Analysis Of A Prayer For Owen Meany

A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving, tells the story of a boy named Owen Meany, whose miraculous life and abilities inspire the people around him, as told by his best friend, John Wheelwright. Love in Owen Meany takes multiple forms, and those forms grow and evolve throughout the story. Caring relationships existed between Owen and Dan Needham, Tabby Wheelwright, and Harriet Wheelwright, who acted as father, mother, and grandmother figures to Owen, respectively. Hester Eastman was the romantic interest of Owen, and he was the only boy she ever loved. But the book is narrated by John, and because John is his best friend and -- in a sense -- soulmate, we see Owen’s love for others (and others’ love for Owen) through the eyes of the person he loved most.

Owen, as both an apology and an expression of sentiment, gives John his prized baseball cards, and in turn, John gives his stuffed armadillo to Owen. Although the message was implicit in their exchange, an outright verbalization of their feelings was not reached at this point; since they were only eleven, this can be attributed to a certain emotional immaturity.
Later in the book (after they’ve grown up a bit), however, they are more forthright with their sentiment. Just before Owen cuts off John’s finger so that he won’t be drafted in the Vietnam war -- itself a grand gesture of trust, for John to allow it -- he tells his friend, “I LOVE YOU. NOTHING BAD IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO YOU -- TRUST ME” (509). Previously, there were numerous instances in which one told the other that he was his best friend; but telling someone you love them is a deeper commitment -- especially in the context of John and Owen’s