First Thoughts: Introduction

“I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice- not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother’s death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.” Pg.1

Starting off with the first sentence of A Prayer for Owen Meany, I did not know what to expect. I thought it was interesting to find that the narrator chose to use the word “doomed” when talking about Owen, and also interesting to hear how “he was the instrument of my mother’s death”, because the overall tone of this sentence, in my mind, was appreciative. While also reading about how this Owen Meany character was a very small person with an unusual voice, I became intrigued in how Owen would be developed as a character- what he would be like. So I kept reading.

Throughout the first chapter of this story, the author, John Irving, switched from giving background information on the narrator, Johnny, to telling stories of Owen and Johnny’s adventures together. It was kind of unexpected at first- I assumed the story would just be telling about Owen Meany, and his life, but instead it was more about Johnny’s life, with Owen as a side-note. As for the background, that part pretty much bored me. I did not consider it a very good start to the book, and I also found the information not very important. But I decided to give it a chance, and I’m glad I did.