59 pages • 1 hour read
John IrvingA Prayer for Owen Meany
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1989A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 6-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 6 Summary: “The Voice”
John recalls his grandmother acquiring her first television after Lydia’s death. Geraldine resigns upon having no one to read to. The television, then, becomes the focus of Harriet Wheelwright’s life—though partly to criticize its programs. Surprisingly for John, both she and Owen develop a love for Liberace, thanks to the television. John, finding Liberace tasteless, complaining about his grandmother’s newfound passion to Dan, but Dan argues it is harmless.
The time comes from Owen to apply to Gravesend Academy; he is easily admitted. Because the Meanys cannot afford Owen’s tuition, Harriet funds Owen’s education, as well as his uniforms and other needs. Though John is ensured admission because Dan is his stepfather, the Academy recommends he complete ninth grade at the public school, then repeat the grade at Gravesend Academy the following year. Owen insists he will do the same, not wanting to be separated from John. During Thanksgiving of their (first) ninth grade year—1954—John’s cousins visit, witnessing television for the first time. Noah and then Simon begin their tenures at Gravesend Academy, though the academics prove challenging for Noah. Hester attends Sawyer Depot public school, and John worries that he harbors romantic feelings for her.
John recalls Owen’s disgust for the Mary Magdalene statue on the playground of St. Michael’s parochial school. He attributes both this and Owen’s hatred of nuns as being byproducts of his disdain for Catholicism. Owen and Noah pelt the statue with chestnuts and dump tadpoles at its feet. They also spend time backstage during Dan’s performances, studying the audience in attempts to recreate those present at the baseball game the day John’s mother died.
In Toronto, adult John attends Palm Sunday services, recalling that Owen disliked Easter. After, John heads to the Bishop Strachan School, where he is a faculty member. There he has lunch and chats with the headmistress, noting that his grandmother would have liked her.
John recalls turning 16. Owen takes a driving test with the chief of police, while Dan teaches John to drive. The boys spend the summer driving to the beach’s boardwalk, and Owen begins work at the Meanys’ granite quarry as a stonecutter. Owen becomes stocky and muscular. At Gravesend Academy, Owen becomes renowned for his wit, earning the nickname “Sarcasm Master.” He writes an opinion column for the school’s newspaper—The Grave—under the byline “The Voice.” Owen is adamant that all his pieces appear in capital letters; he insists “The Voice” will become “a kind of institution” at the Academy (294), and this proves true. Owen’s sometimes sarcastic criticisms point out the flaws in the Academy, and many faculty and administrators find them threatening. “The Voice” even becomes integral in the search for a new headmaster, when the existing one announces his plans to retire. Candidates meet with Owen for interviews, which Owen then reports on via “The Voice.” When no suitable candidate is found, the headmaster agrees to delay his retirement.
During that first year, Owen invites Hester to be his date for the annual Senior Dance. Afterward, he drives her back to John’s grandmother’s house, where they spend the rest of the night watching a movie on television. When Owen cannot recall the name of the movie, Noah and Simon are certain it is because, in truth, Owen and Hester were having sex. When the school year ends, Owen returns to the quarry to work while John gives campus tours for the admissions office. They both date, though Owen insists that each date must always be a double date.
When school resumes in the fall of 1959, Owen continues to write “The Voice.” He gives advice to the headmaster search committee and argues about the injustice of forcing non-Catholics to eat fish on Friday (a column that results in a successful petition to offer additional menu items on Fridays). He enjoys club sports but is never terribly successful at any of them due to his small size.
As the spring term arrives, the Academy’s minister unexpectedly passes away. Rev. Merrill of the Congregationalist church becomes the interim minister, which means he must also teach religion courses. Owen enjoys sparring with others in defense of Rev. Merrill’s theological views, and Merrill become the permanent replacement after “The Voice” recommends him.
John recalls Owen helping him with the literature assigned during their years at the Academy, in particular Tess of the d’Urbervilles. As an adult, teaching the text never fails to make John think of Owen. The Academy hires a new headmaster named Randolph White, who previously served as headmaster of a private school in Chicago. Owen immediately disapproves of him, not only because he refuses to be interviewed by “The Voice,” but because Owen is certain Mr. White, as a former businessman, will prioritize fundraising over education. “The Voice” criticizes many of the changes the new headmaster makes, including the construction of a new home for him and his wife at the center of campus and the decision to move the morning assemblies from Hurd Church to the Great Hall in the Main Academy Building. The change that most impacts Owen, however, is when Mr. White dismisses the newspaper’s faculty advisor and places himself as its advisor instead.
When Owen and John turn 18 in the summer of 1960, they register for the draft. Owen spends time perfecting his basketball shot by having John lift him toward the hoop. When school resumes, Owen devises how to make fake identification cards using draft cards and sells them to students who wish to purchase alcohol. When the 1960 election arrives, Owen is a big proponent of John F. Kennedy, despite Kennedy’s Catholicism.
