Life Of Pi Religious Analysis

Pi’s belief system was an anchor for his thoughts and experiences and his faith in God prepared him for the Initiation stage of the Hero’s Journey.

Religion helped Pi find inner peace and calmness, it also helped Pi recover from various experiences. At a young age, Pi was introduced to three of the world’s major religions. Pi gave equal importance to all three religions and practiced all of them with complete devotion. Pi’s gateway to religion was opened by his aunt, when he was taken to the nearby temple for the first time: the smell of flowers and chants of the priest, it was all meant to be. Pi was very religious and had so much faith in God that Pi refused to die.

The Life of Pi is a book filled with many fantasy adventures that will have an excellent impact on what you may or not believe in. This novel was published in 2001 by author Yann Martel. Yann Martel is a writer who is trying to make sense of life, just like any other human being trying to deal with everyday obstacles. In this book we see that the protagonist, Piscine Molitor also known as Pi takes us through an adventure that will question our faith in religion. Pi is not pleased by only following his ancestors’ beliefs; he believes that there is much more to religion. In The life of Pi we see that Pi argues amongst his family in what he wants to believe in. His father is not at all religious and Pi has taken up religion as a hobby. Now Pi is a Hindu, Muslim and a Christian and he undergoes a tragedy, a shipwreck with his family on voyage to Canada from India. As he goes through this process it puts his faith to the test. At the time of this voyage he is a teenager exploring different beliefs and he sees nothing wrong with believing in three different religions. We can argue that there is a war between religion and science. Pi on the other hand does not argue with those of other beliefs, he calls the atheists his brethrens as well. “It was my first clue that atheist are my brothers and sisters of a different faith, and every word they speak speaks of faith. Like me, they go as far as the legs of reason will carry

Yann Martel establishes in the beginning of Life of Pi in the author’s note that the claim to the heart of the novel in this story will “make you believe in God.” Since God is an identity that exists in a fiction or non-fiction realm, the audience is led to believe that the story to be told is true, opening the reader to the idea that belief in anything can be belief in God. Pi makes sense of his life through the expressions of Hinduism, Christianity and Muslim, “That which sustains the universe beyond thought and language, and that which is at the core of us and struggles for expression.” (Pg.68) This emphasizes Pi’s dedication and devotion to his religions and God. Martel is opening up to Pi’s story to convince the reader to find faith in Pi’s words.

In the story Life of Pi Patel believes in more than one religion like Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam. His first religion is Hinduism because of his natural love of its spirituality and beauty. When Pi went to a catholic church and the priest told him about the story of Christ he fell in love with it. Later in the story pi becomes a Muslim when Mr.Satish was explaining that Islam is a religion about the Beloved. “God is universal,” (68) When the pandit ask the question “....why is Piscine dallying with these foreign religions?” Then the priest answers “God is universal,” because so what if Pi Patel believes in more than one religion, he's still faithful of the main importance of loving God. Pi uses these religions to the battle he is going

The way Pi acts throughout his journey suggests that having faith is one of the most important practises to learn as it can give an individual hope. Pi has a strong connection to all his practising faiths: Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism. Society is set to have many unspoken rules that we must abide by to

A little later in his life, Pi meets a baker who is a Muslim. After spending time with this baker and learning about Islam, he decide to be a Muslim as well. Pi worships the gods of all of these religions and lives his life by the moral teachings of the three. Pi is chastised for his actions by his family and his religious elders. His parents are reluctant to get Pi a prayer mad because they don't agree with his Islamic views.

Throughout the story Pi simply, “just wanted to love God” (Martel 69). Regardless of what others believed and thought, Pi would not abandon his life with God. His family also often made comments about his religious views. His mother seemed to hold a neutral place, but his father and brother did not understand the reasoning behind why he would want to be involved so heavily in religion. To some the ideas of reason held more explanation than what religion could give. At one point though, Pi’s father seemed to take his side on the matter. He set his beliefs in reason aside and stated, “I suppose that’s what we’re all trying to do, love God” (Martel 69). Faith in God seemed to be very important and more important than the thoughts of reason.

As explained in the book, Pi follows three different religions; Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity. Pi is extremely interested in all three religions and tries to find himself through religion. Although, he does not understand why he can’t follow all three religions. “But he can’t be a Hindu, a Christian and a Muslim. It’s impossible. He must choose.” (76) This thread represents that he dedicates himself to the things he believes in and will fight for what he believes in. Even when his family disagreed with his decision of following all three religions, he still fought for what he believed.

At first he expressed his love through Hinduism, a religion in which he was born into because of his traditional Indian heritage. Though later on a holiday when he was fourteen, Pi saw a Christian Church and entered it. He became curious about the religion and decided to take on Christianity as well as Hinduism. Shortly after, Pi joins Islam and continued to worship all three religions. It was not until one day when the priest, imam, and pandit came to the zoo, was Pi confronted about identifying as Christian, Hindu, and Muslim. The three argued on how their religion was right and how the others were simply myths. Though Pi argued against them all, saying that all religion is true because that was his belief/perspective. The reason they all disagreed was because each leader came from a different perspective of what was true . Just like before, none of the stories can be proven to be “right” due to the multiple biased perspectives. Though all have the same underlying meaning to love God, regardless of how it is

Pi is a very intriguing character that has interesting characteristic to him. He loves to practise many religions and looks at the world through these view points. What if the religions he is practising go against each other and each contradicts his beliefs? The religions he practises, Islam, Christianity, and Hinduism, all have different rules and practises. Hindus are a polytheistic religion, Christianity believe in the trinity, while Islam believe are monotheistic and believe in the words of Muhammad. Each one has a different scripture or book that states what they must follow and what actions they are to take, so what will happen if Pi must make a decision? Which one would he follow and which one will he discard? Not knowing what to do

In the words of Gandhi, “The essence of all religions is one. Only their approaches are different”. In the story Life of Pi, Pi Patel personally experiences different aspects of four religions including Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam. The author, Yann Martel promotes the concept of believing in more than one religion by exemplifying the diversities within each faith.

It is difficult to talk about the Life of Pi text without making a reference to faith, and the same goes with explaining Pi’s survival. Pi’s belief in pluralism and acceptance of the three religions, Hinduism, Christianity and Islam aid his future and is a crucial part of his survival at sea. His faith in knowing “so long as god is with me, I will not die” gives him the mental strength and will power to survive his ordeal. Even in the middle of the ocean, Pi practices all his religious rituals such as ‘‘solitary masses without consecrated Communion Hosts’’

In The Life of Pi by Yann Martel, Pi's compelling struggle to survive in the vast Pacific Ocean tests his faith and devotion. Religion is one of the main themes in the book. Pi Patel was involved in three religions: Catholicism, Hinduism, and Islam. Catholicism seems to be the religion that Pi really connects with. Pi’s love for God is shown throughout the book.

In the beginning of the novel we focus on Pi struggling with his beliefs as he tries to find his path throughout his religious journey. He faces many options and worldviews but as he progresses he begins to accept himself and what he truly believes. He grows in spiritual knowledge by questioning a Christian priest wondering if “this son...who goes hungry, who suffers from thirst, who gets tired, who is sad, who is anxious, who is heckled and harassed... – what kind of god is that? It's a god on too human a scale, that's what”(17). Through questions