989, is a novel that delves into many sensitive areas of American culture. Among the most prevalent of these are religion, anti-war, and anti-Americanism. This novel raises many questions about America and it's values and, in most cases, shows America as the enemy of its own people. The story takes place in a small New Hampshire town before and during the Vietnam War. Johnny Wheelwright, a Canadian immigrant, in retrospect, narrates the novel. Johnny befriends a boy named Owen Meany who among many other oddities is a tiny boy with a shrill voice.

Owen is responsible, by means of a fluke foul ball, for the death of Johnny's mother. Owens parents, who are not very stable or supporting, give Owen the impression that he was a miraculous virgin birth and thus the tool of God. When the boys school decided to perform A Christmas Carol for the school play, Owen is cast (more appropriately, casts himself) as the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. While acting his part Owen faints on stage. Upon waking, Owen claims to have seen his name and date of his death on the prop tombstone. The two boys then go on to attend a private prep school together.

It is here that Owen insists that Johnny help him with the shot. This is where Johnny lifts Owen up as he runs towards the basketball hoop to complete a slam-dunk. As the two grow older they both attend college and Owen enrolls in the ROTC program. He does so because he believes that God had called him to fight in Vietnam and die saving a group of Vietnamese school children. Owen also believes that Johnny has no place fighting in Vietnam and decides to help keep him out of the senseless war. To do so, Owen devises a plan to cut of Johnny's trigger finger, thus making him ineligible for the draft.

While at the airport in Arizona (where Owen was stationed) the two come upon some nuns caring for a group of Vietnamese school children. While in the bathroom a deranged young man throws a grenade at the children. Johnny catches the grenade and performs the shot with Owen who places the grenade high above the children. Owen was killed by the blast but everyone else was saved.

It was because of Owens small stature, shrill voice, and basic understanding of Vietnamese that allowed him to get the attention of the children and tell them what to do. It was Owens' persistence in perfecting the shot that allowed them to save the kids. And it all took place on the day that Owen had already engraved into his own tombstone. While many people will take many different things from this book and its symbolism, I was affected by it mainly form its anti-American message. Written in 1989, this novel seems to be Irving's retrospect on America and its values during the Vietnam War. Irving, who did not fight in Vietnam and is a Canadian Immigrant, appears to scalding American interests in Vietnam.

The mixed symbolism of religion and war seem to imply a lack of morality in American values. Johnny, who was deeply disturbed by the war, was willing to cut of a finger (which isn t to extreme considering the mortality rate of ground troops in Vietnam) to keep from fighting an unjust war. Owen on the other hand stood firm in his belief that the war was part of Gods master plan (1). The entire novel is riddled with instances of fighting against the system and sticking it to the man. From very early on in the book, up until its conclusion, Owen personifies this stance on American values. It is Owens devote stance on the system and his fanatical religious belief that guides Johnny to his Canadian immigration (like Irving) and life of celibacy (1).

Set in a time when young men did not know if they were going to be picked randomly out of a hat to go die for a cause they had nothing to do with, Irving projects a sense of lost identity. From not knowing who his father was to losing his mother at the hands of the tiny miracle worker, Johnny is forced to come to terms with many things in his life and does not believe that killing people he does not even know should be part of these troubles. While struggling through these trials and tribulations, it is Owens self-sureness that helps set an example for Johnny to live by. Though he does not realize this at first, Johnny slowly accepts the role Owen has played in his life after his heroic death. This novel exemplifies, in my opinion, the anti-war and anti-American sentiment of this disillusioned group of men during and after the Vietnam War. I feel that this novel was Irving's attempt to come to terms with a horrible chapter in his life.

It was this coping of the disillusionment that has led Irving to his anti-Americanism and the creation of this wonderful novel. 1 John Irving Biography. Random House, Inc. 1999 web / 336.