Religion often enriches people’s lives and impacts their attitudes towards the world. Everyone in the world may believe in gods, and whether they believe or not, miracles do happen. In the book “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel, multiple religions inspire the protagonist Pi as a child and ultimately save his life as a castaway after a shipwreck in the Pacific Ocean. As Pi is introduced to Hinduism, Christianity, and Islamic in his early childhood, his mind becomes preoccupied with love, compassion, and gratitude. The elements of love, compassion, and gratitude support this spiritual young man to endure and triumph over the chaos left by the aftermath of the shipwreck. Overall, religion plays a significant role in Pi’s devastating journey by providing …show more content…
Religious beliefs offer hope to Pi. In the story, Pi links the details of his life as a castaway to his gods. For example, at the time he sees his beloved orangutan, Orange Juice, advancing towards the lifeboat on a pile of bananas, which he regards the scene as the “Virgin Mary”(p123) coming in a “…halo of light.”(p123). Pi is relieved when he connects the scene with Orang Juice, who is a family member in Pi’s mind, to his own Christian belief, which produces a stronger desire to live through the upcoming desperation. Furthermore, Pi relates the orange colour, the Hindu colour of “survival”(p153), to the inside of the lifeboat, the tarpaulin, lifejacket, lifebuoy and other emergency items to his Hindu beliefs in order to survive. Pi also “evaluates”（p231) himself when hopelessness approaches, which he points randomly at items on the lifeboat and establish them as god’s possession. For example, he will “point at the sky”(p232) and shout, “ THIS IS GOD’S EAR!” (p232) in order to remind himself that “ The blackness would stir and eventually go away…”(p232) and “…god would remain, a shining point of light in his heart.” (p232) “Blackness”(p232) is referred to as despair as “a shining point” stands for hope and faith. Additionally, …show more content…
As a Hindu, Pi is a vegetarian; therefore, dismembering the bodies of sea creatures is proved to be a challenge and a fear for him. However, Pi faces an even greater fear, starvation. The first time he murders a fish on the lifeboat, guilt runs over him; nevertheless, he dismisses the guilt through appreciation to Lord Vishnu, the supreme god of Hinduism, by shouting,“ Once you saved the world by taking the form of a fish,” (p204) and “ …you have saved me by taking the form of a fish.”(p204/205) It is Pi’s religious beliefs that give him the inner strength to face the difficulties during his voyage. At the time his life is threatened by the beasts on the lifeboat and in the sea, he prays to all his gods from Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam by saying, “ Jesus, Mary, Muhammad and Vishnu!” (p166) or just simply，“God preserve me!”(p155). After receiving mental relief from the gods, Pi is able to take actions to counteract the danger, which he develops plans to establish his superiority over Richard Parker. For example, he trains Richard Parker like a circus animal by blowing his whistle as loudly as he can. He also makes strong eye contacts with Richard Parker during the tense moments. Generally, Religion helps Pi to abandon his vegetarian status and to gain superiority over Richard Parker during his
Faith is defined by acquiring substantial confidence in something that cannot be explained using definite material proof. Although faith is often mentioned when speaking of religion, one can have faith in anything. In Yann Martel’s Life of Pi and John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany, both authors acknowledge the importance of faith in family, friends, and oneself; however, the main focus of faith in both novels is centered on religion. Both novels emphasize that a strong faith is fundamental in overcoming both emotional and physical obstacles. In the novels Life of Pi and A Prayer for Owen Meany, this is expressed through symbolism, characterization, and plot.
In the book the Life of Pi by Yann Martel, religion plays an important role in Pi’s life. When on the lifeboat, Pi used his faith as a way to motivate himself to live. Without his religious beliefs, there is no way to guarantee he would have made it off the lifeboat.
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.
“The presence of God is the finest of rewards.” (Yann Martel, Life of Pi 63) In Yann Martel’s riveting novel “Life of Pi” The basic plot of survival unfolds, however, this essay will show how the hidden yet the dominant theme of religion throughout the story is what helped the main character Piscine Molitor Patel (Pi) survive.
How does religion benefit your life when you are going through hard times? Religion is a particular system of worship or belief. The Life of Pi, by Yann Martel, is about a sixteen year old boy, named Pi Patel, who lives in an Indian city called Pondicherry. From Pondicherry he goes on many adventures and ends up in Manilla. He survives through my different tragic events including months in a lifeboat with a tiger and being surrounded by sharks in a tiny lifeboat. Pi uses the three religions Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam to survive his ordeal at the sea.
While Pi is on the lifeboat, he says, “Faith in God is an opening up, a letting go, a deep trust, a free act of love-but sometimes it was so hard to love. Sometimes my heart was sinking so fast with anger, desolation and weariness, I was afraid it would sink to the very bottom of the Pacific and I would not be able to lift it back up.” (pg. 208-209). By saying this, Pi means that hard emotions like anger, desolation and weariness have the possibility to overpower love, and faith in God. This quote shows that Pi is losing faith in God because his religious beliefs are almost not strong enough to overpower his suffering. Eventually, Pi also says, “The blackness would stir and eventually go away, and God would remain, a shining point of light in my heart. I would go on loving.” (pg. 209). When Pi says this, he means that the despair that almost takes his belief in God away, can eventually life and shine through again. Pi is saying that his love of God is always in his heart, his hardships are almost strong enough to take over. This quote shows, that even though Pi’s religious beliefs are disintegrating, God always remains in his heart. During his painful time as a castaway, Pi must cope with despair, which challenges his former religious beliefs and allows him to find his true
On its surface, Martel’s Life of Pi proceeds as a far-fetched yet not completely unbelievable tale about a young Indian boy named Pi who survives after two hundred twenty-seven days on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. It is an uplifting and entertaining story, with a few themes about companionship and survival sprinkled throughout. The ending, however, reveals a second story – a more realistic and dark account replacing the animals from the beginning with crude human counterparts. Suddenly, Life of Pi becomes more than an inspiring tale and transforms into a point to be made about rationality, faith, and how storytelling correlates the two. The point of the book is not for the reader to decide which story he or she thinks is true, but rather what story he or she thinks is the better story. In real life, this applies in a very similar way to common belief systems and religion. Whether or not God is real or a religion is true is not exactly the point, but rather whether someone chooses to believe so because it adds meaning and fulfillment to his or her life. Life of Pi is relevant to life in its demonstration of storytelling as a means of experiencing life through “the better story.”
