A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving through a Jungian Archetypal Lens
Carl Jung was a Swiss psychologist and psychiatrist who developed many theories concerning the unconscious mind. Jung’s theories state that the unconscious part of a human’s psyche has two different layers, the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious. The personal unconscious is unique to every individual; however, the collective unconscious “is inborn.” (Carl Jung, Four Archetypes, 3) The collective unconscious is present in everyone’s psyche, and it contains archetypes which are “those psychic contents which have not yet been submitted to conscious elaboration” (Jung, Archetypes, 5); they are templates of thought that have been inherited through the collective unconscious. Jung has defined many different archetypes such as the archetype of the mother, the archetype of the hero, the archetype of the shadow, etc. These Jungian archetypes are often projected by the collective unconscious onto others. If the novel A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving is examined through a Jungian archetypal lens it is possible to discern different archetypes projected by the protagonist’s unconscious self to illustrate the effects of the collective unconscious on character and plot analysis.
Tabitha Wheelwright embodies the archetype of the mother. Which shows us how with reflection, John sees her with a divine quality; he mythologizes her. Jung’s theory states that:
“Parents are early major carriers of projection, and children unconsciously project omnipotence and omniscience onto them. These are what Jung called archetypal projections. The parents become gods, invested with powers that people have attributed to the divine. ‘Daddy can do anything! He’s the str...
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...f it is not accepted first.
Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving is one of the many novels that can be analysed through a Jungian archetypal lens to show how the unconscious projection of archetypal images affects how a person views others people's actions and their behaviours. In this novel the narrator John Wheelwright projects different archetypes onto different people dependant on their role in his life. This shows us how the novel A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving is not objective because as a reader, you see all events and characters though John’s eyes. Everything that you read is tainted by the archetypal images John’s unconscious self which are being projected onto different characters and situations. This leads the reader to the question of how does one know that the story of Owen Meany is true, and that all the characters are portrayed truthfully.
In literature of significant standing, no act of violence is perpetrated without reason. For a story to be legitimate in the area of fine literature violence cannot be used in a wanton manner. In John Irving’s modern classic, A Prayer for Owen Meany the audience is faced with multiple scenes of strong violence but violence is never used without reason. All of the violent acts depicted in the novel are totally necessary for the characters and the plot to develop. This plot-required violence can be seen in the novel’s first chapter when Owen accidentally kills John’s mother and in the novel’s last chapter when John relates Owen’s grotesque, while heroic, death to the audience. The violence that is shown in this novel is used in such a calculated manner that it leaves a great impression on the audience.
Touching, intriguing, depressing, these are all words that would describe the book A Prayer for Owen Meany. This story shows those characteristics by how showing how one’s life can change for better and worse, by having a good friend. One of the main characters in this book is a man by the name of John Wheelwright. John is led to religious faith by the life of his best friend Owen Meany. Owen believes in fate and he has visions of what the future holds.
In John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving explores how difficult it can be to accept one’s destiny. Images of armlessness often are used to demonstrate the frustration that people may feel when they find that they cannot change what destiny holds for them. At the opening of the novel, Watahantowet is introduced. Watahantowet lived in Gravesend during the period of time of the British colonists settling in New England, when Native Americans were fighting to protect the land. The novel’s narrator, John Wheelwright, describes the totem pole of Watahantowet as being an armless man, which the first instance in which images of armlessness are used to demonstrate helplessness. The helplessness of Watahantowet is reflected in the struggles
Furthermore, Campbell explained such patterns by using Carl Jung's theory of the collective unconscious, which he was strongly influenced with. Psychological organs that developed through the evolution, is the idea Jung gave of archetypes (Jung 81). To him they are recurring patterns, images and ideas which all humans inherited in their unconsciousness (Volgar 23). In addition, Campbell described his theory as a reoccurring cycle of pattern consisting of three phases: Departure, Initiation and Return, which he calls The Monomyth (Campbell 28), a deep inner journey of transformation that every hero must go through in order to grow (Voytilla vii).
Some may argue that the way Irving portrays faith and predestination through Owen is outlandish. The situations the characters find themselves in may seem unbelievable to life in the twenty-first century. However, it is valid to say that the “weirdly ridiculous yet realistic” (Booklist) scenes of the novel grab the readers’ attention and immerse them deeper into the friendship they’ve grown to love. For example, Owen, swaddled as the baby Jesus in the Wiggins Christmas pageant, is sure to leave readers smiling. Likewise, Owen’s heroic death with his best friend by his side pulls at the heart strings of the audience, leaving them in tears. The unconventional scenes of Irving’s masterpiece exemplifies the amazing bond of the characters and leaves the readers engaged in amusement and
The novel Nineteen Minutes is written by Jodi Picoult’s novel, a remarkable story about bullying. It takes place in a town called Sterling where a school shooting had taken place. The main character is a boy named Peter, who has been bullied his whole life, leading him to make an senseless decision. The author uses the theory archetypal, to define the anti-hero character, Peter Houghton. This theory was created by the psychologist, Carl Gustav Jung. He used the concept of archetype in his theory of the human psyche. In the novel, the theory is shown, through Peter Houghton’s discovery of his shadow; our dark side, his change in behaviour as well as his his suppressed unconscious memories.
