Life Of Pi Religion Research Paper

How does religion benefit your life when you are going through hard times? Religion is a particular system of worship or belief. The Life of Pi, by Yann Martel, is about a sixteen year old boy, named Pi Patel, who lives in an Indian city called Pondicherry. From Pondicherry he goes on many adventures and ends up in Manilla. He survives through my different tragic events including months in a lifeboat with a tiger and being surrounded by sharks in a tiny lifeboat. Pi uses the three religions Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam to survive his ordeal at the sea.

The first religion is Hinduism, which is the way of life and is the dominant religion. This was the first religion that Pi grew up with and Pi was also a vegetarian which contributes

to why he believed in Hinduism. “It seems orange-such a Hindu color, the color of survival.” (Martel 138) Richard Parker, the life jacket, whistle, life buoy, and the tarpaulin are all orange. He believes that orange is the color of survival because all of these objects saved his life. “I am a Hindu because of sculptured cones of red kumkum powder and baskets of yellow turmeric nuggets...” (Martel 47) “The presence of God is the finest of rewards.” (Martel 63) Hindus believe in reincarnation until enlightenment. The Hindus believe in reincarnation, which is when a person or animal are believed to be reborn. “I have no conscious memory of the first go-around in a temple, but some smell of incense, some play of light and shadow…” (Martel 47) The first time he went to the temple to prey, he continued to go with his family. The way Hinduism was expressed in Pi’s life showed him that it was him and God as one and helped him survive.
The second religion was Christianity, which is the world’s largest religion.

“We are all born as Catholics.” (Martel 47) This quote is important because Pi thinks that everyone is born as Catholic, without a religion, until you get introduced to god. Then he says once you meet up with God, people usually know their religion at that point but some will lose God on the way. Pi said he never lost God through all his journeys and God was always there for him. "I kept myself busy. That was the key to my survival.” (Martel 190) Pi’s faith to Christianity created a pathway and routine of praying five times each day. Sunrise, mid-morning, late afternoon, sunset, and night, Pi knew his whole entire schedule for when he would pray. Pi never would skip these prayers because it was a routine and if he messed it up, God would not be with him. “Solitude began. I turned to god. I survived.” (Martel 311) “Yes, so long as God is with me, I will not die. Amen.” (Martel 148) This quote is important because Pi is all alone and there is not much he can do. So, he puts his life in the hands of God and this is how he survived. Since Pi gave everything to God, in return God saves him and keeps him alive. The religion Christianity helped Pi get through his ordeal at the sea with God always by his

side.
The third religion that helped Pi was Islam, which is defined as an absolute submission to a personal god. Pi loved the way Islams lived because he felt that it was the religion of brotherhood. “Fewer gods, greater violence, and I had never heard anyone say good things about Muslim schools.” (Martel 58). At first, Pi was very unsure about the way Islams believed but of the reputation of this statement. “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.” (Martel 61) A mosque is a place to worship for the Muslims. Muslims get on their hands and knees to pray and put their hands on their head. Muslims pray to Allah and close their eyes “Next time I was praying in church, on my knees, immobile, silent before Christ on the Cross, with God in the middle of bags of flour kept coming to my mind.”(Martel 60) When Pi started to follow Islam, the way he thought about the world changed and helped his ordeal. Pi spent a good amount of his time praying and staying on his schedule because he knew it was helping. After the shipwreck, he followed the Islam religion and the whole experience with Islam helped him survive.
These three religions helped Pi to never give up and finish what he was going through. Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam all showed different perspectives of life. “Many people seem to lose God along life’s way. That was not my case.” (Martel 47) Throughout this whole experience Pi never lost sight of God and never gave up because of these three religions. Without religion, Pi would not of survived because it played such a huge part in Pi’s life.