When the novel begins, Owen Meany is a diminutive eleven-year-old with a peculiar, screeching voice that appears in the text in capital letters. He eventually recovers from his anger over Owen's death and achieves a renewed religious faith that he attributes primarily to Owen's lingering influence. After Owen's death, John moves to Canada and becomes an English teacher. But Owen only gets as far as the airport before he loses his life by putting himself between a grenade thrown by a psychopath and a group of Vietnamese children. Convinced that he is fated to die in Vietnam, Owen ignores John's attempts to talk him out of joining the army. Owen and John grow up together, attending the same preparatory school and college. Both boys are grief-stricken, but the incident convinces Owen-who speaks in a peculiar, high-pitched voice represented in the text by capital letters-that he is “GOD'S INSTRUMENT” and as such is fated to perform some sacrificial deed. At a Little League baseball game, the unusually tiny Owen hits a foul ball that strikes and kills Tabitha. As the story opens, Owen and John are both eleven years old and in love with John's mother, Tabitha Wheelwright, who has recently married the local drama teacher, Dan Needham. The novel is narrated by the middle-aged John Wheelwright, who recalls some important earlier events and how his friend Owen Meany influenced his life.
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