Pi is an indian, but except Hinduism, he also believes in Christianity and Islam. It is pretty unusual. However, these three religions save his life when he meets storm on the sea. Religion is a key component in Pi’s survival because it lets him understand that he has to coexist with other creatures, it leads Pi to accept that even if he did not survive he would be redeemed, and it gives Pi the hope for survival.
First of all, religion is a key component in Pi’s survival because it leads Pi to believe that he has to coexist with other creatures and they are all one entity. When Pi struggles with the storm on the lifeboat, he has the opportunity to abandon Richard Parker, but he doesn’t: “I could see his head. He was struggling to stay at the surface of the water. ‘Jesus, Mary, Muhammad and Vishnu, how good to see you, Richard Parker! Don’t give up, please. Come to the lifeboat. Do you hear this whistle? TREEEEE! TREEEEE! TREEEEE! You heard, right. Swim! Swim!’” (Martel p.121). Although Richard Parker
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Once, Pi almost gives up on the sea, but prayers let him take heart of grace again: “I was giving up. I would have given up-if a voice hadn’t made itself heard in my heart. The voice said, ‘I will not die. I refuse it. I will make it through this nightmare. I will beat the odds, as great as they are. I have survived so far, miraculously. Now I will turn miracle into routine. The amazing will be seen every day. I will put in all the hard work necessary. Yes, as long as God is with me, I will not die. Amen.’” (Martel p.186). When Pi stays on the lifeboat and hopes for being rescued, he keeps busy with daily rituals. Pi prays more than he does anything else on the raft. He considers prayers just as important as any other physical preparation. Religion is Pi’s emotional anchor, it gives him the sense of belief and hope for survival. Therefore, religion is significant in Pi’s
Martel introduces multiple implicit symbols throughout his novel that, though are able to be interpreted in multiple ways depending on one’s perspective, highlight the importance of religion. When confronted with the ferocity of tiger aboard his lifeboat, Pi must flee to his raft handcrafted with remnants of life jackets and oars gathered from the boat. This raft may be symbolically interpreted as a representation of his faith throughout his journey. After a dauntless attempt at training Richard Parker in order to “carve out” his territory, Pi is knocked off the lifeboat into shark infested waters with a great blow: “I swam for the raft in frantic strokes... I reached the raft, let out all the rope and sat with my arms wrapped around my knees and my head down, trying to put out the fire of fear that was blazing within me. I stayed on the raft for the rest of the day and the whole night” (Martel 228). Like the raft, Pi’s faith, constructed of portions of three separate religions, trails diligently behind his survival needs and instincts –symbolized by Richard Parker and the...
In drastic situations, human psychology uses coping mechanisms to help them through it. In the novel, Life of Pi by Yann Martel, Pi’s coping mechanism is his religions and his projection of Richard Parker. Martel’s Life of Pi shows how the projection of Richard Parker played a greater role in keeping Pi alive in comparison to his beliefs in his religions. During the period in which Pi was stranded on the lifeboat, Richard Parker kept Pi aware, helped Pi make the right decisions, and was Pi’s sub-consciousness.
After being afloat the life boat with Pi yelling out to all of the Religious leader in which he believes shows that he has not lost his faith in any religion despite of what he’s facing, Pi goes through a somewhat “oceanic” feeling.
Even though Pi has a strong faith in God, it becomes hard for him to fully trust in God, because of all the hardships which he had struggled with. To completely trust in God’s love is hard when Pi loses everything he loved for no apparent reason. But, Pi must keep his head up and maintain his strong faith because he knows that if he does not he will truly be left with nothing. Pi needs his faith to survive, and to not fall into despair.
Piscine Patel was born and raised in an Indian town, this is where he began his own hero’s journey. Pi’s journey started out in his own ordinary world where he studied zoology and religion studies at the University of Toronto. Pi then went on to St. Michael’s College and graduated at the top of his class with awards from the Zoology Department (Martel 6). Pi was also very interested in his father’s zoo animals (Riley). In the ordinary world, Pi came across many circumstances that would later trouble him. While in India he began to practice four different religions. Pi spent a great deal of time in prayer and in the temples. Once all the priests found out about his multiple religious practices he was told not to take part in all religions and that he had to make a choice between them (Martel 85). Pi chose to still take part in all practices, but he tended to stay in the back of the temples. One day Pi’s father announced that they were moving to Canada, this is when Pi heard the call to adventure. He
At the start of novel, and when Pi is a child, he is extremely religious. He devotes his life to loving God, and even practices three religions to do so. He practices Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity. His explanation for practicing all three is that according to Bapu Gandhi, “‘All religions are true’”(69). Pi explains that he practices all three religions because, “[he] just wants to love God”(69). Pi’s major religious values and faith in God continue to shape his life daily, until the shipwreck leaves him stranded on the Pacific, with a tiger for 227 days. Although Pi still remains religious and continues to praise God most days, the shipwreck does change Pi’s religious morals. Richard Parker is the factor that begins this change in Pi, because Pi knows that in order to survive he will have to fish to provide for Richard Parker if he wants to avoid being eaten himself. Fishing, however goes against the religious practice of Hinduism, which requires vegetarianism. Also, killing animals goes against Pi’s whole religious morals to not hurt another living being. Pi says the idea of killing a fish, and of “beating a soft living head with a hammer [is] simply too much”(183). It goes against everything he believes in. So, he decides to instead cover to fish’s head and break its neck (183). He explains that, “he [gives] up a number of times.
