Independent Reading Project Blog

          Despite the circumstances, A Prayer for Owen Meany has been completed! I know we haven’t been given work, but my mom wants me to stay productive, so the book is done. Near the end it reminded me a bit of Slaughterhouse V , due to the non-chronological order that was used. The final scene happened second to last and the leading up to it happened at the very end. I thought this was strange at first, but eventually saw why. Throughout the novel the idea of belief and destiny was built up and used, and it was alluded to that the character Owen Meany was supposed to be a symbol for Christ, or the savior. If this is what the author intended, then the use of non-chronological ordering of events makes sense, as the ending of each person was already predetermined. This is an idea that I may explore further, if I can find some smaller details, but I don’t want to focus on the main idea too heavily, as the minor details are a little more in...

            My fiction book is A Prayer for Owen Meany , by John Irving. So, getting the fact that my book it 630 pages long out of the way, it is actually quite enjoyable. The characters each have a very distinct personality, and reveal a new aspect to the situation that they are presented with. The idea of faith in religion has come up much more leading toward the halfway point, and I have been given insight beforehand that it is a major theme. So, this means I can watch the development and struggles of the character’s faiths, mainly Owen Meany, who despite the title is not the main character. Overall I am looking forward to seeing the full development affect the characters later on.

          After reading 313 pages of A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving I have discovered something strange, that a book we read in middle school actually has values. I know that this is a shock to many of you, as usually middle school books are regarded as useless, with no practical themes, or at least none that anyone would remember. Yet somehow one of the fated books is coming back to be a useful tool, Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick. Now for those who don’t remember it, Freak the Mighty is a book told from the perspective of a large, average kid about a small, ingenious one.           Now the main idea is based upon Kevin, the small character, and how he dealt with bullying, and the development while being different. Owen Meany is the small character in A Prayer for Owen Meany , whereas the story is being told from the perspective of a fairly average boy named Johnny. The same issues are presente...

          So the book is over, and my initial thoughts were in the 2nd microblog if you wanted to check that out, but overall it was a good book, despite the abrupt ending. What I thought was a bit weird was that toward the ending there were a lot of references to God and other religious aspects, whereas there was none int he first half. My thought was that Anne Frank and the others at the Annex got more comfortable and safe, which meant they could openly talk about their religion, of which they were being prosecuted.           But after a bit of thought, I decided that was not the reason. Instead, I think it's due to the fact that Anne Frank is an oracle. Yes, an oracle, the prophecy making lady in mythology. This is more due to the fact that she had a feeling, instead of the gods bestowing information upon her, but the name still fits. I see it as Anne realizing what could potentially happen to her and her family, so she turns to rel...

          So I finished the book... and let me tell you, it was not the ending I expected. I have been reading through the book, developing a personality for Anne Frank, and all the other people of the Annex. With some minor events happening along the way, but of the 338 pages, none of them had as much that happened in it as the Aftermath. Based on the context of when the book was written, it was clear that there were only two outcomes, with one being much higher of a chance than the others. But I thought that I'd be given some insight about the outcome than I actually was. Due to the book being a Diary, it makes sense that the author may not have been able to write about what happened. Yet the short, 2 pages of context that happened to all of the residents really differ from how Anne was writing throughout this. She was very optimistic, even with the conflicts between people, and overall seemed more bored than anything, yet the description of what happened to h...

          The Diary of Anne Frank is based in the context of one of the worst historical events in history, the Holocaust. This is a well-known event, and the setting of my book was set in Amsterdam directly in the main conflict of the event, where Anne was hiding from the German soldiers in the prosecution of the Jews. This creates a very distressing atmosphere, that made her calm attitude very surprising.