Irving Thalberg

A Prayer for Owen Meany analyzes the relationship between various depths of spirituality in comparison to mundane life. The novel by John Irving uses characters such as Owen Meany and John Wheelwright, to juxtapose the contrasting nature of faith and doubt, and fate and free will. John Wheelwright’s and Owen Meany’s differing attributes highlight the use of contrast within A Prayer for Owen Meany. While Owen Meany tends to be a leader, John is a follower where his primary experiences tend to be

Owen’s Armless Figures Several themes are portrayed within the pages of A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving; nevertheless, a more prominent theme that moves the story along is that of symbolism. In the novel, Owen Meany infatuated himself with armless figures all his life from Tabby’s dressmaker, to the armadillo, and finally, Mary Magdalene. Readers cannot help but to try to correlate all these images into a bigger picture. The Watahantowet totem became the first of Owen’s many fascinations

The important meaning of the novel, A Prayer for Owen Meany, is of religious faith, more specifically the relationship between faith and doubt in a world in which there is no obvious evidence for the existence of God. John writes on the first page of the book that Owen Meany is the reason that he is a Christian, and an ensuing story is presented as an explanation of the reason why. The explanation for Owen's effect on John's faith is extremely simple, Owen's life is a miracle. He has supernatural

and colorful settings. The story begins, “The following tale was found among the papers of the late Diedrich Knickerbocker… who was very curious in the Dutch history of the province, and the manner of the descendants from its primitive settlers.” Irving draws readers in first with descriptions of the eccentric Diedrich Knickerbocker, the fictional Dutch writer of Rip Van Winkle’s story in his historical record keeping. The Dutchman’s initial alleged involvement in the story begins to make the reader

anything can be pleasurable and reap great rewards. Negative attitudes usually make tasks feel begrudging and extend the time it takes to complete the work at hand. Rip Van Winkle was a beloved member of his community because of just that, his attitude. Irving writes, "He would never refuse to assist a neighbor even in the roughest toil, and was a foremost man at all country frolics for husking Indian corn, or building stone-fences; the

Community is defined as a group of people living in the same place. What makes a “good” community is a question that I asked myself after reading some of Washington Irvings stories. More specificaly his story The Devil and Tom Walker made me ask this question to a high degree. Inorder for a community to be considered “Good” the people in it must have good morals and all support eachother in a different way. For instance an omish community consists of a Leader/Counsil that controls disputes between

When learning about the Holocaust in school some teachers play videos or show pictures of the carnage of a concentration camp, all the student really sees are either walking skeletons or dead skeletons. Some soldiers say they can never forget the smell when they first walked into a camp, and thousands of people visit the remaining camps and feel as if they are walking through a cemetery, which they are really. It has been sixty years since the Holocaust ended, and over six million Jewish people died

Judenfrei was the goal. In many cases, this was achieved. Germany hoped to create lands free of Jews; judenfrei. German blood was perceived as pure, creating the need to cleanse the nation of the unkempt, parasitic Jews (Browning 44, 152). Ordinary Men by the historian and author, Christopher Browning, follows the men of the German Reserve Police Battalion 101 as they work towards this goal of extermination The story leads readers through these men’s first experiences “clearing” the area of the Jewish

“Rip Van Winkle” is an old short story written and published in 1819 by Washington Irving while he was living in England. This tale was based on the history of the province of New York in America while it was controlled by Dutch governors. The tale takes place sometime during or just after the French and Indian War when the 13 American colonies where still a part of the British Empire. This was one of the many tales that helped create the American mythology that exists today. There are three aspects

Does the name "Washington Irving" ring a bell? The author of the immortalized tales, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle." A man who has passed away almost two centuries ago, and still yet, a man who has paved the way for American literature. Washington Irving was born in New York, New York on April 3, 1783, and turned to writing once the family's import-export business had failed. Realizing that there would be no more means to support himself financially, Irving took up his talent and