In Life of Pi, the protagonist, Piscine “Pi” Patel, survives 227 days at sea with the help of a higher power. He is given the strength to fight for survival, which proves that God is among him. Throughout the story, he acquires a spiritual courage, which allows him to deal with his physical misery. Though Pi had gone through a lamentable tragedy, he claimed, “It was natural that, bereft and desperate as I was, in the throes of unremitting suffering, I should turn to God,” (p. 284). Pi never feels resentful towards God for putting
Pi has many traits that tend to enhance throughout the story, but we would like to elaborate further on his religious beliefs. It would be an understatement to say that Pi is simply a religious person. Pi’s initial religion was Hinduism, but as time went on he began to practice several ‘separate’ religions. Everyone told Pi that he could only have one religion to which he countered, “Bapu Gandhi said, ‘All religions are true.’ I just want to love God.” (87 Martel) At one time he asked his mother for a prayer rug and made this point, “If there’s only one nation in the sky, shouldn’t all passports be valid for it?” (93 Martel) Through all of the tragedy and sorrow that Pi had to endure, even through times of great doubt, Pi always came back to his
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 ...
They brought me comfort that is certain. But it was hard, oh, it was hard. Faith in God is an opening up, a letting go, a deep trust, a free act of love.” (Yann Martel, Life of Pi, 231) At a certain point in his journey, Pi started to question God because he could not understand why God was not listening to his prayers and in reality if God was with him, how was God letting him go through all this pain. He also started to learn that he could not be completely faithful to what each religion stands for. Pi had to kill a fish and he felt very guilty and sad about doing so but he knew he had to put aside his Hindu beliefs to survive. He had to adapt which consequently added more disbelief into Pi’s head. However his adaptations were not just ignoring rules but it was also him trying to adapt to figure out a way how he could oblige to each religion 's way of communicating with God (Praying). For Islam, he had to figure out which way Mecca was so that he could pray, solitary masses without priests and communion hosts for Christianity, and darshans without murtis for Hinduism. That being said to add more fire to the flame, right before he fully lost belief he found an island, he assumed he was imaging it but after hanging around in the algae-filled land he thought of as a reward. He starts to enjoy his time and eats some of the algae and finds some fresh water. Just as his faith was being restored the island turned out to be a carnivorous island and loses faith once again. He turns to atheism and realizes that the only way to live is if he starts to use science. Despite his doubts, he still continued to follow his religions. He mentions that “The blackness would stir and eventually go away,
In the book the Life of Pi by Yann Martel, religion plays an important role in Pi’s life. When on the lifeboat, Pi used his faith as a way to motivate himself to live. Without his religious beliefs, there is no way to guarantee he would have made it off the lifeboat.
In the lifeboat, his choices were based on his religion. For instance, Pi hesitated first to kill the fish because he was vegetarian, but he set aside his religion because he believes that he needs to survive since he thinks God is with him. He thanks Vishnu, a Hindu God, for coming as a fish to save him. “Even when God seemed to have abandoned me … indifferent to my suffering, He was watching; and when I was beyond all of hope of saving, He gave me rest, and gave me a sign to continue my journey.” This quote portrays how Pi felt that God was with him every time, and that is why he is willing to live and not give up.
Pi maintains his religious beliefs while on the life boat through his daily prayers. He takes time aside each day to say the prayers that he always would say. In one instance, he turns where he believes Mecca is located, and prays his traditional prayers towards Mecca. Pi also often states that he will include specific animals in his prayers, such as the zebra aboard his lifeboat, and the first fish that he ever killed. With Pi keeping his ritual prayers going, it helped him to survive.
In conclusion, the main idea in Life of Pi is that having the will to survive is a key component to survival. The three ways this is shown is through symbolism of the colour orange, having religion on the protagonist’s side and the thirst and hunger experienced by the protagonist. Things do not always happen the way one would want them to happen: “Things didn’t turn out the way they were supposed to, but what can you do? You must take life the way it comes at you and make the best of it” (101) Faith determines ones destiny and nothing can be changed about that, one can live their life to the fullest and enjoy every moment and not regret it. No matter what faith throws at one, as long as they have the will to survive they can pull through anything.