A Prayer for Owen Meany (Masterplots II: American Fiction Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: John Irving
- First Published: 1989
- Type of Plot: Bildungsroman
- Time of Work: 1952-1968 and 1987
- Setting: Gravesend, New Hampshire, and Toronto, Canada
- Principal Characters: John Wheelwright, Owen Meany, Harriet Wheelwright, Tabitha Wheelwright, Dan Needham, Hester Eastman, Lewis Merrill
- Genres: Long fiction, Bildungsroman
- Subjects: 1950’s, Maturation or coming of age, Teaching or teachers, 1960’s, North America or North Americans, Northeast, U.S., United States or Americans, Exile or expatriates, Virginity or virgins, 1980’s, New England, New Hampshire, Vietnam War, Single parents or single-parent families, Death or dying, Canada or Canadians, Faith, Amputation, amputees, or prosthetics, Miracles, Citizenship, Dwarfs
- Locales: Toronto, Canada, Gravesend, NH
The Novel
A Prayer for Owen Meany is the story of John Wheelwright’s relationship with his childhood friend Owen Meany, a midget with a high, squeaky voice, whose life and death move John to have faith in God. Despite his size, Owen has a commanding presence that directs John’s life. Owen comes to symbolize a moral intensity that John finds sorely absent from American life.
In 1987, John Wheelwright, a forty-five-year-old English teacher living in Canada, is finally able to write about his experiences with Owen Meany in the 1950’s and 1960’s, when they...
[The entire page is 2566 words long]
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See Also:
See Also:
- - For teachers, the A Prayer for Owen Meany Lesson Plan.
- - A Prayer for Owen Meany summary and study guide in the eNotes.
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