Friday, January 29, 2010
B Bell Owen Meany- Grace and Emily Posted 1/29 due 2/5
A Prayer for Owen Meany is a classic example of a post modernism novel. Several characteristics of post modernism literature includes one's search for identity and truth, and the lack of a timeline which follows chronological order. Please give specific examples of how Owen Meany displays these aspects typical to post modernism.
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A Prayer for Owen Meany is a perfect example of post-modernist literature due to its display of pastiche, the loss of identity, and the concepts of signifier and signified.
Throughout the entire novel, John Wheelwright searches for his father and considers how his father’s existence and personality has shaped him, even though he has yet to meet him. He asserts that his identity falls in the discovery of his father, and until that happens, he does not know who he is. John admits that he looks for his father, not out of love and out of a need for security, but “out of the darkest curiosity- to be able to recognize, in myself, what evil I might be capable of” (252). He feels that whenever he has “evil” impulses of “lust,” it must be his father “asserting himself within me” (252). However, at the conclusion of the novel, when John discovers that his father is the apocryphally pious Rev. Lewis Merrill, he felt a “universal disappointment” in the “wholly anticlimactic, unsatisfying, and disagreeable news that the Rev. Lewis Merrill was my father” (543). At this point, John feels an absolute loss of his identity, and this pastiche compels him to look to other sources to identify in, such as his new found faith in God and his trust in Owen Meany.
Irving also uses the concepts of signifiers and signified. Throughout the novel, Owen continually attempts to find meaning in the events and objects around him. He interprets the foul ball to be what allowed him to become “GOD’S INSTRUMENT” (87) and the event that awakened his God-like mission. Furthermore, Owen has the “habit of collecting objects that he made (in his own way) RELIGIOUS” (270), such as the armadillo claws, which came to signify Owen’s sacrifice and regret in killing John’s mother, the dressmaker’s dummy, which signifies John’s mother and his adoration of her love, and Owen’s baseball cards, which symbolize the relationship and trust between John and Owen. Because Owen attempts to find meaning in everything, the concepts of the signifier and signified, along with the use of pastiche and the loss of identity, reinforce that A Prayer for Owen Meany is post-modernist literature.
The lack of chronological order is probably the strongest piece of evidence presented by Irving that "A Prayer for Owen Meany" is post modern. The narrator, John Wheelwright, presents the novel in fashion that jumps from Irving's present to Owen and John's past. Irving also uses the timeline to foreshadow Owen's fate and the truth behind John's family. Owen is used as a vehicle through which John finds his father as both Owen and John grow up. The most prominant quote that reveals Owen as Irving's tool includes Owen believing he "now knows four things...I know that I am God's instrument. I know when I am going to die..." (Irving 416). This is an example of the post modern trait of identity as Irving has Owen seeking this mission that he has been given by God to ultimately find his identity as a human being before death.
Hmm, rather difficult to follow Gary's explication, but here's my take on it:
We've always discussed Owen Meany's lack of a timeline, but I actually disagree - I believe that it has a, while convoluted, clear timeline. Though it switches from John the child to John the teacher, it is clear within a few sentences which John is speaking - nothing like "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man." Furthermore, John always gives us a reference point - he mentions a famous date, such as Kennedy's inauguration speech, or the fact that he was 10 around the time of the fateful baseball game. So, with a bit of perusal, the timeline becomes apparent - twisted out of shape, yes, but comprehendable. (As an aside, I am still a little confused as to the purpose of the "flashbacks" to John the Teacher, they do not seem to serve any purpose other than to establish that John is older and more mature - a fact that is easily accomplished by other comments, such as the introductory paragraph.
However, I very much agree that Owen Meany contains a "search for identity and truth," the entire novel is a search to finally discover what happened to Owen Meany. Of course, there are sub-searches: John's search for his father, Owen's conflict between humanity and divinity (this is actually the most meaning of the searches, just not the most apparent), and John the teacher's search for self-identity without the stable presence of Owen. (Hmm, I think I answered my own question there)
So, yes, Owen Meany exhibits the themes of a Post-Modernist work, but perhaps not exactly the literary strategies.
Owen's search for his father was a very post-modern search for truth:
“It wasn’t until she died- without a word to me concerning who my father was- that I felt I’d been cheated out of information I had a right to know…Even if my father’s identity and his story were painful to my mother- even if the relationship had been so sordid that any revelation of it would have shed a continuous, unfavorable light over both my parents- wasn’t my mother being selfish not to tell me anything about my father?” p. 12
John feels that discovering the identity of his father will help him recognize and define his own identity.
