A Prayer For Owen Meany

A Great teacher is always someone that you can learn a lot from. He is someone who understands you and wants to share with you his lifetime’s worth of knowledge. He is kind and caring, maybe soft spoken but strong of mind and character. A Great teacher is always older, wiser and more experienced. He is a good influence on and patient with the apprentice. He is someone the apprentice can learn much from and in the end become a Great teacher himself. The Great Teacher is an archetype of a hero and is unmistakable throughout literature. The greatest classic example of this archetypical teacher-student partnership is Socrates teaches Plato who teaches Aristotle. All three are widely recognized as Great Teachers and great students. A well-known modern archetypical hero is Yoda from the movie trilogy, Star Wars. Yoda personifies the most noble ‘Great Teacher’ qualities.

In the novel ‘A Prayer for Owen Meany’, John Irving’s design was for Owen Meany’s and Johnny Wheelright’s association to be viewed as an uncharacteristic and anomalous Great Teacher – student relationship. This is a crucial part of the novel because it is the author’s intent for the reader to become aware of Owen as the second Christ figure at the climax.

. . .

View the whole essay, without interruption

It was then that he taught Santiago one of life’s simpler lessons. In the desert, the pair was approached by three armed tribesmen who demanded to know what they were doing there, and what they were carrying in their bags. ” (Irving, P615)

Irony is used to illustrate the symbiosis of Owen’s and Johnny’s relationship. As a result of their relationship, Johnny, the non-believer, becomes a minister. What one character lacks, the other has. Our expectation of a hero is not a high-voiced, short, baby-faced child. Johnny displays this attitude when they were studying a book in school and Johnny wasn’t interested in reading it. It does this not because it is evil, but so that we can, in addition to realizing our dreams, master the lessons we’ve learned as we’ve moved toward that dream” (Coelho, P133). Their roles in the Great teacher – apprentice relationship have been reversed. Owen Meany is seen throughout the novel as Johnny’s guiding figure and role model. Owen is rich in culture and religion, while John lacks these attributes. THAT WOULD BE A LITTLE HARDER – FOR BOTH OF US – BUT IT MIGHT TURN OUT TO BE USEFUL FOR YOU TO BE ABLE TO DO YOUR OWN WORK. The guiding figure represents Yang: the masculine and brighter character. He teaches Santiago about the path to fulfilling his personal legend and about trials he must endure along the journey. He learns about death and the significance of life in this test.

Approximate Word count = 1719
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Simply subscribe to view this paper, and 100,000 others.