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Life Of Pi Research Paper

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The story “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel has various themes. This story is about a boy who struggles with three religions; therefore religion becomes the theme of the book. This boy who has been stranded at sea on a lifeboat with a bengal tiger named Richard Parker, for two hundred and twenty seven days, near death, gets through his journey through religion. Pi’s experiences influence the way he acts, what he believes in, and what kind of person he has become. Pi was raised Hindu, but he has a longing to love God in every way he can. At the age fourteen, Pi investigates two more religions: Christianity and Islamic. He decides to become adherent in all three. His parents do not agree but he follows through with it anyway. These religions are a part of how Pi deals with his situation on the lifeboat.
Pi’s parents did not know about him practicing three religions at first. A priest told his parents that he had seen him in a temple and an Imam told them he was in a church crossing himself. “But fate decided that my parents and I and the three wise men, as I shall call them, should meet one day on the Goubert Salai seaside esplanade and that my secret should be outed” (Martel). They met all three wise men at one time. Everyone seemed puzzled to be there all at the same time. The priest, the Imam, and the Pandit all argued whether Pi was a …show more content…

“I know zoos are in no longer in people’s good graces. Religion faces the same problem. Certain illusions about freedom plague them both” (Martel). Pi studied zoology and religion at the University of Toronto, and this quote demonstrates just how closely related religion and zoos are to him. He’s quick to turn a conversation of animal freedom into a metaphor for people’s religious beliefs. In the book it explains how people misunderstood the nature between the wild and the zoo. People also misunderstood what it means for a person to be free of any religious system of

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