The geography in A Prayer For Owen Meany plays a large role. Owen Meany's family is in the granite business, granite happens to symbolize death. Death as well plays a large role in the novel. The name of the town is Gravesend. Grave is obviously related to death, and gravestones in A Prayer for Owen Meany are made by the Meany family granite company. In How to Read Literature Like a Professor on page 164, Thomas C. Foster says, "And we feel that those novels and stories couldn't be set anywhere but where they are, those characters couldn't say the things they say if they were uprooted and planted in, say Minnesota or Scotland" ( Foster, 164. ) The same thing applies in A Prayer For Owen Meany. If Owen were not from Gravesend, New Hampshire it wouldn't be as great a deal that he is in the granite business and makes gravestones, because he wouldn't be the only one in town that doesn't come from a family who help found Gravesend.
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ReplyDeleteAlso, Gravesend is a conservative New England town. The Grandmother would not have reacted to Tabitha's pregnancy and many other social issues the way that she did if they did not live here. Also, it is in close proximity to Boston, but not too close, making it seem as if Gravesend and Bostone are two completely different worlds, which sort of threw Owen and Johnny off track when they went there, since they're unfamiliar with its climate.
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