Claeir Soriano: Amputation of arms and legs in "A Prayer for Owen Meanie"

"That fated basketball"

Claier is a 12th grade student who wrote her Extended Essay in Literature on Steve Irwin's "A Prayer for Owen Meanie". She tied her own questions regarding free will and determinism with her essay, and focused in on the recurring motif of amputation. Learn more about her process in this interview and check out her essay!

"This essay explores how John Irving communicates the idea of free-will and determinism through the motif of hands and amputation in his novel, A Prayer for Owen Meany. "

Can you give us an elevator pitch of your EE?

Okay so, the research question of my extended essay is “How does John Irvine use the motif of amputation, especially arms and hands, to create meaning in his book “A prayer for Owen Meanie””. So basically, I wanted to figure out what literary devices the author can use to have meaning and put his meaning across into his literature and writing. Also, how an author’s personal message can sort of be represented in literature.

How did you find your topic?

I talked with my advisor and he asked me what I was interested in. I was very interested in existentialism questions, and I wanted to do something that would be a learning experience for me. I had previously heard of a senior who did questions such as whether or not we have free will, and the power of choices and do we have the power to make our own choices or if everything is pre-determined. I thought that that was something that was very interesting, and so I wanted to do something along the lines of that. My advisor recommended me a series of books that I could use for my research so I chose “A Prayer for Owen Meanie” because it was a book that was very enjoyable. There were many comic relief moments inside it, and it’s not like I was going to be bored out of my mind reading it and analysing it.

How did you approach the research process?

The first thing I did was to actually do some background research on what the book was about. The book was mostly about Calvinism and I had to do some background research in John Calvin, who he was and what his beliefs were, and then I simply just read the book. I read the book three times maybe. The first time was to read it just to enjoy it. The second time was to read it again to see if I had missed anything. The third time was when I was going to use it to analyse it.

What type of resources did you find most useful?

It really depended on my EE. Because I was doing a literature EE I needed to have resources such as other literary criticisms. I remember using Jstor a lot. Jstor was really a good place to find works. There, you find official published works of other people studying literature and history as well, and things such as literary criticisms.

What did your works cited look like?

My works cited was, firstly, my book, “A Prayer for Owen Meanie”. Then I had a bunch of stuff from Jstor, which were mainly literary criticisms. Also Questia, and sometimes Sparknotes, but just because I needed to have a summary of what was going on. If I needed to find a specific scene, I would go onto Sparknotes and see which chapter that scene took place in. So even though Sparknotes might not be considered as a reliable resource, I was using it for information to help me locate what I was looking for, like quotes.

What did you discuss in your viva voce? What was the outcome of your ee

In my viva voce they asked me what my biggest challenge was, what I struggled the most with in writing the EE, and I can say that for me, it was the fact that, a lot of things that I was reading went against my personal beliefs. I don’t really consider myself religious, but I do believe, and was reading about free will and determinism, so I also had to question my own beliefs, whether I believed in free will or determinism.

What would be your advice to students writing an Extended Essay in your subject?

Chose a book you really like and enjoy, as you are going to spend a lot of time with it. Also, don’t just start writing, have a very solid outline before you start writing or you are very likely to go off on tangents and not answer your research question within the word limit.