Life of Pi by Yann Martel is a thrilling look into how far one’s belief in G-d can carry someone who otherwise would give up. Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, the novel’s protagonist, is an Indian man whose life is explored from childhood, both from his own point of view and the point of view of the author, who is interviewing after the events of the book. Pi believes in three different religions: Hinduism, the religion he grew up in, Christianity, the religion he found next, and Islam, which he found last. His belief in three religions boggles his parents’ minds, as they were not very religious themselves. Arguably the most important part of Pi’s backstory is that his family owned the Pondicherry Zoo, and Pi grew up watching these animals interact, so he has a very good understanding of their mannerisms. …show more content…
Pi hears sounds during the night and gets up to check what is going on. The crew members, who don’t speak English, realize the ship is sinking and throw Pi overboard with a life jacket to distract the wild animals that had already been thrown overboard so that they could make their escape. On the lifeboat, Pi, without realizing the true effects of his actions, calls the Bengal tiger, Richard Parker, onto the lifeboat. There were also a hyena, zebra, and orangutan on the boat, and the hyena ended up eating the zebra and the orangutan. The tiger ended up eating the hyena. This is when the main story starts. The rest of the book describe Pi’s attempts to survive and train Richard Parker. Most of it revolves around his catching food from his surroundings and trying not to go crazy while alone with the
Pi’s journey starts out in a town in India known as Pondicherry. Here he finds a great interest in both Zoology( the study of animals), and religion. Pi also as well shows much knowledge in Zoology as shown in this quote from the book. “I got every possible student award from the department of Zoology.” (Pg.6) Pi, relating to religion(his other great interest), believes in multiple religions of which include Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity. Pi also finds great enjoyment in going to the Zoo, a zoo in which his own father owns. Pi’s great home life before his journey doesn’t last too long however. Soon the Tamil
In the novel The Life of Pi by Yann Martel, the author expresses a potent message, being that God pardons us if we have to sin in order to survive desperate circumstances. Pi Patel obtains a very conservative definition of the word “sin.” While living in India Pi was a child who possessed strong morals, believing that a sin is an evil act like killing a living thing and eating it. However, while on the lifeboat Pi cannot survive on his vegetarian diet and must therefore resort to killing and eating meat to sustain himself. Since starting to kill food, Pi woefully states, “Lord to think that I’m a strict vegetarian. To think that when I was a child I shuddered when I snapped open a banana because it sounded to me like the breaking of an animals neck. I descended to a level of savagery that I never imagined possible,” it is then obvious that Pi is disappointed in his new
... The collection of information given towards the end of the story when Pi is expressing his experience to the investigators ends up being key to understanding how it has a connection to Freud’s idea of psychoanalysis. When Pi reveals an alternate story of the events that unraveled and led him to the Mexican beach, it brings his story to a halt. The reader has to decide for themselves which story to believe. When looking at both stories, it is easy to match up the connections on the characters being switched.
Pi was afraid and surprised that Richard Parker was in the boat once he had lifted the blanket. Then Richard Parker had roared at him and tried to attack by his claws ,but pi had gotten away as soon as he did. Pi and Richard Parker started to roamed slowly around the boat in the middle of the ocean. Pi didn't trust Richard Parker because he knows that he only wanted to kill and eat pi. Pi tried to get rid of the tiger and then he tried avoiding the tiger, but as time goes on he got tired of trying get rid of Richard Parker. So then he began tame the tiger by using his whistle he had gotten from his locker. As he and Richard Parker started to get along through the past days,they have become really close friends.
In the Novel “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel talks about a character name Pisine Molitar and how he debts which religion is right for him.In the novel's faith plays a significant role in shaping Pi’s personality, its significance of Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam.
Religion is and always has been a sensitive topic. Some choose to acknowledge that there is a God and some choose to deny this fact to the death. For those who deny the presence of a higher being, “Life of Pi” will most likely change your thought process concerning this issue. Yann Martel’s, “Life of Pi”, is a compelling story that shows the importance of obtaining religion and faith. Piscine (Pi) Patel is both the protagonist and the narrator of Martell’s religious eye-opener who undergoes a chain effect of unbelievable catastrophes. Each of these catastrophic events leaving him religiously stronger because he knows that in order to endure what he has endured, there has got to be a God somewhere.