In Toronto, adult John reminisces as his students read The Great Gatsby. It is 1987, and the Iran-Contra affair is underway in the United States. John is highly critical of Reagan but resists the temptation to discuss this further with the Canadians. Again and again, he imagines what Owen’s response would be.
Chapter 7 Summary: “The Dream”
During their senior year at Gravesend Academy, Owen insists that God used him as “an instrument” in Tabby’s death. John finds Owen’s obsession with being an instrument of God absurd.
They apply for college. John expects to attend the state university, but knowing Owen will likely be admitted to Yale or Harvard, does not expect Owen to also do so. They partake in the common practice among seniors of traveling by train to Boston to use falsified draft cards to purchase alcohol and attend burlesque shows. Owen staunchly objects to both practices, though John successfully drags him at least once to a club called “Old Freddy’s.” On one such trip to Boston, Owen steers John to a storefront and points to its name; from his pocket Owen pulls a clothing tag bearing the same name. He has removed it from Tabby’s red dress—the dress she insisted could not be returned because its store of origin was destroyed by fire. Owen insists that they question the shop owner, who is adamant no such fire ever occurred. Owen produces a photo of Tabby, whom the store owner immediately recognizes, insisting Tabby purchased the dress for singing performances she gave at a supper club. He explains that Tabby, under the name “The Lady in Red,” performed weekly with a pianist known as “Big Black Buster.” John and Owen leave, and Owen announces that their next stop is a visit to Tabby’s former voice teacher: Graham McSwiney.
Owen has arranged a session with McSwiney to correct his voice. McSwiney deduces that the constant movement of Owen’s larynx is the cause and that this can only be corrected surgically. McSwiney grows suspicious as they talk, and the boys confess the true reason for their visit. When Owen shows McSwiney the photo of Tabby, he too recognizes her as “The Lady in Red.” He gives them the name of the supper club where Tabby performed but has no information concerning Big Black Buster. He deduces that John is searching for his father but cannot offer any additional leads.
In Toronto, John recalls a series of New Year’s Eves he and Owen spent with Hester—each night ended with Hester vomiting from too much rum and Coke. He charts the increase in American troops stationed in Vietnam as the conflict escalates from 1960 onward. As he reads more about the Iran-Contra affair, he compares the response by Americans to their response to the Vietnam conflict. He recalls, too, reading (much later) a diary entry Owen had written on January 1, 1962, in which Owen claims to know the date of his death and speaks of his certainty that he is an instrument of God.
As their final semester at Gravesend Academy approaches, Owen is taunted by a fellow student who insists Owen’s beloved President Kennedy is engaged in an affair with Marilyn Monroe. The student, the son of a Hollywood film star, goes so far as to have his mother confirm this rumor when she visits her son at the Academy. During their conversation, she makes fun of Owen, ridiculing him for his naivete and his insistence that he himself would never engage in such an affair with a film star were he provided the opportunity. Owen retorts by jokingly asking the mother if she would have an affair with him if he were to ask. The mother reports this conversation to the headmaster, insisting Owen propositioned her. Though the headmaster pushes for Owen’s expulsion, Dan and other faculty convince him to place Owen on disciplinary probation instead. Though Owen is spared expulsion, he is angry and refuses to write “The Voice” ever again. He is also forced to attend sessions with the school psychiatrist, a man Owen quickly grows to loathe. When Owen finds the psychiatrist parked in the place outside of the dining hall where Owen usually parks prior to his job as a server in the dining hall, he enlists the help of the boys’ basketball team to pull off a prank: They move the psychiatrist’s car from its parking space and place it on the stage in the Grand Hall. What results is a comedic attempt by the headmaster and faculty to remove the car from the Grand Hall before the morning meeting begins. Though he has no proof, Headmaster White is certain Owen is responsible.
Later in the term, a boy is caught using a fake draft card to purchase alcohol and later reveals Owen to be the card’s producer. The headmaster brokers an agreement with the chief of police, who agrees no criminal actions will be taken if all the false draft cards are turned over to him. This is the fuel the headmaster needs to finally secure Owen’s expulsion. Before this can take place, however, Owen disappears. He phones Harriet to thank her for being his benefactor and to apologize. Dan and John phone both the Meany household and Hester, but no one can locate Owen. When John notices that the Mary Magdalene statue is missing from St. Michael’s as he and Dan search for Owen, John is certain that Owen is the cause of its disappearance. He and Dan find the statue on stage in the Great Hall, its arms and head removed in a kind of symbolic gesture, the entire statue welded to the stage to prevent easy removal.
Dan and John rush to Rev. Merrill’s office to ask him the name of the head priest of St. Michael’s, hoping to speak with the priest directly. However, they find Owen there, waiting for Rev. Merrill himself. None of them explain to Merrill what has happened, but Owen requests Merrill say a prayer for him at the morning meeting. Owen begins to cry, and Merrill asks him if he has had the dream again. John will not know until later to what Merrill is referring.
