Life Of Pi Discussion Questions

In Life of Pi, his long journey and ardent will to stay alive can alone discribe pi’s transformation from a confused and sheltered boy, into a young man who is now mentally broke but somehow uses his psychological experience to strengthen himself. Pi’s spirituality and religion pushes the reader to shift its perspective.

Throughout the novel, Pi’s thoughts reveal and internal struggle between his desire to live and his own beliefs to what is morally right. Pi grows up on varying religious viewpoints because he studies different religions. His religious diversity forms a moral standard of “dignity not …depravity” (Martel 71). He values dignity and character over corruption of morals initially because he sees

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

The Life of Pi is a book filled with many fantasy adventures that will have an excellent impact on what you may or not believe in. This novel was published in 2001 by author Yann Martel. Yann Martel is a writer who is trying to make sense of life, just like any other human being trying to deal with everyday obstacles. In this book we see that the protagonist, Piscine Molitor also known as Pi takes us through an adventure that will question our faith in religion. Pi is not pleased by only following his ancestors’ beliefs; he believes that there is much more to religion. In The life of Pi we see that Pi argues amongst his family in what he wants to believe in. His father is not at all religious and Pi has taken up religion as a hobby. Now Pi is a Hindu, Muslim and a Christian and he undergoes a tragedy, a shipwreck with his family on voyage to Canada from India. As he goes through this process it puts his faith to the test. At the time of this voyage he is a teenager exploring different beliefs and he sees nothing wrong with believing in three different religions. We can argue that there is a war between religion and science. Pi on the other hand does not argue with those of other beliefs, he calls the atheists his brethrens as well. “It was my first clue that atheist are my brothers and sisters of a different faith, and every word they speak speaks of faith. Like me, they go as far as the legs of reason will carry

Martel describes Pi as a gentle boy with many curiosities and a great interest in variety, especially multiple religions, those of which are Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity, and shares that the adult Pi studies cosmogony, any theory concerning the coming into existence or origin of the universe, or about how reality came to be. Pi’s

Pi’s belief system was an anchor for his thoughts and experiences and his faith in God prepared him for the Initiation stage of the Hero’s Journey.

At the beginning of the novel, Pi’s story is described as “a story that will make you believe in God.” Writer himself Yann Martel was going thru his writers crisis, traveling world looking for a good story to write something about. Martel found a man who told his story. His man named Piscine Molitor Patel who is a practicing follower of three religions: Hinduism, Christianity and Islam. For this reason, extremely mature boy must constantly fight the lack of tolerance and understanding in his surroundings. While in the case of adult people the lack of a specific decision on the faith can be perceived as humiliating, but Pi is fully justified because of his young age. His desire is to find the road to the creator will be seriously tested during

Pi’s openness about his faith, and life in general, because he is able to see things for more than what they actually are. For example when he is on the boat and the hyena is killing the orangutan, he doesn’t just see it as an animal killing another animal, but instead he sees it for much more. Pi emphasizes on the animals expression and emotion when the hyena is about to kill them. He also elaborates on how terrified they are and how he can relate considering he is cowering as far away as possible, which isn’t very far because they’re on a boat. Pi also is very open religiously, he sees that almost all religions have one single god but different views and rules. The way I see it is that he thinks that they’re all connected

The illustration of belief and behavior is well maintained as Pi incorporates a religious aspect to his life. His choice in practicing three religions is key to his behavior. As it is portrayed, Pi does not see a reason to follow just one religion, instead he wants to be able to practice three.

Hinduism deeply changes Pi for the good, although people don’t believe his story, Pi is convinced that through his faith, he survives crossing the Pacific Ocean. There is also a great amount of symbolism in Martel’s novel, from the Tiger, to even the travel itself, symbolism plays a great deal in the Book.

Everyone needs to believe in something, a moment without faith, our souls will be eternally lost. In the novel Life of Pi the theme concerns religion and the human faith in God as the notion of belief is argued as being preferable or even essential to faith. The novel investigates the nature of religious faith itself. The author scrutinizes the mind of the protagonist, Pi Patel, who is a devout follower of three very different religions and his choice to practice Christianity, Hinduism, and Muslim which creates a conflict among his family and even peers, who believe Pi would be better off practicing only one.

Pi’s story is not only about the beauty of religion and how everyone need to be religious to survive but, how all people are entitled to love the world how they see it. During his religious exploration as an adolescent he discovers atheism through his science teacher, Mr. Kumar. Pi holds Mr. Kumar in very high esteem, calling him his favorite teacher, however Pi is uncomfortable exploring the concept of atheism, its beliefs, and or how science can hold such beauty without the need of a god. He came to terms with the fact that atheists are his "brothers and sisters of a different faith", however he choose not to explore it in his studies. The concept frightens him so much that Pi, who is usually full of questions, is scilent when Mr.Kumar speaks

Martel (2002:19) “I know zoos are no longer in people good graces and religion faces the same problem. Certain illusions about freedom plague them both”. Through this quote the reader notice that there are aspects related between zoology and religion in Life of Pi. In the beginning of the novel we are introduced to zoology and religion. The author make it clear to the reader that Pi had majors in both subjects zoology and religion and later use that knowledge to help him do things one can say is impossible.

The third elements shows science and religion both are important to life is Pi 's parents. Parents are essential to a person 's existence. The combination of sperm and egg is the starts of a life. Without any of them, no life can be created. In Life of Pi, Pi 's parents respectively represent religion and science. Pi 's mother represents religion and faith. She is from a Hinduism family (Martel, Life of Pi 47). Her father is a clergy of Hinduism. She is nurtured under a complete religious environment. She is the one who passes the faith to Pi. She brings Pi to religion ceremony (Martel, Life of Pi 47), supports Pi 's interest in different religion, and stands out for Pi when Pi 's father is laughing at Pi for he has three religions ((Martel, Life of Pi 74-76). On the other hand, Pi 's father represents science and reason. He is the owner of zoo. He knows well about zoology. He supports science and look down the religion. He thought it is waste time on learning about God. He wants Pi to focus on the reality. Pi feels discourage from his father 's reaction on his religion choice. However, undeniably Pi is also affected by the zoology knowledge from his father. In this sense, Pi 's parents not only give birth to him, but also give the two characteristic, reasons and faith, which help Pi survive to him. The author shows the importance of both science and religion from the characteristic of Pi 's parents.

The evident motif of religion plays a major factor in Pi’s life; however the author chooses not to focus on one religion specifically but instead enforces a glorification of more religions. Martel creates a main character who is a curious young boy who decides to learn about Christianity, Hinduism and Islam all at once. Even though Pi is primarily