Pi And Jordan Religion

At the beginning of the novel, Pi’s story is described as “a story that will make you believe in God.” Writer himself Yann Martel was going thru his writers crisis, traveling world looking for a good story to write something about. Martel found a man who told his story. His man named Piscine Molitor Patel who is a practicing follower of three religions: Hinduism, Christianity and Islam. For this reason, extremely mature boy must constantly fight the lack of tolerance and understanding in his surroundings. While in the case of adult people the lack of a specific decision on the faith can be perceived as humiliating, but Pi is fully justified because of his young age. His desire is to find the road to the creator will be seriously tested during

Yann Martel manipulates the narrative style and structural devices within this passage to support the will to survive theme that is present in Life of Pi. Before the shipwreck, Pi was a spiritual individual with a strong appreciation for the joy and peace in life. Pi commonly experienced cruelty and doubt from his family and friends; however, he remained calm by following the guidance from his three religions. After the shipwreck, the spirituality within Pi’s life was tampered with because the chaotic and brute actions of the animals threatened to separate Pi from his peaceful demeanour. At first, Pi maintained his interaction with God, but as the days passed and the conditions worsened, Pi’s animal instincts began to develop.

While on the road to nowhere, Pi starts to acquire water from the rain and obtains food to stock up while he’s worrying about the 400 pound tiger that’s on the lifeboat while Pi is on a small raft. When Pi starts to tame Richard Parker he can finally call him a friend and now has a purpose. As a Hindu, Pi does not eat meat but that went out of the window when he catches a fish and eats it raw to stay alive. When it comes down to survival there is no preference in what to eat.

In contrast to the background of Lord of the Flies, Pi, the main character in Life of Pi, has a relatively peaceful childhood. He grows up in the 1970s in Pondicherry, South India, during a time of peace and prosperity. Except for school bullies, he is largely ignorant of violence, bar the time his father exposed him and his brother to the dangerous tendencies of the zoo animals. Furthermore, Pi explores religion for himself, and while he does have values impressed upon him by his parents, such as not eating meat, he is largely responsible for creating his own unique set of values that revolve around three major religions.

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

“It is simple and brutal: a person can get used to anything, even to killing.” (Martel 205) This quote describes how even though Pi despaired his first killing of the fish because he took a life, he now becomes delighted at the idea of killing fish; he even has hunter’s pride now. This displays how Pi loses a part of his morality because of the decisions that he had to make in order to survive because he did not have anyone to confide in or talk to in order to stay grounded to who he is. “He gave me life, my own, but at the expense of taking one. He ripped the flesh off the man’s frame and cracked his bones. The smell of blood filled my nose. Something in me died then that has never come back to life.” (Martel 283) This is a dark moment for Pi as he experiences an awful event, which causes him to lose the morality that he had during his

Pi knows his beliefs and strives to show others its strength. Throughout the book Pi develops in several ways, but his beliefs are the one thing that stay throughout his life. Pi deals with an immense amount of loss and through his faith became a stronger person. Pi, just like most people has central morals and changes through his

Pi feels it is okay to practice all three religions because they all have one goal or purpose which is the belief in God. Since each story he has heard is different, it does not take away from the main moral. This ties in with the imagination aspect because no matter how a story is told, the end result is the same. An example of this is when he is confronted and surrounded by the Priest, Pandit, and Imam. His response as to why he was practicing Hindu, Christian and Muslim faiths was, “Bapu Gandhi said, ‘All religions are true.’ I just want to love God.”(Page 76) Believing in all three religions is something Pi feels is important to him because he is just trying to love and pray to God in as many ways as possible. Although the stories are interesting, it doesn’t really matter how you got to the ending if the purpose of the story is the equal. The important of Pi’s imagination is triggered by this and has later gone into great effect. The religions he practices represent hat behind every reason, everyone has their own way of saying it, whether it be fiction or non-fiction.

B) Pi is a very brave and religious character. Pi being brave kept him alive throughout the story. He lasted 7 months stranded on a boat with just himself and a Bengal tiger! Even though in the beginning of the story, when he was young, he kept to himself; in the second half of the book he became extremely powerful. His three-way religion comes into the story for more hope he’ll live. Religion kept him sane; it gave him something

Throughout the novel, Pi’s thoughts reveal and internal struggle between his desire to live and his own beliefs to what is morally right. Pi grows up on varying religious viewpoints because he studies different religions. His religious diversity forms a moral standard of “dignity not …depravity” (Martel 71). He values dignity and character over corruption of morals initially because he sees

Although Pi has taken part in many faiths he must break his beliefs in order to survive. A task that had gotten easier through repetition was fishing and killing many sea animals (fish, turtles) in order to eat. Although this was difficult the first time, when he saw “the thing was gasping for water”(Pg230) he could not kill it. Pi

Laura Ann and I have begun reading Yann Martel’s The Life of Pi. After reading this section we have both agreed that two substantial themes are apparent. These are religion and the influence of growing up at a zoo on Pi, the main character. These two points are intertwined and are put in comparison multiple times. The book begins with background on Pi’s life before an unnamed tragedy takes place. During Pi’s childhood he is introduced to Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam. All of which he is fascinated by and participates in each of their practices. Although these religions are very different and at times contradicting, Pi believes in all of them. He also relates religion to zoology, “I know zoos are no longer in people’s good graces. Religion

Pi’s physical isolation causes him to judge his own moral beliefs by eating meat for the first time, even though he is a vegetarian. In this quote, “I fished with a variety of hooks at a variety of depths for a variety of fish,” (Martel 215), it explains him fishing. By being a vegetarian his whole life, his physical isolation made him to go against his own moral beliefs of not eating an animal. But eventually survival kicks-in and being physically isolated in the Pacific Ocean caused Pi to betray his own personal belief.

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.

The first time his faith is tested is when he speaks to his biology teacher about religion. His biology teacher explains to him why in his opinion “religion is darkness” (Martel 27). Pi being young does not know how to respond, but without realizing it this experience stuck with him forever. This can be seen because Pi’s belief in the power of God only increases, as he begins practicing Islam and Catholicism as well.