A prayer for Owen Meany test.

In the chapter “The Finger,” Irving bases the chapter with events that happen after Johnny cuts his finger. In the beginning of the book, when Owen brings back the armadillo to Johnny, after he has killed Johnny’s mom, the armadillo is missing a part of his body. Irving writes, “But my greatest indignation was to follow: missing from the armadillo were the little animal’s front claws…” (85). Johnny gets very mad when he sees that the armadillo does not look the same without his claws. Johnny does not understand why Owen has done this, but Dan tells him, “Don’t you see, Johnny? If he could, he would cut off his hands for you- that’s how it makes him feel, to have touched that baseball bat… It’s how we all feel… We’ve lost a part of ourselves” (86). Owen would do anything for Johnny and Johnny knows that. Owen trusted him a lot, and Johnny says that Owen has given him more that Owen has taken away from him (considering that he took him mom’s life).

Owen demonstrates how much he loves Johnny and how he thinks that he has been sent from God to the Earth to save Johnny and make him a son of God too. “‘I LOVE YOU,’ Owen told me. ‘NOTHING BAD IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO YOU- TRUST ME’” (509). Owen here expresses himself as a father caring for his son. When Johnny is bleeding from his finger, Owen is there to take care of him, like he has always done. I think that the meaning of the title is that, even though many things have happen between Owen and Johnny, at last Johnny has gained much more than he has lost. It did not matter if it was his finger or his hand, it didn’t matter what he could lose anymore because Owen had given him the faith and had brought him to the light.