Yes, but so much more, too

A bildungsroman, I've concluded, is rarely just a coming-of-age novel. Perhaps sometimes it is so focused on a character's development and maturity that this is the case, but I believe in all the books we've read so far, they've had so much more to them. Life of Pi especially is about faith, the need for love, survival, animal-human relationships, etc. I almost concluded that it wasn't a bildungsroman for this reason, but I decided that it still is because it focuses so exclusively on the one character, Pi, and of course a young boy who wages for his life at sea for 227 days is going to change drastically. However, this is only part of a wonderful story that has so much to offer in so many ways.