User:Amazaika/sandbox

Plot
The story begins with a reflection from the narrator, John Wheelwright, as he recalls memories from his youth about his best friend, Owen Meany. Since the novel is written from two perspectives, one from John's childhood and the other from his life in Toronto, many setting changes take place. The novel is also not in chronological order much of the time.

John claims to owe his faith in God to the event's in Owen's life. The first part of the book recalls John's life in Gravesend, New Hampshire, a fictional town, when he is between six and eleven years old. John lives with his mother, Tabitha Wheelwright, and his grandmother, Harriet Wheelwright, at 80 Front Street. The identity of his father is unknown to John, undisclosed by his mother. All John knows is that his mother's "little fling" happened on the Boston & Maine train ride home to Gravesend, after his mother was returning from her weekly singing lessons. However, when John is six years old, his mother introduces Dan Needham to the family, a young man looking for a job as a drama professor at Gravesned Academy, a local high school. Harriet Wheelwright, John, and their servants approve of Dan, and the couple marry four years later. John also spends a good deal of his childhood with his cousins, Simon, Noah, and Hester, who live upstate in Sawyer Depot.

Owen Meany is a small, pale, fragile boy with a unique, high pitched, "wrecked voice." He is John's best friend, and the two spend most of their time together until Owen's death. Mr. Meany runs the local granie quarry, and Mrs. Meany stares unresponsive out of a second story window most of the time. The first major incident in the novel occurs at a little league baseball game. Owen is up for bat, and instead of performing his usual walk to first base, Coach Chicekring instructs Owen to "swing away." On the last pitch, Owen hits a foul ball, killing John's mother as it strikes her in the temple. Owen and John are eleven years old, Tabitha, thirty. The funeral is held shortly afterwords.

The firs evidence of Owen's Christ-like qualities are revealed during a sleepover at John's house. Owen is sick, and walks to John's mother's room to ask for some medicine. He screams, startled, as he walks in, claiming that he sees an angel standing over Tabitha. At this point, John and others believe that Owen has only seen Tabitha's dressmaker dummy, but he claims there was another presence, an angel of death, in the room. Other strange happenings occur late in the novel, after Tabitha's death. Owen causes both disorder and feelings of awe at a nativity scene play and at "A Christmas Carol," hosted by the Wiggins' at the Episcopal Church and at Gravesend's playhouse by Dan, respectively. In both plays, Owen takes charge of major roles, and causes disaster at the nativity play, and discovering the date of his death at "A Christmas Carol." He plays the roles of the baby Jesus and the Ghost of Christmas yet to come. After the Christmas play, it is discovered that one of the servants, Lydia dies.

At this point in the novel, Owen and John have finished their childhood and move on to adolescence and adulthood. Owen and John attend Gravesend Academy, a rigorous high school in the town. John is accepted due to Dan's job as drama professor, while Owen receives a scholarship. While at theacademy, Owen receives the nickname, "The Voice," due to his high pitched voice and his role in the school newspaper. Owen's writing style is succinct, extremely critical, and written in all capital letters. Owen continues to write in all caps for the rest of the novel. Owen and John also practice a basketball move they call "The Shot" during wintertime at the gym.

There are two severe incidents during the boys' time in high school. The first occurs shortly after Randy White replaces Archy Thorndike, the headmaster. On a cold winter's morning, Owen drives to the school to fulfill his job of helping in the cafeteria, when he finds Dr. Zurich's car, the school's psychologist, parked in Owen's usual spot. Being especially grumpy that morning, Owen formulates and scheme, and with the help of the boy's basketball team, they move Dr. Zurich's Volkswagen beetle to the stage in the Great Hall. This causes much dissarary at "Mornning Meeting", as Randy White and the faculty attempt to move the car.

The second invident occurs several months later. Owen moves and iconic statue of Mary Magdalene with its arms removed upond the stage of the Great Hall, causing similar dissaray. It is at this point that Owen asks the pastor Merril Lewis to say a prayer for him, as he knows that this will lead to his expulsion and loss of valedictory.

Owen and John go to college at the University of New Hampshire; John studies English and Owen enrolls in ROTC, knowing that this will later deliver him to his purpose in life. He dreams that he will die a hero and save lives. He even makes his own tombstone with the date of his death upon it. John and Owen continue to look for John's real father, taking a trip to Boston one afternoon, but come back without answers.

