Faith In Yann Martel's Life Of Pi

How would you feel being out at sea stuck on a lifeboat for 227 days with only zoo animals for company and then watching them all be killed and then spend the rest of your days at sea with a Royal Bengal tiger weighing 450 pounds and about nine feet long. Life of Pi by Yann Martel starts off in Pondicherry India with Pi Patel and his family, they then load some animals and themselves onto a cargo ship on its way to Canada. After they are on the ship there is a malfunction on the ship and it sinks. Pi becomes isolated on a lifeboat with only the company of a few zoo animals. After some time he is only left with Richard Parker the tiger and fighting to stay alive. On his journey through the sea he eventually finds an island to which he goes and

The way Pi acts throughout his journey suggests that having faith is one of the most important practises to learn as it can give an individual hope. Pi has a strong connection to all his practising faiths: Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism. Society is set to have many unspoken rules that we must abide by to

A person’s life is an accumulation of experiences; however these experiences solely do not define life without specific meanings behind them. In Yann Martel’s 2001 novel Life of Pi, the author chooses to reveal an alternative story at the end of the novel. This alternative option allows the readers to choose which story to believe. Thus, Martel effectively uses the better story as; a metaphor for religion, to expand the readers’ imagination, and to imply its significant effects. Through these concepts he demonstrates the true meaning behind dry yeastless facts, which requires a leap of faith from the reader.

The origin of Pi’s considerably unwavering faith in Life of Pi is his conversation with Father Martin in the church near Pondicherry Zoo. Through the author’s use of simplicity in dialogue, we learn why Pi becomes so committed to religion despite the many inconsistencies of the Christian bible in comparison to other religions.

In Yann Martel’s novel, Life of Pi, our main character is faced with a devastating situation where he struggles with faith and what it feels like to lose part of yourself to our instinctual nature. This story holds many metaphorical meanings about faith and what it means to be human. At the end when it is revealed that there is an alternate story to what happened we can see that they both represent two ways of life. In the original we are introduced to an island that represents Pi’s struggle with his face. We are also given two sets of characters; some human and other animals. With this we can compare how they each reflect each other.

In a lot of cases fiction outshines the truth. In today's world there is often an emphasis on telling the truth and only the truth, however in some cases fiction is the better option. Fiction is better than truth in quite a few cases in both Yann Martel's book "Life of Pi" and my own life; including distraction from events, not being led down the wrong path, and escaping from bad situations.

Does Martel’s Life of Pi treatment of religion give power to God or does it give power to works of fiction? Instead of giving power to the one versus the other, Martel is not trying to get the reader to believe in God, to prove his existence, but rather there is a justification of a person’s individual right to choose in believing in God. Life of Pi doesn’t try to question religion as an institution, but rather there is a focus on the debate between fact and fiction where “Martel’s position is a postmodernist one, from the perspective of which God’s existence has the same status in relation to truth and reality as Pi’s experience of shipwreck” (Stratton 6). In Martel’s work there isn’t a focus on what is to be more believable in either fiction or religion, but rather how there are no other alternative in between the two.

Often the mind easily and distinctly separates the contrasting ideas, events, and moments displayed to them in life. Those people that make such a separation then proceed to choose a side and stick to it. Stubbornly, these people will continue to back their decisions through and through, rarely again truly looking at their previous verdict. But against this reality in the novel, Life of Pi by Yann Martel, Piscine (Pi) Molitor Patel creates his own harmonious unity between life’s own contrasts in his mind, sculpting a story true to himself. Constantly throughout his journey, Pi is faced with his own opposing views in which others in his life find that he must choose between. Nonetheless, Pi holds true to his own decisions and fights for his own views as he decides to dissolve the separation between conflicting ideas in order to keep his sanity and life on the ocean. Along Pi’s adventure, Martel displays both Pi’s physical and spiritual journeys, ultimately displaying the absolute necessity of both science and religion in the two stories to ensure one’s survival.

