"A Prayer for Owen Meany"

In this post I will answer the following prompt: Is the appearance of characters in any way a factor in your novel? How?

Owen Meany was a very special person in John Irving's novel, A Prayer for Owen Meany. He not only is one of the two main characters of the novel, the other being his best friend, Johnny Wheelwright, but he is the most unique character in the novel and perhaps one of the most unique I have ever experienced in a novel. Owen's appearances are a major part of what makes him so unique and influential in the novel. He was tiny, barely reaching five feet tall, but it was his voice that would turn people's heads the most. Owen's voice was, as Johnny's mother's voice teacher, Graham McSwiney said, "in a permanent scream". This was not intentional on Owen's part, his Adam's Apple was stuck in this position, perhaps because of the amount of granite dust he was exposed to as a baby. The way Owen's voice is conveyed by Irving in the novel is through only capitol letters (also how Owen wrote his column for Gravesend Academy's student newspaper and how he tried to write in college). This contrast in the physical novel also contributes to the power of the appearance and sound of Owen Meany. Owen's unique physical characteristics set him apart from every other character in the novel, which, along with his intellectual and humorously serious personality, allowed him to be heard almost more than any other character, even Johnny, whose memories are the tool with which we can see Owen and the story of his short life and his relationship with Johnny. Owen's tiny physical features somehow drew people to him, making him very popular with people, particularly women. Johnny, on the other hand, was so "normal" that he seems to almost fade in Owen's enormous shadow of "extra-ordinariness". Owen's voice could repulse people, but it also had a hypnotic-like quality because it was so strange; allowing his extremely wise and occasionally religious thoughts to be heard by his audience (often Johnny, but sometimes a myriad of others, including priests and other adults). Stereotypically, Owen's abnormal appearance would render him a social outcast and the victim of many bullies. Although he was teased by his Sunday School class (including Johnny) and often slightly prejudiced against in Little League, Owen Meany was incredibly popular and influential in his small town of  Gravesend, New Hampshire and once he was a little older, never teased again. His unique physical appearance helped make him so special and helped him to make such a difference in Gravesend and be so influential on people, particularly Johnny.