Life of Pi begins with an author’s note in which Martel describes being told by the character Mamaji that Pi has “‘a story that will make you believe in God’” (ix). This essentially sets up the basis for the entire theme of the novel. The main character, Pi, claims to practice three religions simultaneously: Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam (Martel 81). Much of Pi’s explanation of his own childhood consists of his own religious journeys. He begins with an explanation of how his aunt introduced him to Hinduism upon ...
“The presence of God is the finest of rewards.” (Yann Martel, Life of Pi 63) In Yann Martel’s riveting novel “Life of Pi” The basic plot of survival unfolds, however, this essay will show how the hidden yet the dominant theme of religion throughout the story is what helped the main character Piscine Molitor Patel (Pi) survive.
When they got to the shore, Pi realized that he needed to survive without Richard Parker because he left him without looking
The ship sinks and Pi finds himself the only human survivor onboard a life raft that contains, rather remarkably, a zebra, a large motherly orangutan, a frenzied hyena and a 450-pound Bengal tiger.
This unimaginable tale, is the course of events upon Pi’s journey in the Pacific ocean after the ship that Pi and his family were aboard crashes, leaving him stranded with a tiger named Richard Parker, an orangutan, a zebra, and a hyena. Pi loses everything he has and starts to question why this is happening to him. This is parallel to the story of Job. Job is left with nothing and is experiencing great suffering and he begins to demand answers from God. Both Pi and Job receive no answers, only being left with their faith and trust. To deal with this great suffering Pi begins to describe odd things which begin to get even more unbelievable and ultimately become utterly unrealistic when he reaches the cannibalistic island. Richard Parker’s companionship serves to help Pi through these events. When the reader first is intoduced to Richard Parker he emerges from the water, making this symbolic of the subconscious. Richard Parker is created to embody Pi’s alter ego. Ironically, each of these other animals that Pi is stranded with comes to symbolize another person. The orangutan represents Pi’s mother, the zebra represents the injured sailor, and the hyena represents the cook. Pi fabricated the people into animals in his mind to cope with the disillusion and trails that came upon him while stranded at the erratic and uncontrollable sea,
Pi’s challenge to survive unconquerable circumstances is conveyed through Martel’s use of symbolism. Within majority of the novel, Pi and Richard Parker are aboard the lifeboat and face a multitude of hardships throughout their journey, with the most obvious being their struggle to survive 227 days floating upon the Pacific Ocean.
Having just experienced the sinking of his family’s ship, and being put onto a life boat with only a hyena, Pi felt completely lost and alone. When he sees Richard Parker, the Bengal tiger from his family’s zoo, it is a familiar face to him. His initial reaction is to save the life of his familiar friend so that he may have a companion, and a protector aboard the lifeboat. Suddenly Pi realizes just what he is doing. He is saving the life of Richard Parker, by welcoming him, a 450 pound Bengal tiger, onto the small lifeboat. He experiences a change of heart when helping the tiger onto the boat. Pi realizes that he is now posing a threat on his own life. With Richard Parker on the boat, Pi is faced with not only the fight to survive stranded in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, but the fight to survive living with a meat eating tiger. The change of heart that Pi experiences might possibly mean that he is an impulsive thinker. It may mean that he often does something on impulse without thinking it through, and then later regrets his actions.
Richard Parker played a vital role in Pi’s survival due to how he provided much-needed companionship, gave Pi a reason and the will to live and kept him occupied on the boat with daily tasks.
Pi enjoys different aspects of each religion which is: Islam, Hinduism, and Christianity. Despite the fact that these religions may contradict each other, Pi finds a way to love and accept each of them. Pi comes across a priest, and Imam, and a Pandit who change Pi 's life forever. These three encounters let Pi into the world of different belief systems, in which he become increasingly interested. Early on in the novel, Pi starts to discover different rituals, and rules of each religion. The reader also gets to see religious objects that have sentimental meaning to religious and faithful groups that allow for comfort. Through Pi 's discoveries of these things the theme of religion becomes more evident. People use religion, beliefs, rituals, and routine to simply make life more enjoyable, easier to live by, and less boring by giving someone something to believe