A Prayer For Owen Meany Fate Analysis
Fate has been questioned since the beginning of time and whether humans have control over their destiny, or a higher power decides. In today’s society of medical and technological innovations the accepted attitude is that of free-will: that humans make their own destiny. In A Prayer for Owen Meany, Irving uses the motif hands, Owen’s fate, and its effect on Johnny to influence the reader’s view in the argument of pre-determined fate vs. free-will. In a world moving away from religion and pre-determined fate, Irving implores the reader to question how much control they truly have. To mold one's own fate is to use the hands of free will. Irving repeats the motif of the removal of hands to symbolize the loss of free will through the armless totem,
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I AM AN INSTRUMENT OF GOD” (87). Owen believes that because of what has happened with the foul ball, like the armadillo, he can no longer …show more content…
When Owen first comes up with the idea that he is an instrument of God, most characters like John, Dan, and Hester count it as Owen trying to cope with what he had done. As the novel progresses, Irving provides miraculous evidence to these doubters to sway their view on the idea of their own free will and eventually shatter the idea entirely with Owen’s pre-destined demise. Their change in belief provides even more reason for the reader to doubt their view of their control of their fate. Owen is the biggest embodiment of predetermined fate and his “crazy” idea that he is an instrument of God becomes believable as he fulfills his “dream” and even knows his date of death. Irving gives these beliefs little validity until they come true as Owen believes he learns his fate through a dream and the day it will happen through a vision when he is running a fever. The fact that Owen saw his name on a grave in a play about death, while sick with a fever is the very reason Dan (and the reader) brush off Owen’s vision as just a fever dream of excitement (245).This seems preposterous as fate and a vision of it have very little validation at this point in the novel, especially in today’s time of moving away from religion towards free-will. Johnny shares the reader's disbelief in Owen’s “contact” with a higher power
I AM AN INSTRUMENT OF GOD” (87). Owen believes that because of what has happened with the foul ball, like the armadillo, he can no longer …show more content…
When Owen first comes up with the idea that he is an instrument of God, most characters like John, Dan, and Hester count it as Owen trying to cope with what he had done. As the novel progresses, Irving provides miraculous evidence to these doubters to sway their view on the idea of their own free will and eventually shatter the idea entirely with Owen’s pre-destined demise. Their change in belief provides even more reason for the reader to doubt their view of their control of their fate. Owen is the biggest embodiment of predetermined fate and his “crazy” idea that he is an instrument of God becomes believable as he fulfills his “dream” and even knows his date of death. Irving gives these beliefs little validity until they come true as Owen believes he learns his fate through a dream and the day it will happen through a vision when he is running a fever. The fact that Owen saw his name on a grave in a play about death, while sick with a fever is the very reason Dan (and the reader) brush off Owen’s vision as just a fever dream of excitement (245).This seems preposterous as fate and a vision of it have very little validation at this point in the novel, especially in today’s time of moving away from religion towards free-will. Johnny shares the reader's disbelief in Owen’s “contact” with a higher power