Authors often include personal experiences when writing, and weave them into the characters which they create. Yan Martel’s views and experiences clearly influence his characters. Martel attempts to convey several messages about religion, which become apparent with the realization of why Pi follows three religions.
Understanding Pi’s religious pluralism allows readers to understand Martel’s perspectives on religion. Pi is first exposed to Hinduism, which shapes the way he views religion. He explains this when he says: “I feel at home in a Hindu temple. I am aware of Presence … The universe makes sense to me through Hindu eyes” (58). Pi always retains his Hindu faith because it allows him to make sense of the world. The second religion that Pi follows is
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The final religion Pi follows is Islam. Pi explains his fondness for Islam when he says, “It is a beautiful religion of brotherhood and devotion. The mosque was truly an open construction, to God and to breeze … It felt good to bring my forehead to the ground. Immediately it felt like a deeply religious contact” (72). Pi’s attraction to the Islamic faith stems from the aspects of: brotherhood and devotion, the openness with God and one’s surroundings, and frequent praying. Martel makes his opinion on religious pluralism and syncretism clear in Life of Pi. This is evident when he writes, “Hindus, in their capacity for love, are indeed hairless Christians, just as Muslims, in the way they see God in everything, are bearded Hindus, and Christians, in their devotion to God, are hat-wearing Muslims” (60). Martel clearly sees religions as different ways of viewing and relating to God. To Martel, religions are all just worshipping different manifestations of God. Pi’s following of the Islamic faith helps make it even easier for readers to understand Martel’s position on someone belonging to multiple
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 dedication to all three religions: Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity, built a stronger bond between God and himself. It gave him character and strength as God was alongside him throughout the entire journey. The bond he shared with God also helped him keep his sanity and maintain his will to live.
In the beginning of the Life of Pi, Yann Martel establishes his theme of truth being relative through the main character, Pi. When Pi was confronted about worshiping three different religions, he says,
The Lover by Marguerite Duras and Blood and Guts in High School by Kathy Acker are both transgressive novels and post modernist fiction. Both novels tell a story of a young girl in which is experimenting with her sexuality at a young age. In The Lover the narrator is in love with a man who is giving her money. Blood and Guts in High School is a fictional novel about the main character’s love for her father amongst other men. The goal of this essay is to explore the desires in which drive both of the young women’s sexual behavior that Duras and Acker express through their narrators.
In the book Life of Pi the author Yann Martel wrote about a young boy named Pi Patel surviving on a lifeboat by himself. Throughout the entire book Pi was very close to religion and in the end his religions were the main reason he had survived. At the start of the book Yann Martel introduces three religions, Islam, Christianity, and Hinduism. There are three main points that aided in Pi’s survival. One being that Pi was open to religions and started to follow the Islamic faith. The second reason is that Islam believed that one should pray five times a day, and Pi did exactly this. The last reason is that the religion
Logos is used because it blatantly points out that smoking is bad for people’s health. In many areas of the world, this is general knowledge. Smoking is generally seen as being very damaging to the body and having a negative view towards it, unlike past decades were smoking was accepted and even encouraged.
Due to Pi’s devotion to all of his faiths, particularly Hinduism, not only changed how he thought about his current situation, but also changed how he would think about every single situation after in Martel’s Life of Pi.
Throughout his life, the protagonist in Yann Martel’s Life of Pi had the privilege to explore and practice multiple religions. Pi was first introduced to religion as a baby, when his Auntie Rohini brought him to visit a Hindu temple, an act he described as a Hindu rite of passage. Entranced by the colours and scents the temple had to offer, Pi describes the experience as “A germ of religious exaltation, no bigger than a mustard seed, was sown in me and left germinate. It has never stopped growing since that day” (52). Through this statement, Pi reflects his growing love and interest in Hinduism claiming that the universe makes sense to him through Hindu eyes, “…I have been a Hindu all my life. With its notions in mind I see my place in the universe” (54). Pi’s religious interest does not stop at Hinduism as he continues to explore
In India, Pi was raised as a Hindu. Pi was mostly exposed to Hinduism during his life in India. Then on a trip with his family to Munnar, he encounters a church. He meets with the priest often and learns about the religion. At the end of his trip he decides to become a Christian while keeping his Hindu faith.
Martel compares aspects of each faith to provide connection between all of them, enforcing the practicality of multiple faiths. Pi ultimately is able to tolerate each religion by selecting the desirable aspects of each one. For example, Pi values Hinduism as his primary practice of religion especially their God known as Krishna. Pi finds “[Krishna’s] divinity utterly compelling” and believes Krishna to be the most celestial god to believe in (Martel 56). He was raised knowing the superiority of such a god and that god only. However, when Pi learns more about Christianity, he learns to accept their god as a supreme being as well. At first, Pi
Pi thanked Vishnu, the second god in the Hindu triumvirate, for introducing him to Christ, he said “I came to faith through Hinduism and found God’s love through Christ but he wasn’t done with me yet”. God presented himself as Allah which lead Pi to the Muslim religion, he would put on his prayer cap and perform Salah daily. Salah is a form of prayer where you bow down on a mat and pray to Allah, it can be done at a church, with others or by yourself, Salah is practiced 5 times a day in a traditional setting. Pi considered himself a Catholic Hindu, he found serenity and brotherhood through religion. He wasn’t sure which religion he wanted to be, so he became all three: Christian, Muslim and Hindu. Christianity and Muslim are main religions that are followed in the Indian culture, religion says a lot about a person it’s not only a belief system but it’s how one perceives life too.
Pi is a little boy who is introduced to religion at a young age by various people. A very possible reason for him to be so immersed by the notion of religion is that it provides him with a concrete thing (or in this sense, not so concrete) to believe in. The idea of religion is a root to reality in Pi case.
Afterward, Martel states “you can choose your own story”, just like in the fiction novel, Pi got to choose his religious paths such as Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam. As Pi goes through tragic series of events it allows him to seek help from each of his religion. Martel proves that in life where people get to choose what they wish to believe in, which is important because people need a God to seek guidance and love. Pi states, “ “Religion will save us,” I said. Since when I could remember, religion had been very close to my heart” (29, Yann Martel), through God, people can devote themselves and figure out the message life means to them. Lastly, when Yann Martel says “A story with God is a better story”, he means that while choosing a story he prefers when choosing a story or when choosing a religious path, it should be with God. He believes that a life with God is better because it gives life more to live for, as well as more to look for when going to heaven. The bible states, “If you want to enjoy life and see many happy days, keep your tongue from speaking evil and your lips from telling lies. Turn away from evil and do good. Search for peace, and work to maintain it”
The same way the Pi blends religions is the same way Yann Martel blends the stories. He speaks about truth in both stories. Pi believes in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity because he finds the truth in all of them. All of the religions sense to have common ground within Pi. Most people have a strict mindset when it comes to religion because of their mind limitations.
In order for me to help each student with linguistics needs, I have to appreciate every individual student 's level of English language proficiency. The best manner to make my lessons understandable and clear to them is substituting certain challenging phrases with simpler expressions. I am going to create a more individual rapport with each of my students to stimulate them to ask for interpretation when they do not comprehend certain information and to offer them more time to ask questions.