Essay Questions

Who is Watahantowet?

Watahantowet is presented in the novel as legendary figure of the home region of the narrator from the days when it was beginning to lose control from indigenous native tribes to British settlers. He was a tribal chief sometime in the 1600’s who lives on in the present-day in the form of a totemic symbol without arms holding tomahawk in his mouth. Over the course of the novel, this symbolism enriches the tale in its foreshadowing of Owen’s arm-lessness as his intense dislike for abuse of authority and identification with those who have been victimized.

What is the significance of the dressmaker dummy relative to Tabitha rather than Owen?

Owen has his own reasons for becoming unusually attached to the dummy, but the metaphorical implication of its relationship to the narrator’s mother only takes on resonance as a result of her death. The mannequin was constructed for the purpose of fitting and tailoring feminine clothing and so has no arms. This attribute is attached to the motif of arm-lessness primarily for the purpose of identification with Owen, but it also becomes deeply important to viewing the dummy as a “double” for Tabitha who may as well as been armless when it came to any chance to stop the baseball from hitting her head and killing her. The ability of others to move the dummy around at will is indicative of its dependence upon and helplessness in the face of chance, destiny and fate. Just as Owen can “own” her in the from of possessing the dummy, so did Owen have the power to kill her. The fake miracle performed with the dummy by her son the narrator is an appropriate climax to this metaphorical insinuation of the dummy as doppelganger.

Who is the “holy goalie” what is her significance?

The term “holy goalie” references the stone statue of Mary Magdalene at St. Michael’s Catholic school which in its placement seemed to situate the biblical figure as a goaltender protecting the net. In an act of vengeance on the part of the victimized against the school headmaster, Owen manages the unspeakably difficult task—perhaps better described as a work of art—of removing the statue from its original position, cutting off its arms and head, and re-situating it in a position that symbolizes the dead end of faithless worship of iconography rather than actual work of God.