In Yann Martel’s international bestseller, Life of Pi, Piscine Patel battles many hardships soon after becoming stranded in the Pacific Ocean due to a shipwreck. In the course of Piscine’s (also known as Pi) grueling voyage in hopes of finding a safe haven, he experiences many troubles within himself. He starts going against his morals in order to survive, and questioning his faith in all religions. As Pi’s time as sea progresses, however, he comes to sudden realization: the only real elements keeping him alive is his faint but growing relationship with Richard Parker, and his faith religion. The teachings and morals of religion and hope of a higher being kept him alive. Pi’s constant faith in his three religions, Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam, is what pushed him to continue living through the hell-like experience he went through. Many events show this throughout the story.
Many elements in the story test Pi’s faith, one being when he becomes stranded on a lifeboat with four animals: a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena, and a tiger. While they are all on this twenty-six foot long boat, the atmosphere is very hostile, and Pi has a strong fear that once the weaker animals are dead and gone, he will be the next victim. This, however, does not happen. Pi knows how to keep himself relatively far from harms way with the help from his morals, instincts, and zookeeper father’s teachings. Through the terror and hostility during those first several days on the lifeboat, Pi managed to keep his faith, and refer to it almost constantly. This test of Pi’s faith was only the first of many to come.
Another instance where Pi’s faith was tested was when he and Richard Parker came across a blind man who had also been drifting in the ...
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...hem, but in the end, that knowledge itself wont save that person. In the sea, however, Pi might be weak and frail, but with his strong belief in a higher power, he new that he would achieve eternal happiness. Pi would have much rather died at sea from an attack by Richard Parker than to have stayed on the island and eaten by vegetation. This event ultimately shows how strong Pi’s belief really is.
Overall, Pi’s faith in religion hardly decreases much throughout the story. Through all of the traumatic and heart wrenching events, he still manages to follow his morals and beliefs, for the most part. Martel’s unbelievable story and “elegant proof of God” goes to show that if you have nothing else, have faith. Faith can get you through the toughest situations in life.
Works Cited
Martel, Yann. Life of Pi: A Novel. New York: Harcourt, 2001. Print.
Martel introduces multiple implicit symbols throughout his novel that, though are able to be interpreted in multiple ways depending on one’s perspective, highlight the importance of religion. When confronted with the ferocity of tiger aboard his lifeboat, Pi must flee to his raft handcrafted with remnants of life jackets and oars gathered from the boat. This raft may be symbolically interpreted as a representation of his faith throughout his journey. After a dauntless attempt at training Richard Parker in order to “carve out” his territory, Pi is knocked off the lifeboat into shark infested waters with a great blow: “I swam for the raft in frantic strokes... I reached the raft, let out all the rope and sat with my arms wrapped around my knees and my head down, trying to put out the fire of fear that was blazing within me. I stayed on the raft for the rest of the day and the whole night” (Martel 228). Like the raft, Pi’s faith, constructed of portions of three separate religions, trails diligently behind his survival needs and instincts –symbolized by Richard Parker and the...
...book that was the home to one of the most impressive personalities so far. Throughout Pi’s horrific journey, he not only managed to face it with faith but was also successful in coming out with a faith stronger than his initial. Basically Pi used his faith as a coping mechanism to battle his fears and fortunately came out triumphant.
Despite not agreeing with his biology teacher, Mr. Kumar’s beliefs, as he stated “There are no grounds for going beyond a scientific explanation of reality and no sound reason for believing anything but our sense experience.” (Life or Pi, p.34.), and “religion is darkness” (Life of Pi, pg.34.), Pi stated that Mr. Kumar went on to become his favorite teacher and the reason he studied zoology. Kumar was a critical person in his life that enabled Pi to see life through a different lense. He impacted Pi in a another, more abstract way. Mr. Kumar represents Pi’s logical aspect, which in the end impacts Pi in life saving way. Adding logic and reason to Pi’s spiritual wheel empowered him to solve problems that came his way on the lifeboat, and also taught him to develop a relationship with someone who thinks noticeably different than him. Pi’s view on truth and belief is consummated as Pi tells the story in the concluding portion of the novel. Each version contains a different genus of truth. As one story is supported by facts, and the other has an emotional truth that cannot be proven right nor wrong. This moment culminates Pi’s outlook on the concept of truth and the way he relates it to his spiritual aspect of his
Throughout the novel, Pi is presented as being a believer in three different religions; he is Hindu, Christian, and Muslim all at the same time. Pi’s beliefs in his different religions allow him to have many different perspectives towards life, just like at the end of the novel when Pi tells his two different stories about his time at sea. Pi’s beliefs in God not only allow him to overcome many different obstacles in life, but also allow for him to survive his hardships at sea by praying to God in his times of need. “Thank You, Lord Vishnu, thank you!” (Martel 204). This quote shows how both God and religion helped Pi survive day to day. During Pi’s hardships in the ocean, Pi goes throughout many shifts and changes in order to survive. For instance, Pi goes from being a vegan to carnivore during his time at sea. “A lifetime of peaceful vegetarianism stood between me and the willful beheading fish” (202). Pi learns to against what he believes in and changes his views on life when faced with life or death situations. Also, each of the animals in the novel are personified and each have a human
Pi has many traits that tend to enhance throughout the story, but we would like to elaborate further on his religious beliefs. It would be an understatement to say that Pi is simply a religious person. Pi’s initial religion was Hinduism, but as time went on he began to practice several ‘separate’ religions. Everyone told Pi that he could only have one religion to which he countered, “Bapu Gandhi said, ‘All religions are true.’ I just want to love God.” (87 Martel) At one time he asked his mother for a prayer rug and made this point, “If there’s only one nation in the sky, shouldn’t all passports be valid for it?” (93 Martel) Through all of the tragedy and sorrow that Pi had to endure, even through times of great doubt, Pi always came back to his
Religion is and always has been a sensitive topic. Some choose to acknowledge that there is a God and some choose to deny this fact to the death. For those who deny the presence of a higher being, “Life of Pi” will most likely change your thought process concerning this issue. Yann Martel’s, “Life of Pi”, is a compelling story that shows the importance of obtaining religion and faith. Piscine (Pi) Patel is both the protagonist and the narrator of Martell’s religious eye-opener who undergoes a chain effect of unbelievable catastrophes. Each of these catastrophic events leaving him religiously stronger because he knows that in order to endure what he has endured, there has got to be a God somewhere.
