A Prayer for Owen Meany

“As vividly as any number of stories in the Bible,” says our narrator, John Wheelwright, on page 8, “Owen Meany showed us what a martyr was.” What does it mean to be a martyr? Why does this apply to Owen?

Who or what is “Watahantowet” (page 10)? Describe this figure; explain why it reappears throughout the book. What is it about Johnny’s stuffed armadillo—or the vandalized statue of Mary Magdalene, or Tabby Wheelwright’s dressmaker’s dummy, or the death of Owen at the end of the novel—that echoes this figure (physically, symbolically, or otherwise)?

One of this novel’s introductory quotations is by the esteemed theological writer and scholar Frederick Buechner. “If there was no room for doubt,” he writes, “there would be no room for me.” What does this quote mean to you? What is Buechner saying about the presence of doubt in our lives? Having read A Prayer for Owen Meany, discuss the theme of doubt in these pages, especially religious doubt. Are there any characters who do not experience doubt? Who are they, if so, and why do they not?

Why do you think author John Irving chose to express Owen’s spoken remarks in ALL CAPS? And why does Owen, likewise, by the time we reach Chapter 6—as per page 293—always execute his written communication IN THIS WAY? Discuss your text-driven impression(s) of always seeing Owen’s words ALL IN CAPS.

Owen’s voice is described in any number of ways throughout this novel: “wrecked,” “loud,” “unnatural,” “queer,” and so on. “To be heard at all,” John says at the outset of his tale, on page 5, “Owen had to shout through his nose.” How did you “hear” his voice while reading this novel?

Often in A Prayer for Owen Meany, we read of how Owen does not believe in coincidences. “On the subject of predestination,” John notes of his friend on page 105, “Owen Meany would accuse Calvin of bad faith. There were no accidents.” Is this novel arguing that fate and faith must go hand in hand? That we must fully believe in one if we are going to fully believe in the other? How would Owen answer this last question? John Wheelwright? Yourself?

At its core, this book is about a friendship: a best-friend, coming-of-age relationship between two boys. John, our narrator, comes from an old New England family of wealth and distinction, while Owen, our hero, comes from a working-class background—his family is “descended from later immigrants; they were Boston Irish” (page 21). Talk about the economic influences at work in this novel; discuss the rich-and-poor (or haves-and-have-nots) quality of the book. Would this story work as well as it does—would it be as compelling, as moving, as powerful—if Johnny and Owen came from the same socioeconomic class?

“Yankees believe in closed doors,” notes John on page 138. What does he mean? And what did reading this novel teach you about small town life in New England, or about “traditional” culture in New England as it’s commonly understood?

In Chapter 4 (“The Little Lord Jesus”)—and at other points throughout the novel—Owen clearly does or says (or reacts to) certain things in a particularly Christ-like way. Is this novel—or its narrator—asking us to see Owen as the Second Coming? Or are we actually being warned not to see him thus?

On page 371, over the course of a few paragraphs, we learn how many Americans were stationed in Vietnam on New Year’s Eve in 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, and 1967. As the novel progresses we ultimately learn why John is so focused on such facts and figures—but what did you learn specifically from A Prayer for Owen Meany about America’s involvement in Vietnam?

Diary entries—one’s musings, wanderings, predictions, confessions, and dreams, all of them recorded dutifully in a private journal—play a crucial part in this novel. Talk about the links that exist between diary entries and memories. Couldn’t all of this novel be read, and understood, as a prolonged back-and-forth—a dialogue, an exchange—between John Wheelwright’s bygone memories and his present-day diary entries? As John laments on page 392: “There’s nothing in the news that’s worth remembering. Why, then, do I have such a hard time forgetting it?” How would you, as a reader, answer this rhetorical question?

Is A Prayer for Owen Meany a work of magical realism? Why do or don’t you think so?