At the start of novel, and when Pi is a child, he is extremely religious. He devotes his life to loving God, and even practices three religions to do so. He practices Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity. His explanation for practicing all three is that according to Bapu Gandhi, “‘All religions are true’”(69). Pi explains that he practices all three religions because, “[he] just wants to love God”(69). Pi’s major religious values and faith in God continue to shape his life daily, until the shipwreck leaves him stranded on the Pacific, with a tiger for 227 days. Although Pi still remains religious and continues to praise God most days, the shipwreck does change Pi’s religious morals. Richard Parker is the factor that begins this change in Pi, because Pi knows that in order to survive he will have to fish to provide for Richard Parker if he wants to avoid being eaten himself. Fishing, however goes against the religious practice of Hinduism, which requires vegetarianism. Also, killing animals goes against Pi’s whole religious morals to not hurt another living being. Pi says the idea of killing a fish, and of “beating a soft living head with a hammer [is] simply too much”(183). It goes against everything he believes in. So, he decides to instead cover to fish’s head and break its neck (183). He explains that, “he [gives] up a number of times.
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
His belief was what kept him grounded in his time of despair and hopelessness, helping him to push through and continue to survive. While on the lifeboat while Pi did sometimes put his faith and beliefs on the backburner, he did always come back to them. Such as when his food began to run out he had to kill a fish. The first time he killed a fish he was in a state of hysteria. His emotions ran rampant, not only having to kill a living thing but eat it as well did not come easily to the vegetarian Pi. He said, “I was sixteen years old, a harmless boy, bookish and religious, and now I had blood on my hands. It’s a terrible burden to carry” (183). However, as time went on and the boy became more desperate, he killed easily and clinically, without hesitation and only thinking of his survival. He says, “I stuck finger into eyes, jammed hands into gills, crushed soft stomachs with knees, bit tails with my teeth--I did whatever necessary to hold a fish down until I could reach for the hatchet to chop its head off” (195). Even though at times Pi had to give up some of his beliefs to survive at the time, he never truly gave up. He always came back to
He also realizes that continuing his strict vegetarian diet will not give him the sufficient amount of nutrients needed for survival. Pi ultimately has to resort to eating meat. Eating the fish was not the problem, killing the fish is what stood strictly against his morals. Pi states, “ I wept heartily over this poor little deceased soul. It was the first sentient being I have ever killed. I was now a killer[…] I never forgot to include this fish in my prayers”(Martel 183). It is clearly shown that killing went against what Pi stood for. Pi states how “He will never forget this fish in his Prayers”(Martel 183), which is quite symbolic in that he would never forget that first fish. After this event, Pi killed many other sea creatures, but the first fish he killed was the largest sin he had. He felt the need to constantly pray to his Gods for a sense of relief for committing his sins. Pi quickly adapts to his new lifestyle of eating meat. Even though his morals see this as wrong, he quickly realizes that it is necessary for survival. “It is simple and brutal: a person can get used to anything, even to killing”(Martel 185). Understanding that killing
The only possible way to survive a 227-day odyssey on a lifeboat with a tiger, hyena, orangoutang, and a zebra is to maintain an ideal balance of faith and reason. Yann Martel dissects this balance in his novel, Life of Pi. Throughout the exhausting journey of a young man named Piscine Molitor Patel, Martel tactfully displays the importance of God in a world that focuses on reality and rationality. In doing so, he provides justification to questions like: “Why can’t reason give greater answers? Why can we throw a question further than we can pull in an answer? Why such a vast net if there’s so little fish to catch?” (Martel 98) Though Martel is a “secular writer with sympathies for the religious imagination,” the incredible Life of Pi encourages
Pi enjoys different aspects of each religion which is: Islam, Hinduism, and Christianity. Despite the fact that these religions may contradict each other, Pi finds a way to love and accept each of them. Pi comes across a priest, and Imam, and a Pandit who change Pi 's life forever. These three encounters let Pi into the world of different belief systems, in which he become increasingly interested. Early on in the novel, Pi starts to discover different rituals, and rules of each religion. The reader also gets to see religious objects that have sentimental meaning to religious and faithful groups that allow for comfort. Through Pi 's discoveries of these things the theme of religion becomes more evident. People use religion, beliefs, rituals, and routine to simply make life more enjoyable, easier to live by, and less boring by giving someone something to believe
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.
The colour orange can symbolize many things such as happiness, success, determination but in Life of Pi, it represents the survival. Pi has to suffer through many things such as living in the ocean, finding food, making sure he is protected from the sun, and most of all living with a Bengal tiger, all of this to make it through until he finds land. Firstly, there are many things inside the boat that are orange that represent survival: “It seems orange- such a nice Hindu colour- is the colour of survival because the whole inside of the boat and the tarpaulin and the life jackets and the lifebuoy and the oars and most every other significant object aboard was orange. Even the plastic, beadless whistles were orange” (Martel 153). All of these orange obje...