During the period of childhood, most young children believe in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and other holiday figures or beings. Amongst these children, I was one of them. But as I became older each year, my intelligence and scepticism eventually overcame my beliefs in these holiday figures. It wasn’t until I was around ten years old one Christmas to which my thoughts were confirmed as I discovered the receipts for all of the gifts supposedly brought to me by “Santa Claus”. Martel’s quote on reality is able to apply to my own life through the belief in holiday figures because when I was a young and naive, I was influenced by my parents to believe this myth. I chose to believe the myth due to my innocence and imaginative mind as a child. Even at first as a began to become sceptical about whether or not these myths were true, I still choose to believe them, thus altering the reality I envision, which is an average young child’s holiday spirit. I attempted for as long as possible to avoid the cold and indifferent

Pi Patel’s story of being a shipwreck survivor alone in a lifeboat crossing the Pacific Ocean with a Bengal tiger is a life story that will make one “believe in God”. Life of Pi explores the benefits of religious faith, God assured Pi’s safety and gave him hope in times of need, and He also shone a brighter side to life, making the unbelievable, belivable.

Religion has been at the core of many conflicts. Lives have been lost and wars fought over the basic that one’s belief is better than the other. Martel’s novel, The Life of Pi takes this idea and demonstrates some of the potential answers to this problem. It explains the various ideals that are among the different religions. And yet, the story shows that most religions are the same. Francis Adirubasamy’s précis of Piscine Molitor Patel’s story, “I have a story that will make you believe in God,” offers great intrigue and automatically catches anyone’s attention. Although the story can be dealt with in a lot of ways and be analyzed to death on the various topics, the statement offered by Mr. Adirubasamy defines Mr. Patel’s story. To truly appreciate

Life of Pi: Literary Essay The novel Life of Pi, written by Yann Martel, is about Pi, a teenage boy from Pondicherry, India, and the fascinating story he has to tell. His story is not a typical story a teenage boy would have to share, he tells the story of his journey stranded in the middle of the ocean with a Bengal tiger. The novel is about strength, faith, and survival. Martel constructs these themes through the great use of symbolism.

In part one of the book, Pi’s parents are furious when they find out that Pi is a follower of three different religions; Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam . When Pi is confronted about it he was told “he can’t be a Hindu, a Christian, and a Muslim. It’s impossible. He must choose.”(69) Pi responds to this by stating that he “just want(s) to love God.”(69) As the book goes on Pi begins to mature in ways he never thought was possible physically, spiritually and mentally. As Pi is growing up, he is also growing out of his innocence as he experiences traumatic events. Even though he is thrown all different kinds of obstacles Pi’s faith stays with him the whole time. The author develops the topic of faith by introducing it in a mellow way, as the

“All living things contain a measure of madness that moves them in strange, sometimes inexplicable ways.” ‘Life of Pi’ written by Yann Martel, is a figurative novel that tells the story of struggling to survive through seemingly insurmountable circumstances. Within ‘Life of Pi’, there are many key elements of symbolism and motifs that are repeatedly explored throughout, that reflect the struggle of survival when it is threatened. These elements are explored as the protaganist, Pi Patel, faces the obstacle of loss, the significance in establishing territorial dominance, and the importance of storytelling through the epitomy of survival expressed through the character of Richard Parker. Consequently so, Martel is able to convey his ultimate message of the need for belief and faith in something in order to survive with the aid of these symbolic elements.

Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, published in 2002, is the allegorical novel that follows the life of the Indian teenager Piscine Molitor Patel, exploring specifically his experience of extreme struggle and fight for survival in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Through a range of literary techniques, Martel presents a set of complex themes such as religion, faith and survival making his work worthy of study and deep analysis. However, the understanding and perception of these concepts varies for each reader, as every person’s beliefs and personal context strongly influence this interpretation. Martel digs into the intricacy of human nature, exploring the existential similarities and differences between humans and animals, and conveying his strong ideology through a variety of symbols, leaving the readers with an open interpretation of the truth behind the story.