Owen Brennan

To the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor If this be known to you and your allowance We then have done you bold and saucy wrongs” Through the use of the word “lascivious”, Othello as a black man is portrayed as having an insatiable lust for sex and likely perversion, a framing designed to fuel the father’s worst possible fantasies. In this presentation, Brabantio has had his daughter abducted by a black man, taken against her will or perhaps as a result of some dark magic employed by Othello. As…

In reality, how often will somebody encounter a situation where everything worked out exactly how they expected it to? In John Irving’s novel, A Prayer for Owen Meany, the main character, Johnny Wheelwright, references a quote from Thomas Hardy that answers this question: “Nothing bears out in practice what it promises incipiently”. To put it another way, this quote implies that in actuality, things will not usually work out how someone might initially expect it to. The reader can see this motif…

Anyone who knows me is aware of the fact that I have an enchantment with strong women. I 'm not sure why exactly, but maybe my background and the fact that I used to outwardly acquiesce so easily is part of the reason why I am fiercely supportive of women who follow their passions no matter the obstacles in their way. Add that to my fascination with history, and it was no suprirse that I found FlyGirls and Hilary Prentice. Hilary is the producer of this "work in progress," and earlier this…

Afrofuturism is an idea that situates concepts of spirituality and Afrocentrism in a literary setting. This literary setting usually has a scientific undertone. It is an idea that destabilizes the unfavorable lens of racial bias through which the African-American is viewed. It aims to provide solutions through literary means to the problems faced by blacks in a Western world. Afrofuturism can be expressed through various art forms. One very innovative mode of expressing afrofuturism is through…

crippled Tiny Tim, and Edgar Allen Poe uses missing mental faculties in many narrators such as in The Tell Tale Heart. Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany uses un-whole or partial people in a variety of ways. Spiritual, emotional and physical disparity all present themselves throughout the novel through characters, occurrences and actions. One of the main protagonists, Owen Meany, suffers from a physical…

Kyle Kennedy Nordsiek Honors American Literature 12 October 2015 Expectations Versus Reality in A Prayer for Owen Meany Throughout A Prayer for Owen Meany, events often do not play out as the characters originally intended or predicted. This motif – that “nothing bears out in practice what it promises incipiently” – is one of the most important motifs in the novel, and it is realized through several major events. Three components of the book are significant examples of this motif: Johnny’s…

for Owen Meany, tells the story of Johnny Wheelwright, a boy growing up in Gravesend, New Hampshire, struggling with identity and faith. But one cannot tell the story of Johnny Wheelwright without including Owen Meany, the tiny, dwarflike boy who is the only reason Johnny believes in God. Owen is a major spiritual character and his actions have direct correlations with those of Johnny’s. Throughout his life, Johnny’s views and feelings are constantly changing. The motif in A Prayer for Owen…

For Owen Meany, John Irving delves into the fundamentals of faith through his narrator, Johnny Wheelwright, and Johnny’s best friend Owen Meany. Johnny and Owen are best friends as they grow up in Gravesend. Owen and Johnny spend nearly every waking minute with each other, often at Johnny’s grandmother’s house. During one of their many childhood sleepovers, Owen comes down with a fever. After Owen wakes Johnny up, Johnny sends him down the hall to his mother’s room. Johnny’s mother adores Owen…

Throughout the novel A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving writes a story about two boys growing up and learning the works of the world. The protagonist, John Wheelwright, is narrating the book about his life as an adult and sharing details about his childhood. In his childhood, he writes about his closest companion, Owen Meany. Owen leads John to become an anti-American, pessimistic, all girls private school teacher in Canada. As John is going through college and Owen is serving the Vietnam war…

God’s Instrument After years of typing away on his antique typewriter for hours on end, the Oscar winning storyteller John Irving triumphantly finished his seventh novel A Prayer For Owen Meany in 1989. The emotional tugging that the novel forces upon its audience made it one of the most read novels of the 20th century (McCarthy 2). This humorous yet heart wrenching tale tells of an unlikely friendship between two boys just before the Vietnam era. As a time full of war, death, and lost hope;…