How we cite our quotes:
Quote #4
Mr. Chickering, who was completely good-hearted, had always told us that when we won, we won as a team, and when we lost, we lost as a team. Now—in his view—we had killed as a team; but he wept in his pew as if he bore more than his share of team responsibility. (3.208)
While baseball can usually be seen as a wholesome pastime that's as American as apple pie, Tabby's death seems to ruin the sport for everyone. What's also interesting is that, even though Owen was the individual to hit the ball that killed her, John continually thinks about how everyone's actions built up to that fatal moment – Harry Hoyt walked, Buzzy Thurston hit a grounder, Mr. Chickering changed the batting order. Somehow, everyone is partially responsible for Tabby's death.
Quote #5
[Harry Hoyt] was embarrassed by his mother's lack of patriotic zeal; it may have been the only time he argued with anyone, but he won the argument—he got to go to Vietnam, where he was killed by one of the poisonous snakes of that region. It was a Russell's viper and it bit him while he was peeing under a tree; a later revelation was that the tree stood outside a whorehouse, where Harry had been waiting his turn. He was like that; he was a walker—when there was no good reason to walk. (3.210)
We encounter a number of death scenes in A Prayer for Owen Meany that are highly unusual. When we think of Harry Hoyt dying in Vietnam, our first hunch is to assume that he died in combat. Not so – he died in a stupid, random way while waiting to indulge in some guilty pleasures. It's just another example of how unexpected and nonsensical death can be.
Quote #6
As the ball rolled into Front Street with Sagamore in close pursuit, the baby-rattle tinkle of the odd bell of the diaper truck dinged persistently, even at the moment of the truck's sudden confluence with Sagamore's unlucky head.
Poor Mr. Fish; Owen ran to get him but Mr. Fish had heard the squealing tires—and even the dull thud—and he was halfway down the driveway when Owen met him. "I DON'T THINK YOU WANT TO SEE IT," Owen said to him. "WHY DON'T YOU GO SIT DOWN AND LET US TAKE CARE OF THINGS?" (3.263-264)
Sagamore's death seems to foreshadow Tabby's death in several ways. First of all, Owen sets the scene for death by hitting a ball (this time he punts a football rather than hitting a baseball) that in turn causes someone (a dog, in this case) to suffer a fatal head injury.