A major action occurs in the plot when Owen amputates John's finger to get him a draft defferment. Owen believes that John is not ment to go to Vietnam. Owen is stationed at Arizona and invites John out to meet him during a routine casualty escort. While there, Owen and John encounter a derranged boy named Dick, brother of the deceased army recruit they are escorting. As the boys are helping some young Vietnamese children use the restroom, Dick takes a grenade and throws it into the bathroom. John quickly lifts Owen above his head, and the bomb explodes, blowing off Owen's arms and killing him. However, he dies a hero, having saved many lives. John also discovers that his father is the Reverend Lewis, and moves to Canada, outraged, at the end of the novel. In the last line John utters a cry to God for Owen, saying, "O God - Please give him back! I shall keep asking You!"

Major themes
Critics observed a theological theme in A Prayer for Owen Meany, describing parallels between Owen Meany and Jesus. Weaver called this an "atonement motif." relating to Christianity. He tries to answer the question, "Why did Jesus die?" Or in other words, "Why did Owen Meany have to die?" Owen knows that his role in life is premeditated, and is the work of God. Weaver also brought up the point that Dick is "evil," and a representative of Satan, although his task is also premeditated. As Dick is killed, it represents the resolution of Christianity as Owen is "ressurected." Owen's christ-like quailites can also be seen during the Gravesend Christmas plays. Shostak's points out the roles Owen plays, the Baby Jesus and Ghost of the Future, "revealing his mission" to John. Overall themes also include faith, religion, war, and friendship.

Style
John Irving uses a unique style when writing A Prayer for Owen Meany. Shostak noticed Irving's "repetitive plot," visible throughout several of his novels. She gave two possible reasons for this, writing about the order this brings to a plot, instead of it being chaotic and corny. This repetition is also to place emphasis on certain key events and ideas. Irving described his writing process by saying, "I have the last chapters in my mind before I see the first chapters . . . . I usually begin with endings, a sense of aftermath, of dust settling, of epilogue. I love plot, and how can you plot a novel if you don't know the ending first?" Bernstein also notes that Irving "strives for big novels in the 19th-century manner - eventful, heacily peopled stories of the sort . . . that you don't see much anymore." Another writing style used in A Prayer for Owen Meany is seen in the way Irving writes Owen's dialogue; in all capital letters.

Background
Following motifs of faith, religion, war and friendship, John Irving discussed the backstory of A Prayer for Owen Meany before an assembly of drama students at Yale University. Irving revealed the "effects of the morbid Vietnam generation" on the plot of his novel. He tried to communicate, "a victim of the war, but not the victim you see coming from Vietnam." He also mentioned a small boy from his New Hampshire Hometown, a boy named Russell, who inspired the character Owen Meany. This protagonist with a rock-dust falsetto" became the kid from the granite quarry that later dies in the Vietnam War. Critics also mentioned the similarities in plot between Irving's novels.  Shostak recalled repetitive New Hampshire based stories involving themes such as faith and determination.  Irving has also added that his "accumulated churchgoing" has influenced his writing process.

Publication history
A Prayer for Owen Meany was published by William Morrow and Company in New York, March 1989. Garp Enterprises owns this copyright. William and Morrow also released an e-book edition on March 13, 2012.

Reception
A Prayer for Owen Meany has been both widely praised and criticized. Beloved by many Irving fans and all-time favorite novels of others, the book has faced both positive and negative criticism. Kazin scrutinizes John Wheelwright for being a "conscious and unapologetic wimp," as well as a calling Owen Meany a "little squirt." However, Weaver commented on Owen's "heroic death," and James remarked on its approach to the constant theme that life is miraculous. Overall, critics found the novel to be a different but successful collection to Irving's works. The book is is bestseller on the New York Times.

Awards and nominations
John Irving has won multiple awards for A Prayer for Owen Meany, including New York Times Bestseller on March 19, 1989. He has also been nominated for the National Book Award three times, once in 1989 for A Prayer for Owen Meany, and for two other novels, The World According to Garp and The Cider House Rules. He won the National Book Award in 1980 for The World According to Garp. Irving also won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay of The Cider House Rules in 2000.

Adaptations
A Prayer for Owen Meany was adopted into the movie Simon Birch in 1998, directed by Mark Steven Johnson. The protagonist Owen Meany was changed to main character Simon Birch, as well as the setting to Gravestown, New Hampshire. Many other characters have name changes, but the plot remains similar to that in Owen Meany. Stars include Ian Michael Smith as Simon Birch, Joseph Mazzello as Joe Wentworth, and Jim Carrey as the adult Joe Wentworth. There have also been numerous theatrical adaptations, including Yale University's Dramatic Association's Freshman Show.