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Dick Jarvits
John’s grandmother. Harriet was widowed from a young age, but she took great satisfaction in managing her family and her house herself. She was descended from John Adams, and her family first came to America on the Mayflower. She married a Wheelwright, which was a very important family in Gravesend. She was a traditional puritanical New Englander and a highborn elitist who greatly minded her reputation, but she loved her daughters, Tabitha and Martha, and her grandchildren very much. She generously took in her longtime maid, Lydia, after Lydia lost her leg to cancer, and hired a pair of maids, Ethel and Germaine, to look after both her and Lydia. She also served as Owen Meany’s benefactor when he needed help purchasing a private school uniform and school supplies. She eventually became obsessed with television and died while channel surfing. She maintained her proud spirit until the end, demanding to be royally catered to.
John’s Grandmother / Harriet Wheelwright Quotes in A Prayer for Owen Meany
The A Prayer for Owen Meany quotes below are all either spoken by John’s Grandmother / Harriet Wheelwright or refer to John’s Grandmother / Harriet Wheelwright. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 3
Quotes
All those same crones, as black and hunchbacked as crows gathered around some roadkill—they came to the service as if to say: We acknowledge, O God, that Tabby Wheelwright was not allowed to get off scot-free.
Getting off “scot-free” was a cardinal crime in New Hampshire. And by the birdy alertness visible in the darting eyes of my grandmother’s crones, I could tell that—in their view—my mother had not escaped her just reward.
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John’s Grandmother / Harriet Wheelwright Quotes in A Prayer for Owen Meany
The A Prayer for Owen Meany quotes below are all either spoken by John’s Grandmother / Harriet Wheelwright or refer to John’s Grandmother / Harriet Wheelwright. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 3
Quotes
All those same crones, as black and hunchbacked as crows gathered around some roadkill—they came to the service as if to say: We acknowledge, O God, that Tabby Wheelwright was not allowed to get off scot-free.
Getting off “scot-free” was a cardinal crime in New Hampshire. And by the birdy alertness visible in the darting eyes of my grandmother’s crones, I could tell that—in their view—my mother had not escaped her just reward.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
