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Owen Meany
Owen Meany
Period 8
2/23/09
Politics and Morality
John F. Kennedy once said, “Mothers may still want their favorite sons to grow up
to be president, but. . .they do not want them to become politicians in the process.”
Through these words, Kennedy declares that politicians are not the type of people who
are looked highly upon. In Owen Meany by John Irving, this theme of unlikable and un-
respected politicians is greatly enforced. Throughout the novel, John Wheelwright, the
narrator, expresses his immense distaste for American politics and their version of
morality. In a passage devoted to political affairs and its ethics, Wheelwright declares that
politicians can do anything regarding warfare, but are prohibited from cheating on their
wives. Through the rhetorical question that opens the passage, Wheelwright gets readers
to reflect upon their own feelings of morality. By presenting an extremely critical and
ironic tone throughout the passage, Wheelwright convinces readers that Americans have a
twisted view of morality. Through the meanings of certain words, Wheelwright implies
denotations towards politicians. Due to his word usage, Wheelwright implies to readers
that politicians are not the heroes some consider them to be.
Through a simple question, Wheelwright forces the readers to look upon their
own ethics and morals. Wheelwright asks, “What do Americans know about morality?”
He follows this with examples of political events that most Americans do not appear to
care about, and then some kind of sexual affair that arouses the interest of the country.
After this statement, readers realize that this is, in fact, the trend of American society. In
political elections, Americans appear to concern more about a politician’s social life than
their actual political views. Instead of Americans basing their opinion upon previous
leadership and morals, they judge politicians upon their sex lives and social affairs. From
a simple question, Wheelwright sets the tone of the entire passage and creates a sense of
immensely ironic tone. He states, “[Americans] don’t want their presidents to have
penises but they don’t mind if their presidents covertly arrange to support the Nicaraguan
rebel forces. . .” While this is a bit of an exaggeration, the narrator declares that, today,
people are confused over what is important and what is irrelevant. One would assume
that people think the dealings of a president in the government setting are more important
distinguish between characteristics that are truly vital to the running of a nation and those
that simply make an esteemed figure un-respected. Wheelwright voices during this
excerpt that politicians can get away with deceiving Congress, but Americans truly care if
a politician deceives his wife. They base their views and opinions upon, not their political
doings, but a politician’s social nature. Through his tone and cruel yet justified
statements, Wheelwright shows readers that most interpret morality in an improper way.
The word politics can be broken into two Latin roots, poli and tics which combine
to translate into “many blood-sucking creatures”. Readers can infer, from a description
like this, that politicians are not the high-esteemed people they appear to be, but
hypocritical and insincere. Wheelwright supports this view of politics by discussing the
sucking creatures cannot deceive their wives without drastic consequence, they can lie
and cheat their subjects with less serious repercussions. The narrator supports this double-
meaning to its complete potential as he questions the morality of Americans and their
superiors.
Throughout the course of A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving, commentary
displays his feelings toward the morality of America through rhetorical questions, tone,
and word meaning. He opens the passage with a question that forces readers to truly think
about what their own values are based upon. During the rest of the excerpt, Wheelwright
adopts a very ironic and sarcastic tone that convinces readers that Americans cannot
differentiate between important and insignificant affairs. The word politics is also known
Wheelwright uses to its full extent. Through Wheelwright’s tone and word usage, he
convinces readers that morality has become an immensely gray area and forces them to
think about their own values. He directs this view towards politicians and those that judge
them and says that these men and women are not as great or honest as they appear to be.