From technology, to war, to his father, John Irving based his novel, A Prayer for Owen Meany, on different aspects of his life. He used this technique to symbolically introduce the reader to his personal life, as well as to assist the reader in creating a stronger connection to the characters.
             John Irving was born in Exeter New Hampshire in 1942. John never knew his biological father, however later in life he was told that his father was a war hero. His mother remarried, and his step-father legally adopted him, giving John the father he longed for. John was diagnosed with a reading disability, but he persevered and successfully read numerous classical novels throughout his adolescence. He attended highschool at the Phillips Exeter Academy, where he graduated at the age of nineteen. He then attended the New Hampshire University for three years. This was followed by studies at the University of Vienna in Austria. After this, he married his first wife in Greece and together they had two sons. Throughout his life Irving published many novels despite his dyslexia, such as Setting Free the Bears, The World According to Garp, and Cider House Rules. After the publication of his first novel, Irving attended the University of Iowa where he graduated with his MFA. John's marriage ended in 1981, following the beginning of his global fame however he remarried later in life and had a third son with his second wife.
             There a number of things in the novel A Prayer for Owen Meany that relate to the life of the author, John Irving. The first would be the name of the main character, John Wheelwright, who shares the same first name as the author. A second connection is that John Irving was raised in New Hampshire, which is also where a majority of the novel takes place. Another relation between the life of the author and the book is that both John Wheelwright and John Irving did not know their fathers. However, later in the novel,...