Religion is a big theme portrayed in Peter Shaffer’s Equus and Kosinski’s The Painted Bird. Both materials show the way religion can cause problems or distress in the main characters. The play and novel both depict the after effects of religion in a negative way, rather than a positive way. The Painted Bird and Equus both similarly and contrastingly show religion’s role in the main characters’ lives.
In Peter Shaffer’s Equus, the main character Alan, attacks and blinds horses because of this religion he has toward horses. His parents both raised him with different religious views which caused confusion in his own religious journey, leading him to create his own religion toward horses. As his mother is extremely religious and his father is extremely …show more content…
The boy discovers that religion in some villages is just what people believe and it seemed that people just accepted it because it was normal. The people in The Painted Bird might have simply accepted religion because in that terrible time period, there was not much else to believe in. Similar to Equus, Kosinski portrays the negative effects of religion. After the boy takes part at mass, a religious ceremony, he falls into a pit and loses his ability to speak. The boy even realizes that it must have been due to some higher power that caused his loss of speech. “There must have been some greater cause for the loss of my speech. Some greater force, with which I had not yet managed to communicate, commanded my destiny,” (Kosinski 141). Some readers may think that Kosinski is trying to make a point that religion is not necessarily a positive concept.
Similarly, the texts both depict the aftermath of religion and the negative affects it can have on a person. Shaffer and Kosiniski both display religion’s role in society and how it affects a person or a group of people. Constrastingly, in Equus, religion seems to be the main theme and how it caused a tragedy and in The Painted Bird, religion plays a side role in the way a person deals with tragedy. In both Kosinski’s The Painted Bird and Shaffer’s Equus, religion is veritably seen as a negative aspect in society, rather than a positive
In Peter Shaffer’s Equus, the main character Alan, attacks and blinds horses because of this religion he has toward horses. His parents both raised him with different religious views which caused confusion in his own religious journey, leading him to create his own religion toward horses. As his mother is extremely religious and his father is extremely …show more content…
The boy discovers that religion in some villages is just what people believe and it seemed that people just accepted it because it was normal. The people in The Painted Bird might have simply accepted religion because in that terrible time period, there was not much else to believe in. Similar to Equus, Kosinski portrays the negative effects of religion. After the boy takes part at mass, a religious ceremony, he falls into a pit and loses his ability to speak. The boy even realizes that it must have been due to some higher power that caused his loss of speech. “There must have been some greater cause for the loss of my speech. Some greater force, with which I had not yet managed to communicate, commanded my destiny,” (Kosinski 141). Some readers may think that Kosinski is trying to make a point that religion is not necessarily a positive concept.
Similarly, the texts both depict the aftermath of religion and the negative affects it can have on a person. Shaffer and Kosiniski both display religion’s role in society and how it affects a person or a group of people. Constrastingly, in Equus, religion seems to be the main theme and how it caused a tragedy and in The Painted Bird, religion plays a side role in the way a person deals with tragedy. In both Kosinski’s The Painted Bird and Shaffer’s Equus, religion is veritably seen as a negative aspect in society, rather than a positive