Kosinski's Belief

Kosinski puts a lot of emphasis on the beliefs and spirituality of the many religions that are mentioned in this novel. The main character describes how most of the people's lives in this story is totally affected by religion. My assumption is that Kosinski's intention was for this novel to make a point about religion. Towards the end, once the main character meets Gavrila, he is taught that God has nothing to do with life at all. To me this moment in the novel was ironic. Everything that the main character had learned was based off religion, even the war seemed to be feuded by religion. Once he meets Gavrila he is told that God is irrelevant and it makes sense to him. I think that Kosinski wanted to make a point that religion is not what people make of it.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1993-01-31/entertainment/9303174117_1_hermit-of-69th-street-early-novels-beliefs