The narration shifts ahead briefly to reveal that Headmaster White will write to Harvard and Yale to encourage both to withdraw their acceptance of Owen. White will later be terminated as headmaster and the graduating class, at commencement, will defend Owen and denounce the Academy’s failure to award him a diploma. The University of New Hampshire withdraws the scholarship offered to Owen, but both Yale and Harvard compromise by delaying Owen’s admission by one year. Both institutions require Owen to seek employment during that time, though Harvard stipulates that employment must be in service of the Catholic church. In the end, Owen opts to attend the state university with John after securing a new scholarship by joining the ROTC.
That morning, Rev. Merrill conducts the morning meeting as usual, pretending the statue is not present. White makes a scene after attempting to lift the statue from the stage, but the students’ only response is to ask which hymn they are to sing. After the singing, Merrill asks for silent prayers for Owen. White soon tries to end the prayer, but Merrill remains quiet, and it is only after White storms out that Merrill speaks “amen.”
John reveals that he later learns—upon reading Owen’s diary—that at that time Owen had learned, via his dream, the means of his death and that he would become an Army lieutenant.
Chapters 6-7 Analysis
This section focuses on a significant turning point in Owen’s life: his attendance at and subsequent expulsion from Gravesend Academy. His popularity among both faculty and his peers cannot be overstated and, as is characteristic of Owen, begins with his prediction that his newspaper column will become an institution at the Academy. The titles of both the column and paper are fraught with symbolism and double meaning: In one respect, titling the column “The Voice” indicates that its author is expressing his unique opinion. Importantly, “The Voice” becomes a kind of alter ego for Owen. Through the column, Owen adopts a persona through which he shapes the procedures and practices at the Academy. Finally, “The Voice” is a direct allusion to Owen’s physical voice—one of his defining features. The paper’s title, The Grave, is clearly derived from the name of the school, but Owen becoming “The Voice” of The Grave foreshadows his death and solidifies his role as a Christlike figure.
Headmaster White becomes a significant antagonist during this period, determined to remove Owen from the Academy. Owen unabashedly performs pranks at White’s expense, and his fellow students—and Dan Needham—offer their protection. Owen’s pranks are not presented as being ill-intended, but instead in the spirit of lighthearted high school rebellion. They serve to parallel the rebellion and protests that will later sweep the nation as the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam conflict heats up.
The dream that predicts Owen’s death begins in earnest around the same time of his expulsion from Gravesend Academy. While he accepts the decision with dignity, it is certainly devastating. Owen prides himself in his academic prowess and is grateful to Harriet Wheelwright for providing him with the opportunity to attend. Indeed, because Tabby Wheelwright was adamant that Owen would one day attend the prestigious school, Owen regards his excelling academically as something he performs in homage to her as well. Given that his dream and his expulsion coincide, one might speculate regarding the degree to which Owen knowingly sabotages his Gravesend education, actively taking steps to ensure he is expelled in order to aid his death in combat in coming to fruition. This brings the focus, thematically, to Destiny and Human Agency. Specifically, it suggests that while Owen feels destined to die in combat, his own agency is still necessary to bring his fate to its predestined conclusion.
While Rev. Merrill is initially a likely antagonist for Owen due to their conflicting theological views, Merrill instead becomes a confidant with whom Owen shares his recurring dream. Though Merrill disagrees with Owen’s assessment of the dream, he becomes an unexpected ally when he stands up to Headmaster White. Owen’s request that Merrill pray for him is the plot point from which the novel’s title is derived. On its surface, Owen’s request appears to his peers as stemming directly from his expulsion—he may be requesting forgiveness for his ill deeds or for his wellbeing, given that he will not receive the prestigious diploma for which he has worked so hard. In retrospect, John likely realizes that Owen’s request for prayer extends to a wider scope—now certain that he will die an untimely death, Owen may have this in mind when he makes this request of Rev. Merrill.
This section reveals secrets about Tabby Wheelwright that neither John nor Owen predicted: She performed in a nightclub under the stage name “The Lady in Red.” Owen’s actively seeking out information about Tabby’s past is an attempt to discover the identity of John’s father. John often notes that, by the time he is a teen, Owen desires this information much more than John does; still, the information they receive lays the groundwork for Owen’s insistence that God will one day reveal John’s father to him.
These chapters further highlight Owen’s impact on the people who are closest to him. Adult John’s disdain for the United States remains, 20 years after the height of the Vietnam conflict. He is both angry at the way in which Ronald Reagan appears to be involved in untoward political activity and at what John perceives to be the United States’ apathy about Reagan’s lack of ethics. He frequently considers what Owen would have said (were he alive) about such current events—evidence that Owen continues to play a significant role in John’s life and that he has permanently shaped John’s political views. John’s cousin Hester also becomes an important figure in Owen’s life while he is at Gravesend. John and Hester’s brothers debate whether the relationship between the two is a sexual one; regardless, the rest of the novel will reveal the lasting impact Owen has on Hester’s life.
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