While discriminates between religions were still intense, Pi had already stuck his faith in three religions, only because he “wants to love God”. However, it became doubtable if believing in three religions still helps when it comes to surviving with a tiger on the same lifeboat sailing in the center of the Pacific Ocean. In Yann Martel’s “Life of Pi”, religion brings about conflict for Pi, but it also supports Pi’s survival, and ultimately, strengthen Pi’s belief in God. Religion is always known as a source of hope, but in the novel, Pi must choose between keeping true to his religious faith or survival. During Pi’s drift in the Pacific Ocean, he faced the situation where he had to kill a life to feed Richard Parker: “I wept heartily over …show more content…
Pi always felt himself filled with confidence when he believed in God: “Despair was a heavy blackness that let no light in or out. It was a hell beyond expression. I thank God it always passed……The blackness would stir and eventually go away, and God would remain, a shining point of light in my heart. I would go on loving”(Martel 264). Pi had experienced so much hardships during his time on the lifeboat. All the events that went against Pi’s survival could have destroyed his hope. When Pi said, “I thank God it always passed” it meant that all his worships he’d done to God had played a great role in relieving his despair. He also described God as “a shining point of light in my heart”, meaning that God will be the center of hope for his entire life. Compared to the previous sentence “Despair was a heavy blackness that let no light in or out”, this sentence showed that Pi believes that the hope God gave to him can be defeated by no despair. Therefore, religion had supported Pi mentally, which made him survive his long drift in the Pacific …show more content…
After Pi had left an island, he expressed his loyalty towards God: “I tell you, if you were in such dire straits as I was, you too would elevate your thoughts. The lower you are, the higher your mind will want to soar. It was natural that, bereft and desperate as I was, in the throes of unremitting suffering, I should turn to God”(Martel 358) In the previous chapter, Pi had encountered a strange island in the Pacific Ocean. There were eatable algae and fresh water to keep Pi from starvation and dehydration. There were also overcrowded meerkats to feed Richard Parker. Pi was thinking about stopping his voyage and staying on the island for the rest of his life, until he discovered some human tooth inside the leaves of a tree, and that made Pi leave the island. If it was God’s will to force Pi off the ease and secure island and continue his voyage filled with hardships and danger, it might seem that God was cruel to Pi. However, what lied beyond this risk, is a path that would lead Pi towards Mexico shore, and return back to civilization. With the hope given from despair from God, Pi finally burst out the word “I should turn to God”. Therefore, the despair, hope and guidance made Pi deepen his belief in
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...
Pi spoke in a guilty tone when recounting one of his stories of sea, “I will confess that I caught one of his arms with the gaff and used it for bait. I prayed for his soul every day,” by having Pi “confess” what he did to the sailor Martel provides the character with a guilty tone (256). After the incident with the Dorado, Pi understood that God forgives sins necessary towards survival. However, it is obvious that Pi has an internal struggle with guilt since he still feels the need to pray for the sailor years after cutting his arm. While on the lifeboat, there were some desperate situations in which a sin had to be committed in order for Pi Patel to survive, and although God proved that the boy’s actions in those times of stress where forgiven, the child still struggled to relieve his memories of certain dramatic
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.
This quote represents that Pi has a strong faith in God. He uses his faith in God to fight his suffering from dehydration and starvation. This brings him closer to God, and throughout the novel he reaches to out to God and his belief to strengthen him in his darkest times.
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.
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 story he or she thinks is true, but rather what story he or she thinks is the better story. In real life, this applies in a very similar way to common belief systems and religion. Whether or not God is real or a religion is true is not exactly the point, but rather whether someone chooses to believe so because it adds meaning and fulfillment to his or her life. Life of Pi is relevant to life in its demonstration of storytelling as a means of experiencing life through “the better story.”
In the novel, Pi doesn’t talk about Hinduism as much as Christianity. This could have challenged Pi whenever he was confronted with all three religions. In this novel, it is very well explained how people feel so much better about themselves with religion. “According to the Hindu religion, they believe that God isn’t far away. He is in their hearts and minds. They also believe that when one knows this, it gives them hope and courage” (Monastery). In the book, the connection would be that Pi felt hope and courage through his journey. Maybe, he wanted to impress God. Maybe, Pi wanted to make God proud so he could be welcomed into his arms on his last day. One of the main reasons Pi survived, was because he had faith the whole way. In Life of Pi, we don’t really know how Pi really felt on his 227 day journey. We could tell that nothing could stand in the way of him and his God.
Pi turns to God and says aloud, “‘Yes, so long as God is with me, I will not die.’” (Martel, 148). Instead of giving up, he used a miracle that God gives him and turns it into a routine. His belief of God watching over him gave him a lot of motivation Pi explains his struggles when he says “You might think I lost all hope at one point. I did. And as a result, I perked up and felt much better. We see it in sports all the time don’t we?” (Martel 134). At this moment, Pi decides to disregard Richard Parker and focus on his thirst. He thinks back to how when Jesus was crucified, that his only complaint was thirst. This gave Pi a reason to help himself by letting go of his worrying. As he slowly becomes more depressed, Pi comes to the realization that “God’s hat was always unraveling. God’s pants were falling apart. God’s cat was a constant danger. God’s ark was a jail. God’s wide acres were slowly killing me. God’s ear didn’t seem to be listening.” (Martel, 209). Whenever Pi starts to upset about his situation, he yells about how everything symbolizes God. Although sometimes it did not help, Pi says that he will continue to hope and love
Pi is a young man from India, who, like any other teenager growing up, is at something of a crossroads, trying to discover a grand purpose and meaning to life. Through his family and everyday life, Pi is exposed to four different religions during his childhood: Hinduism, Catholicism, Islam, and to an extent, Atheism. After being exposed to the three religions and his father urging him towards Atheism and rational though, Pi comes to the conclusion that he, “just wants to love God”, showing the audience that Pi derives his understanding of the world through God, and his idea of God through each religion. However, Pi’s complacent views of the world are challenged during his meeting with Richard Parker. In this scene, Pi seeks to discover Richard Parker’s soul, believing God will allow him to form a spiritual connection with the tiger. The connection begins to form, as close up shots of both Pi’s and the tiger’s eyes
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.
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
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.
There’s only so much a person can take when trying their best to survive. The mere stress of the situation can make people go crazy and even beg for an end to their suffering, causing them to make rash decisions. It's true, Pi had many terrible experiences. He often reflected on them and told about them throughout the story. Pi never let the situation get the best of him. He persisted and persisted and did all that he could just to live. And though he didn't swim because of the distance being too long, he used that endurance in another way. He took on whatever challenges came his way, but even when he thought all hope was lost, he never gave
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.