Yann Martel's Life Of Pi

As a child, pisscine was always filled with curiosity and open-mind towards both religion and the world revolving around him. His love for animals eventually becomes perpendicular to the mltiple religions he attaches himself to. “ His house is a Temple. In the entrance hall hangs a framed picture of Ganesha, he of the elephant head”. This quote signifies Pi’s multiple religions and its connection to his Journey.

Life of Pi is a thrilling novel by Yann Martel, telling the story of a two hundred and twenty-seven day journey on a lifeboat between a religious boy and an adult bengal tiger. After losing his family in a shipwreck, Pi Patel is stuck on a lifeboat with a 450 pound Richard Parker. Together, they sail aimlessly, using the boat’s limited resources to survive. Throughout the novel Pi uses God as a way to cope with the multiple tragedies and obstacles he faces. In times of great difficulty, humans can lose their morals and values in exchange for survival.

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

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

“I have a story to make you believe in God” (Martel ix). However, the interpretation of “God” is very fluid. There are hundreds of religions throughout the world, each of which has thousands of followers. The four main ones however, are Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism. All but one, Buddhism, focus on one or more God(s). In Yann Martel’s book, Life of Pi, Pi breaks the social norm and follows all four religions as opposed to one. Throughout the novel, Pi follows Christianity, Hinduism and Islam, while subconsciously practicing Buddhism.

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.

Despite this constant company, Pi is left for 227 days without proper food, water, and survival equipment with only himself to talk to. The only survivor, no one else truly knows what Pi went through, or what was happening in his head for about two-thirds of a year. By dedicating Part One and Two to telling Pi’s story from Pi’s own perspective, it allows us to understand all the parts of Pi’s survival, even the parts he never told because they were too painful. Besides getting the full story, Pi’s point of view also allows the readers access to the thoughts of Pi that would not be available through third person narration. The thought process behind the training of Richard Parker, the thoughts that led up to no longer being a vegetarian, and other life changing or saving decisions.

At the beginning of Life of Pi, Pi Patel has to adapt to his new situation, and the constant fear of his newfound boatmate, a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. Pi, a vegetarian must learn to survive, which in his situation, involves the killing and eating of animals. To preserve his life, he must distance himself from his former life of vegetarianism. “I wept heartily over this poor little deceased soul. It was the first sentient being I had ever killed. I was now a killer. I was now as guilty as Cain. I was sixteen years old, a harmless boy, bookish and religious, and now I had blood on my hands. It’s a terrible burden to carry. All sentient life is sacred. I never forget to include this fish in my prayers.” (Martel, 183). Pi has

On its surface, Martel’s Life of Pi proceeds as a far-fetched yet not completely unbelievable tale about a young Indian boy named Pi who survives after two hundred twenty-seven days on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. It is an uplifting and entertaining story, with a few themes about companionship and survival sprinkled throughout. The ending, however, reveals a second story – a more realistic and dark account replacing the animals from the beginning with crude human counterparts. Suddenly, Life of Pi becomes more than an inspiring tale and transforms into a point to be made about rationality, faith, and how storytelling correlates the two. The point of the book is not for the reader to decide which

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 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.

This movie mentioned several religion when it was developing the character Pi. Pi was a raised Hindu that got introduced to Christianity at the age of 12 and Islam soon after. He decided to follow all three religions because he wants to love God. He believed God was introduced to him in different forms, Hindu, Christian,

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

The land was his safe ground, his safe haven. He then entered the ocean, the outside, his unknown. The waves had started calm and still, then turned rough and frigid. Two hundred twenty-seven days stranded in a vast ocean and only sixteen years old. In Yann Martel’s novel, Life of Pi, Piscine (Pi) Patel’s family decides to move to Canada and sell their zoo in India. Events take a turn for the worse when an enormous storm sinks the ship, leaving Pi as the sole human survivor. Pi is found on a lifeboat along with a hyena, an injured zebra, an orangutan, and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger, and his main goal is survival. In an attempt to survive, Pi uses his beliefs that he acquired in India, which include zoomorphism, having faith in God, and

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