In these final two posts, I will be exploring how the authors of the two novels I have read this summer use elements that Professor Foster discusses in his book. This specific post will discuss how John Irving uses the importance of location and geography in his book; a topic which Professor Foster devotes the entirety of Chapter 19 to.
Most of A Prayer for Owen Meany is set in a small town in New Hampshire called Gravesend. It is a small town where the same families have lived there since before the nation was founded. The Meany family seems to be the only outlier in town - descendants of much more recent immigrants; a family who has not lived in Gravesend for generations. A more "working class" family, the Meanys always seemed to live much further outside of town than Johnny's "aristocratic" family, the Wheelwrights, did. The location of the Meanys' house also reflects their social status as well. Mr. and Mrs. Meany never seem to interact that much with the rest of the Gravesend community. The Meanys, especially Owen, are also excluded from another location for most of the book: Sawyer Depot. Sawyer Depot was the home of Johnny's rowdy cousins and his traditional aunt and uncle. It was also where the Wheelwrights would all gather together for Christmas and other vacations. Irving portrays it as a very luxurious, aristocratic place compared to Gravesend. Owen was never invited to Sawyer Depot, although he longed to go. Johnny always told him it was because of his concern for Owen's safety, that his cousins would demolish him in their violent games. Owen suspected that Johnny simply didn't want Owen to go at all, that Owen would embarrass him in some way. Even though he never went to the exclusive land of Sawyer Depot during his childhood, Owen and Johnny did go once they were older. Owen had expected it to look like Johnny had always described it when they were kids, but he was surprisingly disenchanted. It was a house by a lake with a boat house and boats. It was not the world that he had dreamed of visiting for so long; it was beautiful but it wasn't nearly as wonderful now that the cousins had grown up (he and Hester were actually in a relationship)- the sense of action and excitement that was there when they were kids was gone. It wasn't just that it was a different kind of place without the images of childhood mayhem, but it was also that the sense of exclusion or being forbidden to come to Sawyer Depot was gone; Johnny had taken him there and Hester's parents had been very civil, if not outright kind, towards him (they were not on the best terms with Hester, their daughter).
Another incredibly important place in A Prayer for Owen Meany is where Owen dies. Owen has two visions concerning his death: one when playing the role of the Ghost of Christmas Future, he sees his gravestone with the date of his death on it, the other is a dream that he has frequently describing how he dies- in a sunny, hot land with palm trees where he is surrounded by nuns after having saved a group of Asian children. Owen is not told expressly where, but with the context of the 1960s in America and all of the global events associated with that era (the Vietnam War), Owen logically assumes that he will die in Vietnam and so does everything in his power to get there and make sure that Johnny, who is a part of his dream, does not (particularly as the death toll rises in Vietnam). Owen feels he must go to Vietnam and not avoid his death because he claims that it is what God wants him to do. It turns out that Owen was wrong; he doesn't die in Vietnam and he doesn't spare Johnny the sight of his death. It happens in a place that today is one of the more observed places for violence such as this in the world: an airport. Owen thought he would die in battle, a war hero. He did die a war hero by saving those children and preventing the grenade explosion from causing more deaths than just one, but it wasn't where he thought it was going to be. It wasn't across the globe in a wild and terrifying place, it was across the United States. He wasn't killed by a foreign enemy, a classic "bad guy"; he was killed by a very sick teenager whose brother's body Owen had just escorted home. The location of his death doesn't allow Owen the almost stereotypical war hero's death, but it allows him a hero's death that has a profound effect on audiences today because of all of the security measures taken to prevent such a terrible attack from happening.
Professor Foster writes that geography allows for the character's words, actions, and thoughts to gain contextual relevance and meaning that is unique to the location where the novel or even the scene is set. John Irving uses this a lot in his novel, A Prayer for Owen Meany, particularly in reference to Gravesend, Sawyer Depot, and the place of Owen's death.
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