Life of Pi: the Correlation Between Science and Religion Essay

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.

Religion is “the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods” (Dictionary). In society, many people follow the ethics of certain religions in order to make decisions about their life. The author Yann Martel uses Piscine Molitor Patel in the novel Life of Pi to send a message to readers about using ambiguity to create a theme about morality through the use of religion as spiritual beliefs can stabilize and nourish one in times of hardship. The use of religion, story-telling and science compared to religion resulted in ambiguity and therefore illustrated the theme of the importance of morality.

Yann Martel`s Life of Pi follows A journey of a young man and a Bengal tiger as they travel across the ocean in a lifeboat.Director Ang lee made many consider the book to be beautiful,but virually unflimable.Being needed to told on screen Ang lee discerned very adeptly,about Life of Pi ‘’if there is will there is a way’’.

The tiger that Pi refers to throughout his ordeal is could be perceived as the alter-ego of himself, “The tiger killed the hyena- and the blind Frenchman- just as he killed the cook” (311). While Pi was able to use his imagination to portray a tiger as himself, Richard Parker was never more than an extension of Pi’s imagination. Richard Parker simply symbolized Pi in the real world and could never

Bengali polymath, Rabindranath Tagore, once said “you can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.” In the novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel, the protagonist, Pi, faces many challenges at sea while being accompanied by a tiger by the name of Richard Parker. This tiger, though a nuisance, proves to be essential in the role of Pi’s survival. Throughout the story, Richard Parker symbolizes survival, a reflection of Pi, and a being of God.

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

Pi knows that science and research cannot fully explain the spiritual beauties he discovers throughout his life. He also knows that religion cannot substantiate scientific truth. Pi must understand the two subjects together in order to comprehend the complexity of the world.

When Yann Martel tells of Pi Patel’s life story after the shipwreck, he presents it in two distinctive ways: one being with animals, and one without. As a young boy, Pi began to develop a love of animals as a result of growing up on the lands of Pondicherry Zoo, his family zoo in India. He also finds that he has a deep passion for religion. Supposedly, Life of Pi will make one believe in God, as it did to Pi in these two stories.

Mackenzie Skidmore Ms. Sproul 9/2/14 Adv. English 10 Life of Pi: Essay In the book , Life of Pi: A Novel, Pi grows as a result of many factors. The three main elements of Pi’s transformation are religion, fear, and coming of age.

It is possible to believe in both Science and Christianity because they both share a cause and effect relationship that exists between the two (Schaab, 2008).

This is because he honestly cares about the lives of animals and living things around him This is important because it shows that Pi is very

In the book the life of Pi religion was a big part of how Pi lived his life and how he survived out on the ocean for the two hundred twenty seven days that he was there for. (p.g 110)

Reflecting on Christianity Pi knows his faith in God would save him from damnation if he were to die, offering him some sense of comfort. “Pi's understanding of "God" is fundamentally altered by having to live so perilously close to the overwhelming forces of nature— including the sea and the tiger. His understanding of nature is likewise inevitably shaped by his practice of three religions” (Stephens 14). Reflecting back on atheism he knows he has to come up with a plan to survive and that he can’t just rely on God for his physical needs. Going back to Islam, which values animals as much as any other creature, Pi does some serious thinking about Richard Parker and figures out that his only way of not getting eaten by him is to take care of him. Lastly, Hinduism,“It seems orange—such a nice Hindu colour—is the colour of survival because the whole inside of the boat and the tarpaulin and the life jackets and the lifebuoy and the oars and most every other significant object aboard was orange. Even the plastic, beadless whistles were orange.” (Martel

1. Marvelous body of Richard Parker as both an image of God and a sign

“Then the elderly man said, ‘I have a story that will make you believe in God’,”(P. x). Life of Pi by Yann Martel is a novel meant to cause readers to have faith in God, but the novel does the opposite as it unravels itself through the clashing of religions and the two tellings of the same story. In Yann Martel’s book the main character, someone who is completely enriched in God, ends up stranded in the ocean with godless situations enclosing on him. The story is meant to make readers believe in God, but it’s questionable if God is even present.