Throughout the poem, the narrator the shadow animus, and persona of both character’s are discussed. How Jenny constructs her shadow and animus is being influenced by the archetypes that the narrator is teaching her. Yet, the shadow of the narrator does not stop him or her from doing this. On the other hand, the anima or the animus of the narrator seeks to protect Jenny’s innocent persona. However, the narrator is in conflict with Jenny’s use of projection uses this as a way to project onto her. Nevertheless, the relationship between these characters reflect a great portion of the Jungian
...ade; one major decision being made by Owen, a decision that in essence is essentially the future of his life. Owen must decide his future path, whether to accept his destiny or reject it. Seeing as Owen believes that he has been put on a mission by God, to reject his destiny would be a direct rejection of his faith; a rejection of God. Owen decides to accept his destiny and embrace what he believes is his purpose on earth. This gives Owen a type of peace and trust in all aspects of life. As John states in the novel “Owen Meany could manifest a certain calmness that I had never quite liked" Irving wants to demonstrate that Owen is a man who knows exactly what his purpose in life is, what he has complete control over it and his destiny, this is something that frightens John, as he believes that Owen is on another plane of existence to himself and everyone around him,
Freud begins to create the map of mental life through the ideas of the ego, the id, and the superego. The ego, or consciousness, is the manner in which a person first realizes tha...
When this story is viewed through Sigmund Freud’s “psychoanalytic lens” the novel reveals itself as much more than just another gory war novel. According to Sigmund Freud psychology there are three parts of the mind that control a person’s actions which are the id, ego, and superego. Psychoanalysis states that there are three parts of the human mind, both conscious and subconscious, that control a person’s actions. The Id, ego, and
The thought of Freud has a total focus on an individual’s mind and how this internal struggle effects how humans interact within society. Freud argues that every human has three functional parts of their personality that exist within the mind itself: the id, super-ego and the ego. Thurschwell describes these three layers as how they relate to each other. The id is the deepest level of the unconscious, which is dominated by the pleasure principle and has no concept of time except for the present, demanding instant gratification of sexual and aggressive (Eros and Thanatos) urges. The superego originates through identification with the individuals parents, functioning as an internal censor witch represses the dangerous urges of the id. The ego starts as part of the id but is more sensible as it has knowledge of the outside world. Unlike the id, the ego is dominated by the instinct to protect oneself. Although these three layers cannot be physically mapped out in the mind they do show how Freud constantly focused on the internal mind...
Psychoanalysis is the method of psychological therapy originated by Sigmund Freud in which free association, dream interpretation, and analysis of resistance and transference are used to explore repressed or unconscious impulses, anxieties, and internal conflicts (“Psychoanalysis”). This transfers to analyzing writing in order to obtain a meaning behind the text. There are two types of people who read stories and articles. The first type attempts to understand the plot or topic while the second type reads to understand the meaning behind the text. Baldick is the second type who analyzes everything. Since his article, “Allure, Authority and Psychoanalysis” discusses the meaning behind everything that happens in Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” we can also examine “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” in the same manner.
Jung's analytical psychology can be divided into two parts: theory and practice. The focus of this prose will be on the former, which pertains to the structure of the psyche and the laws of psychic processes and phenomena and includes his theories of archetypes and the unconscious (Jacobi, 1942; Jung, von Franz, 1964). His practice involved the inclusion of his theory in therapy and consisted of four methods: association method, symptom analysis, anamnestic analysis, and analysis of the unconscious (Jacobi, 1942). The goal of all four of these methods was to reveal the patient's unconscious to themselves as well as the therapist. Jung found that one of the easiest and most effective ways of revealing a patient's unconscious was through the actions of archetypes in the patient's dreams (Jacobi, 1942). However, Carl Jung's idea of archetypes was not an entirely original one. Literature suggests Plato’s Forms, Kant’s Categories, Schopenhauer’s Prototypes, as well as Greek mythology and symbolism heavily influenced Jung.
Psychoanalytic criticism is a term used to describe how and why a person behaves. There are two different types of psychoanalytic criticisms which were developed by Freud and Jung. Freud’s archetypes are the most common in “The Tell Tale Heart.” Freud’s archetypes are displayed throughout “The Tell Tale Heart” by how the narrator shows Id, which is the most dominant, as he kills the old man, Superego, as he shows remorse, and planning to kill displaying Ego.
Neher, Andrew. (1996). Jung's theory of archetypes: a critiques. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 36, 61-92.