Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also, consider these LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for The High Mountains of Portugal...then take off on your own:
1. In The High Mountains of Portugal as in, say, Life of Pi, Yann Martel explores the discrepancy between reality and myth. How do you see this discrepancy play out in this novel? Talk about the ways in which what the eye sees differs from what the soul knows.
2. What is the title's significance? Consider the fact that Tomas arrives in Portugal to find a "treeless steppe" and Peter Tovy finds a "barren savannah," There's not a peak in sight for either man.
3. Why does Tomas decide to walk backward? Talk about this passage:
Walking backwards, his back to the world, his back to God, he is not grieving. He is objecting. Because when everything cherished by you in life has been taken away, what else is there to do but object??
Does this statement ring true...or is it misguided?
4. Once Tomas finds his crucifix, how does it reveal or reflect his personal anger toward God?
5. Follow-up to Question 3: What are the consolations for profound loss and grief explored and hinted at by Yann Martel in The High Mountains of Portugal?
6. Martel combines pathos with humor, especially with Tomas and Peter. Where in the text does he do so...and, most of all, why? Why the juxtaposition of sadness with laughter.
7. Of the three quests, which did you enjoy reading most?
8. What is the symbolic significance of the chimp in each of the stories? How are each of the men changed by the chimp?
9 Discuss how religious faith is considered in this novel. Consider, for instance, these questions asked by Lozora's wife:
Why would Jesus speak in parables? Why would he both tell stories and let himself be presented through stories? Why would Truth use the tools of fiction?
How would you answer her? What is the connection between faith and storytelling? How does this novel link them?
10. How does Peter Tovy's life and story finally weave all three stories together? Or does it? Do you feel satisfied with the way the novel ends?
11. Do you enjoy Yann Martel's whimsy and his heavy dependence on metaphor? Or do you find his work difficult to grasp, perhaps even arcane? Does his use of symbolism and magical realism deepen your understanding of his themes...or confound you?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)