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Notes On The 's ' The ' Alpha ' And ' Gita Patel Board '

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After deciding to sell their zoo in India and move to Canada, Santosh and Gita Patel board a freighter with their sons and a few remaining animals. Tragedy strikes when a terrible storm sinks the ship, leaving the Patels ' teenage son, Pi (Suraj Sharma), as the only human survivor. However, Pi is not alone; a fearsome Bengal tiger has also found refuge aboard the lifeboat. As days turn into weeks and weeks drag into months, Pi and the tiger must learn to trust each other if both are to survive.

As a young adult Pi learns that he did not find religion but instead religion was brought to him when he tells the narrator as that “Nobody knows God until somebody introduces us” (12). This sets up three different times of identity crises for …show more content…

This mentality is also paralleled when he reads one line over and over again while he is stranded “Good luck on your quest for survival and most importantly don’t lose hope” (209). His traumatizing journey has taught him one thing if anything- never lose hope. This life lesson transcends to his basic viewpoints in life as well, there is no harm in believing something different- as long as you feel good doing it- the only crime is to live without any beliefs, meaning living without motivation and thus not living at all and therefore taking life for granted. Pi’s next conflict arises when he traipses into a Church and is confused and off put to see the pictures of the crucified Jesus, prompting him to ask: Why would God wish that upon Himself? Why not leave death to the mortals? Why make dirty what is beautiful, spoil what is perfect?...This Son, on the other hand, who goes hungry, who suffers from thirst, who gets tired, who is sad, who is anxious, who is heckled and harassed, who has to put up with followers who don 't get it and opponents who don 't respect Him-what kind of a god is that?... This Son is a god who died in three hours, with moans, gasps and laments. What kind of a god is that? What is there to inspire in this Son? (63) These questions only intrigue him more into following the ways of such a human-like deity. He continues to have tea with Father Martin and eventually tells him that he wants to become

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