Posted by Ritch on June 11, 2002, at 10:46:36
In reply to What I found really interesting..., posted by mair on June 11, 2002, at 6:44:27
> I think it's kind of neat the way Owen doesn't know what his role is - just that he has one. A good part of the book is the development of his understanding of the forces happening to him and his attempt to control them. He cuts off Johnny's finger when Johnny starts cropping up in the dream. He keeps angling for a transfer to a combat unit because he can't figure out how he saves Asian children in Arizona. The author does a good job of demonstrating that this is a gradual process with Owen, although maybe fueled by his parents admission to him that he was a virgin birth. - They really get trashed for this, as well they might, but how would things have been different if they had never told him that?
Yes, that is a good question. I think the author might say that his life wouldn't have been any better off. If he had lived longer would it have had any more meaning to it? Your comment made me look back into the book just before the funeral when Johnny finds out who his father was (Pastor Merrill). Merrill says: "Owen Meany didn't exactly believe he was Jesus-but he said to me that if I could believe in one virgin birth, why not in another one?. Owen believed that there was a purpose to everything that happened to him-that God meant for the story of his life to have some meaning. God had *picked* Owen."Also, just before the funeral, when Johnny is going through Owen's things he finds some Thomas Aquinas writings. Owen had underlined "fervently" a passage in "Demonstration of God's Existence from Motion". That's the part where it says: "..Since everything that is moved functions as a sort of instrument of the first mover, if there was no first mover, then whatever things are in motion would be simply instruments." Owen mentions that he is an *instrument* of God early in the novel. And it seems he buys the "prime mover" argument to prove God's existence. So, he believes that ultimately God has predestined his life. So, the "story of his life" has meaning because God set everything in motion to allow his life to happen.
Ok, I am burrowing too much. I wonder how free will is represented.. by Pastor Merrill?
Mitch
poster:Ritch
thread:448
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/books/20020206/msgs/485.html