Setting as Symbol in Yann Martel’s High Mountains of Portugal

Abstract

Writers do normally employ cultural, religious and spiritual symbols in their works. Yann Martel is one such writer who employed symbols which enriched his novels. His novels are allegorical. As theme is the soul of the story, setting is the body of the story. Unless the chance of identifying the core concepts with regard to the setting of the work, it remain futile and unexplored. Martel is a master in using settings as a vehicle to move his story of quest in a right path. In his novel, High Mountains of Portugal, he propagates the story with the aid of setting; employing rich symbols to code them with suspense and discovery where any reader would enjoy the thrill and sublime understanding of the truth amidst mysteries with connection to emotions, mystical experiences and by the way to  the attainment of truth. Nevertheless, this research article ponders over the unleashed symbols behind the settings and leashes them to light to imbibe the quest myth that emanates in the novel.