Coping With Fear in Life of Pi

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Recommended: An essay on the experience of overcoming fear

There are many conventional methods to coping with one’s fears but the most effective is by facing it. In the novel, Life of Pi, the main character, Pi, is one of astonishment; even through the darkest points in his life, he is still able to somehow remain both faithful and hopeful. Pi clings to his religious faith as a way of coping with his fears as opposed to acknowledging conventional methods. He is able to do so through praying, storytelling and various interpretations.
Fear takes a lot out of an individual as it can be the very substance that destroys them. As the Japanese proverb goes, “fear is only as deep as the mind allows.” That being said, fear is not as easy to let go of, as with anything else produced by the mind, it takes psychological stamina to get rid of. Whereas faith on the other hand, is the utmost hardest thing to possess in this world yet it is the most important thing. Faith is “the human capacity to believe what is unbelievable” (Cockeram, 4). Without faith life would have so many limitations that creativity and imagination would be merely seen as phantoms. Pi realizes that fear is “life’s only opponent” (Cockeram, 4), and so he manages to desist his fears through his faith in religion and god.
Praying is a form of communication between oneself and god. It is important because it helps to strengthen that bond one has created with god through his/her faith. Pi uses prayers as not only a way to communicate with god but also to cope with obstacles and problems that arise during his ordeal. His faith is shown through this act because of the way he expresses himself. Pi prays at least five times per day and he tries to face Mecca. Even though he does not know in which direction Mecca is, he believes it is the ...

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...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.

Works Cited

Cockeram, Paul. "Life Of Pi." Masterplots, Fourth Edition (2010): 1-3. Literary Reference
Center. Web. 8 Jan. 2014.
Goldstein, E. Bruce. "Chapter 12: Reasoning and Decision Making." Cognitive Psychology:
Connecting Mind, Research, and Everyday Experience. Australia: Thomson Wadsworth,
2008. 437-76. Print.
Martel, Yann. Life of Pi: A Novel. New York: Harcourt, 2001. Print.
"PI--Summing Up Meaning From The Irrational." Books In Canada 31. (2002): 18. Canadian
Literary Centre. Web. 8 Jan. 2014.

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