Life of Pi Described by Charlotte Innes

‘Charlotte Innes describes Life of Pi as "a religious book that makes sense to a nonreligious person"’ (Stephens, "Feeding Tiger”). Life of Pi concerns the animation of Piscine Molitor Patel (Pi ),an Indian young man growing up in Pondicherry in the 1970s. Pi’s father is the owner of the zoological garden at the Pondicherry Botanical Garden, and the family lives within the blissful, conservatory peace of the zoo grounds until at last, in 1977, the political situation in India forces them to sell off their animals and land and move to Canada. On their way to Toronto , their ship--a Japanese loading ship carrying things and animals, from the Pondicherry zoo--sinkhole , and all members of the Patel family, excluding Pi, are doomed at sea (Floating 1). Yann Martel utilizes faith to decide which story of Pi's survival on the lifeboat to believe is true.

Life of Pi makes the reader want to believe in God. Martel gives the reader the parliamentary option; the desire to believe rather than the belief itself(Stephens, "Feeding Tiger”) So ultimately, which story is better? "'So tell me, since it makes no factual difference to you and you can't prove the question either way, which story do you prefer? Which is the better story, the story with animals or the story without animals?' Mr. Okamoto: 'That's an interesting question?' Mr. Chiba: 'The story with animals.' Mr. Okamoto: 'Yes. The story with animals is the better story.' Pi Patel: 'Thank you. And so it goes with God’” (Martel 317). This quote is essential to the story- at its core, Life of Pi is a religious novel. “Specifically, it explores faith and love of God through the lens of a physical world depicted as wondrous, brutal, and deeply mysterious”(Cooper). Here Piscine “Pi” Patel ...

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...ound myself resentful at the agnostic Japanese officials, and holding on to to the more preponderant story – without even realizing the supreme of it.

I believe this how his story makes one believe in God, if it does that. It is in the apperception of that human need for the best story. Pi’s religion won’t set forth how we came to live as we are, and won’t make any factual difference in our construal of life and the universe - it certainly isn’t any ordinary religion, but I enjoy it. The point of the book was not to arrive at advanced theological specifics about God. It was to institute whether "the story" is better with or without God. That was the simple message of the book, and nothing more. Just like Pi's survival story was better with the tiger, his life story is better with God.

Works Cited

Martel, Yann. Life of Pi. New York: Harcourt, 2001. Print.