Yann Martel's Life Of Pi

Maggie Smith once said “There’s a difference between solitude and loneliness”. A person can choose to be alone, or through actions of but cannot help but to feel lonely. This was the case of Piscine, from the Life of Pi by Yann Martel. This extraordinary epic was written about the experiences of a young castaway boy in the pacific with only himself and an adult bengal tiger. Martel writes this nature-questioning, hair-raising novel to challenge his readers of the topic about the differences of being alone and being lonely. Through this novel one can actually envision Piscine horrific, yet oddly enough breathtaking story. Martel proves the difference of being alone and being lonely through Piscines’s actual journey. The volume starts out

Pi is a devote Catholic, Hindu, and Muslim; one can say that a person cannot be all of these religions at once, and that's what Pi’s friends, family, and community says as well. Pi’s father compares him to a dog as he and Pi’s mother are speaking about the religions Pi has chosen to follow. Pi’s father says “‘He seems to be attracting religions the way a dog attracts fleas” (74). Once again Pi is singled out not only by friends and peers at school but at home from his own father. During this same argument between Pi’s parents his father, a very science-minded, and realistic person makes somewhat of a joke out of his sons religion - “Bapu Gandhi? The boy is getting to be on affectionate terms with Gandhi? After Daddy Gandhi, what’s next? Uncle Jesus?” (75). Only moments after his father’s sarcastic gag does he say “... But Muslim? It’s totally foreign to our tradition. They’re outsiders” (75). The reader can strongly conclude that Pi must feel like a complete stranger and alone because of his religious practices; his own father called him an “outsider” because of it. One can only imagine and assume what or how Pi must feel; one can only say for sure that he must feel