Owen Meany is a very particular kid. The book follows him from his early childhood in Gravesend, New Hampshire to early adulthood. His purpose is conviction. To carry out his destiny and, eventually, give conviction to his friend and narrator John Wheelwright. "I am a Christian because of Owen Meany," said Wheelwright in the first sentence of the book. Not because Owen kills John's mother early in the book, but because of what happens after. Owen's self-proclamation as God's Instrument and his journey of faith.

Brianna: A Prayer for Owen Meany is not only impressive on the surface. John Irving utilizes many of the literary techniques seen in How To Read Literature Like a Professor to make his novel truly excellent.

Armlessness is a theme that gains different meanings throughout the book. Helplessness, sacrifice, loss. Imagine if someone had taken your arms. The sense of loss and helplessness you feel. Now imagine if God had taken your arms. Imagine that sacrifice you must have made and a different sense of helplessness.
"The Lady in Red" symbolic of both sin and freedom. The freedom. Freedom for Tabitha to sing, get away from a judgmental society. Yet displays her sin, her discontent in wearing it shows her own oral disappointment, for wearing the dress is her addressing her sin.

Ashley: The Bible
-Christ Figure

Owen as Jesus, shows sacrifice(his destiny and saving the children), resurrection (After they let him drown. "YOU WATCHED ME DROWN! I'M ALREADY DEAD.", Crucifixion (being expelled from school)
-Lost in Durham(Jerusalem)
-Tabby(New Testament)

-The Scarlet Letter
Red Dress->Scarlet Letter
Hester the Molester-> Hester
Pastor Merrill->Rev. Dimmesdale

Owen = hero following his fate.

Novel addresses idea of fate as something we can or cannot control.

Owen accepts/works toward fate.

This forces us as readers to consider our own place in the world not only today but also tomorrow.

Brianna: Another major theme in A Prayer for Owen Meany is the relationship between faith and doubt. The narrator, John Wheelwright, is constantly grappling with faith and doubt, while his best friend, Owen Meany, embodies faith. Owen has no doubt whatsoever about God’s role in his life, and is constantly showing this.

People with absolute faith intimidate John because John himself has so much doubt. Rev. Lewis Merrill is another character who is full of doubt, and he argues that “doubt is the essence of faith”. However, Owen thinks that Rev. Merrill has too much doubt.

The message in the novel is that faith and doubt can coexist. As mentioned in the book, faith, by definition, is believing in something without evidence that it exists. Therefore, there must be uncertainty in faith, otherwise it is not faith at all.