While discriminates between religions were still intense, Pi had already stuck his faith in three religions, only because he “wants to love God”. However, it became doubtable if believing in three religions still helps when it comes to surviving with a tiger on the same lifeboat sailing in the center of the Pacific Ocean. In Yann Martel’s “Life of Pi”, religion brings about conflict for Pi, but it also supports Pi’s survival, and ultimately, strengthen Pi’s belief in God. Religion is always known as a source of hope, but in the novel, Pi must choose between keeping true to his religious faith or survival. During Pi’s drift in the Pacific Ocean, he faced the situation where he had to kill a life to feed Richard Parker: “I wept heartily over …show more content…
Pi always felt himself filled with confidence when he believed in God: “Despair was a heavy blackness that let no light in or out. It was a hell beyond expression. I thank God it always passed……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”(Martel 264). Pi had experienced so much hardships during his time on the lifeboat. All the events that went against Pi’s survival could have destroyed his hope. When Pi said, “I thank God it always passed” it meant that all his worships he’d done to God had played a great role in relieving his despair. He also described God as “a shining point of light in my heart”, meaning that God will be the center of hope for his entire life. Compared to the previous sentence “Despair was a heavy blackness that let no light in or out”, this sentence showed that Pi believes that the hope God gave to him can be defeated by no despair. Therefore, religion had supported Pi mentally, which made him survive his long drift in the Pacific …show more content…
After Pi had left an island, he expressed his loyalty towards God: “I tell you, if you were in such dire straits as I was, you too would elevate your thoughts. The lower you are, the higher your mind will want to soar. It was natural that, bereft and desperate as I was, in the throes of unremitting suffering, I should turn to God”(Martel 358) In the previous chapter, Pi had encountered a strange island in the Pacific Ocean. There were eatable algae and fresh water to keep Pi from starvation and dehydration. There were also overcrowded meerkats to feed Richard Parker. Pi was thinking about stopping his voyage and staying on the island for the rest of his life, until he discovered some human tooth inside the leaves of a tree, and that made Pi leave the island. If it was God’s will to force Pi off the ease and secure island and continue his voyage filled with hardships and danger, it might seem that God was cruel to Pi. However, what lied beyond this risk, is a path that would lead Pi towards Mexico shore, and return back to civilization. With the hope given from despair from God, Pi finally burst out the word “I should turn to God”. Therefore, the despair, hope and guidance made Pi deepen his belief in
Pi spoke in a guilty tone when recounting one of his stories of sea, “I will confess that I caught one of his arms with the gaff and used it for bait. I prayed for his soul every day,” by having Pi “confess” what he did to the sailor Martel provides the character with a guilty tone (256). After the incident with the Dorado, Pi understood that God forgives sins necessary towards survival. However, it is obvious that Pi has an internal struggle with guilt since he still feels the need to pray for the sailor years after cutting his arm. While on the lifeboat, there were some desperate situations in which a sin had to be committed in order for Pi Patel to survive, and although God proved that the boy’s actions in those times of stress where forgiven, the child still struggled to relieve his memories of certain dramatic
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...
This quote represents that Pi has a strong faith in God. He uses his faith in God to fight his suffering from dehydration and starvation. This brings him closer to God, and throughout the novel he reaches to out to God and his belief to strengthen him in his darkest times.
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.
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.
Pi maintains his religious beliefs while on the life boat through his daily prayers. He takes time aside each day to say the prayers that he always would say. In one instance, he turns where he believes Mecca is located, and prays his traditional prayers towards Mecca. Pi also often states that he will include specific animals in his prayers, such as the zebra aboard his lifeboat, and the first fish that he ever killed. With Pi keeping his ritual prayers going, it helped him to survive.
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.
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.”
Pi is a young man from India, who, like any other teenager growing up, is at something of a crossroads, trying to discover a grand purpose and meaning to life. Through his family and everyday life, Pi is exposed to four different religions during his childhood: Hinduism, Catholicism, Islam, and to an extent, Atheism. After being exposed to the three religions and his father urging him towards Atheism and rational though, Pi comes to the conclusion that he, “just wants to love God”, showing the audience that Pi derives his understanding of the world through God, and his idea of God through each religion. However, Pi’s complacent views of the world are challenged during his meeting with Richard Parker. In this scene, Pi seeks to discover Richard Parker’s soul, believing God will allow him to form a spiritual connection with the tiger. The connection begins to form, as close up shots of both Pi’s and the tiger’s eyes
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
The novel, Life of Pi by Yann Martel, talks about a sixteen-year old man named Pi Patel, who unbelievably survives a dreadful shipwreck after 227 days with the animals in a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean. Different ideas and themes in the book can be found in which the readers can gain an understanding about. The author communicated to the reader by using an ample amount of symbolisms to talk about the themes. The main themes of this novel are religion and faith. His religion and him being faithful have helped him throughout the journey, and this eventually led to an incredible precedent. The author left the reader thinking about how religion and faith can have an impact in our lives positively. Religion can affect our choices in life, and faith
In Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, Pi is expressing himself at sea with religion. He knows he must keep his faith in order to live through his worst nightmare. One of Pi’s religions is Hinduism. Hinduism is the religion that Pi was born into and one that grows with him as well. Hinduism in real life and Hinduism in Life of Pi, are very similar. They both share the same values, traditions, and both are very supportive of its people. Throughout this adventurous novel, we are shown how a teenager copes with his difficulties: with his religion. As he carries on, his faiths (especially Hinduism) will lead the way and provide a light to guide him in his endeavors.
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.
In conclusion, the main idea in Life of Pi is that having the will to survive is a key component to survival. The three ways this is shown is through symbolism of the colour orange, having religion on the protagonist’s side and the thirst and hunger experienced by the protagonist. Things do not always happen the way one would want them to happen: “Things didn’t turn out the way they were supposed to, but what can you do? You must take life the way it comes at you and make the best of it” (101) Faith determines ones destiny and nothing can be changed about that, one can live their life to the fullest and enjoy every moment and not regret it. No matter what faith throws at one, as long as they have the will to survive they can pull through anything.
There’s only so much a person can take when trying their best to survive. The mere stress of the situation can make people go crazy and even beg for an end to their suffering, causing them to make rash decisions. It's true, Pi had many terrible experiences. He often reflected on them and told about them throughout the story. Pi never let the situation get the best of him. He persisted and persisted and did all that he could just to live. And though he didn't swim because of the distance being too long, he used that endurance in another way. He took on whatever challenges came his way, but even when he thought all hope was lost, he never gave