After being afloat the life boat with Pi yelling out to all of the Religious leader in which he believes shows that he has not lost his faith in any religion despite of what he’s facing, Pi goes through a somewhat “oceanic” feeling.
Life of Pi begins with an author’s note in which Martel describes being told by the character Mamaji that Pi has “‘a story that will make you believe in God’” (ix). This essentially sets up the basis for the entire theme of the novel. The main character, Pi, claims to practice three religions simultaneously: Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam (Martel 81). Much of Pi’s explanation of his own childhood consists of his own religious journeys. He begins with an explanation of how his aunt introduced him to Hinduism upon ...
...knowledge his shadow self. He was able to survive his plight on the lifeboat because of the characteristics of his shadow self, Richard Parker. Even at the loss of his shadow self, Pi remains connected and constantly misses this part of his persona. After his ordeal on the lifeboat, Pi becomes rational and humane; however his experiences has scarred him, and will forever remain with him. Readers can definitely learn from Pi’s experience with his shadow self. The more we refute our shadow, the more it weighs us down. However, if we are willing to come to terms with the reality of our shadow, learn how it works, “tame” it so that it does not control us, we would be more literate and enlightened.
It is said the a person’s process of discovery is shaped by their personality, culture, history and values, however the opposite is also true, someone’s personal, cultural, historical and social contexts and values, their personal aspects, can also be shaped by the discoveries they make, with discovery acting as the journey towards a change in one’s personal aspects. This is true of the film, “Life of Pi,” directed by Ang Lee and the illustration, “Self Help,” by Michael Leunig. The most striking features of the film is Pi’s faith to God and his connection with religion. His discovery and spirituality rely on each other, depicted as a gradual progression that spans his life, his childhood all the way to his time with Richard Parker on the life
To begin with, Pi’s success could not happen without believing in animals. Since he was grew up in a zoo, animals were a significant part in his childhood. He believed that all animals are spiritual in the beginning. However, one event changed Pi’s opinion a little bit. When Pi was only a child, his father stopped him from trying to feed Richard Parker and showed Pi tiger’s inhuman natural instinct by letting him see the entire process about the tiger killing a goat. At that moment, Pi said,“ I heard two things at that moment: Father saying “Never forget this lesson” as he looked on grimly; and the bleating of the goat.” (Matel 44). This experience certainly made Pi feel shocked and afraid. He started to question himself whether the animals were as pure as he thought. This change of attitude towards animals strongly affects the later
Which account that Pi told to the interviewers when he is rescued are we supposed to believe? These are the complex questions that this novel poses to its readers, which is what makes the narrative of Pi’s life so captivating
First of all, religion is a key component in Pi’s survival because it leads Pi to believe that he has to coexist with other creatures and they are all one entity. When Pi struggles with the storm on the lifeboat, he has the opportunity to abandon Richard Parker, but he doesn’t: “I could see his head. He was struggling to stay at the surface of the water. ‘Jesus, Mary, Muhammad and Vishnu, how good to see you, Richard Parker! Don’t give up, please. Come to the lifeboat. Do you hear this whistle? TREEEEE! TREEEEE! TREEEEE! You heard, right. Swim! Swim!’” (Martel p.121). Although Richard Parker
It also shows that whenever we’re in a difficult situation, we would always face religion. Therefore, Pi felt that he was safe because of the algae
In drastic situations, human psychology uses coping mechanisms to help them through it. In the novel, Life of Pi by Yann Martel, Pi’s coping mechanism is his religions and his projection of Richard Parker. Martel’s Life of Pi shows how the projection of Richard Parker played a greater role in keeping Pi alive in comparison to his beliefs in his religions. During the period in which Pi was stranded on the lifeboat, Richard Parker kept Pi aware, helped Pi make the right decisions, and was Pi’s sub-consciousness.