John (somewhat mistakenly) begins to confuse the lines between his own identity and his father's identity in his search for self:
“…Whenever I felt troubled by the way I felt…when I lusted…I thought of my father asserting himself within me..” P. 245
John, as most post-moderns, is searching for his identity.
The narrative, flitting between times, is undeniably post-modern in it's lack of chronology.
-Diana Heriford
Seeing how everyone has pretty much said everything, I'll still try to contribute something.
Johnny's search for his identity and the lack of a chronological timeline are both evident in this novel, thus making it post modern. The timeline of the story jumps back and forth between their elementary years, high school years, college years, and Johnny's present life in Canada. However, unlike most post modernist works like Catch- 22 and Slaughterhouse Five, A Prayer for Owen Meany has a more distinct timeline and isn't as hard to follow. It is easier to distinguish the different time periods. For example, whenever it jumps to the present, John Wheelwright always dates the "entry" and talks about President Reagan. Also his search for the truth aka finding his father was his search for his identity. He was under the assumption that by finding his father, he would find his identity. But in reality, he found his identity after the entire Owen Meany incident. His death helped defined who he was as a person. But he found out that he did not like who he was as a person.
The lack of chronological order in A Prayer For Owen Meany is probably the most evident hint of post-modernism. There is a search for identity going on in both Owen and John's lives. Owen, especially, is incredibly confused with his visions and supernatural experiences. He is conflicted with the possibility that he is an instrument of God's will. Throughout the story, he struggles to fulfill his role as divinity on Earth up to the point where he sacrifices himself to save children. Only by dying is Owen able to affirm his identity as a divine entity.
John's case is much less severe, but still very typical of post-modernism. Because he only spent his childhood with his mother, he knows very little of her, and he had never known his father. Lacking parents, John is incredibly confused over his self-identity. He feels that by seeking out his father, he may be able to learn more about himself. When he finds out that his father is Reverend Lewis Merrill, he is distraught and feels unaccomplished.
Owen Meany is most obviously a post-modernism work. This is evidenced by Owens quest throughout the entirety of the novel. He is constantly searching for who he is, what his purpose in life is. In other words, he truly is trying to find his identity. This full-length search for identity creates an impression of post-modernism throughout the entire novel.
Owen Meany reeks of post modernism through its gratuitous use of skepticism, a disjointed timeline, and the overarching themes of self identity and purpose. John is constantly looking for his identity against his foil, Owen, who has assumed his purpose and identity to be of a divine origin. Ironically, while searching for himself by locating his true father, John finds and immediately discards identity within the Reverend, who could be considered 'divine.' The doubt that surrounds politics, religion, purpose, and nearly every other object in Owen Meany gives a skeptic tone towards life in general to the novel.
Gary, outstanding comments about the pastiche and the interaction between the signified and the signifier!
Mary, lack of chronological order and the quest for identity in a hostile world are definitely post modernist traits.
David, appreciated your different take. However, if it is out of time sequence, it would still have a post-modernist touch even if the time line is still somewhat logical.
Diana - great job on showing us how the search for truth equals the search for the father.
Emily, you managed to clarify and expand upon the chronology and historical aspect of the novel.
A Prayer for Owen Meany, while out of chronological order, still maintains a sense of order. However, it is ordered the way it is because of how certain events relate to John. Throughout life, people clump memories together, breaking the order of real time, and, when looking back on one's life, a person does not remember everything chronologically. As shown by the countless instances of deviation from time-based order, A Prayer for Owen Meany exemplifies this thought-like way of telling a story. In a way, the entire novel is like an extended stream of consciousness, though not quite as scattered as per usual. But, despite the more structured state of the novel, it still contains many traits of the post-modernist stream of consciousness.
John displays characteristics typical to a post-modern work. John spends the majority of the novel searching for his father. He also feels that once he discovers the truth of who his father is, he will be able to blossom into his "true self." One truth will set another free. He relies very heavily on the knowledge of who his father might be, and he bases his own personality off of that. And the search for his father is accomplished in a very random way in the novel. The story opens with John as a much older man, and reminisces to the reader about his life with Owen and how he looked for the identity of his father. So it was obviously not done chronologically.
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