life of pi critical essay

by Yann Martel

Life of pi essay questions.

Pi argues that Mr. Okamoto and Mr. Chiba should take the “better story” as the true story. Argue that either the first or second story is the “true story.”

Suggested Answer: Either side can be argued. To argue that the first story is the true story: all characters in the text, even those originally skeptical, and including the author, eventually choose to believe the first story. Pi was greatly experienced with zoo animals, and manages to plausibly explain how he survived with Richard Parker for so long. Similarly, he seems truly depressed about Richard Parker’s desertion, such that it is clear that he, at least, believes his second story. To argue that the second story is the true story: Pi’s main argument to convince the skeptical Mr. Okamoto and Mr. Chiba that the first is true is that it is better, which is irrelevant in an argument about absolute truth.

Yann Martel has said that the hyena is meant to represent cowardice. Explain how this is true.

Suggested Answer: The hyena displays many negative qualities, such as greed, stupidity and viciousness, but these qualities can be seen to come from its cowardice. At the beginning of their time in the boat, the hyena whines almost constantly, and is so afraid that it runs in circles until it makes itself sick. Unlike Pi, who even in his desperate fear finds ways to survive, the hyena just kills and eats as much as it can in a panicked state until Richard Parker kills it.

In what ways does Pi parallel religious belief in God to the zoo?

Suggested Answer: The main parallel that Pi draws between these two things is the true freedom that both provide, even in seeming to restrict it. He says that detractors argue that zoos restrict animals’ freedom and so make them unhappy, and the rituals and rules of religion can similarly be said to restrict human freedom. Pi argues, however, that zoos, by providing an animal with its survival needs, in fact give that animal as much freedom, for it is content, safe, and wouldn’t want to leave. Similarly, the rules and ritual of religion in fact give people what Pi sees as their spiritual essentials, and thus a more significant kind of freedom.

Yann Martel has called chapters 21 and 22 essential to the book. Why would this be so?

Suggested Anwer: These chapters deal explicitly with the promise of Pi’s story’s power given by Mr. Adirubasamy—that it will make the author, and by extension, the reader, believe in God. In chapter 21, that the author has begun to believe is very clear, and chapter 22 underscores Pi’s belief in every atheist’s potential to become a believer. The chapters together also underscore the act of storytelling, which Pi himself relates to a belief in God, by showing the author writing down the words which he then presents to us as Pi’s own—and which are echoed at the end of the story, when Pi convinces Mr. Okamoto to believe in his story, and thus God.

Both worship of God and survival are hugely important to Pi—which does he give primacy to?

Suggested Answer: Although Pi claims to have never lost faith in God, this faith clearly becomes less important to him while he is in his desperate fight to survive. Most obviously, he talks about God and his belief much less than in the chapters that deal with his life before and after his ordeal. He becomes to weak to perform his religious rituals with any regularity, but even more, he allows his need to survive to overpower his moral system. That is, he eats meat, kills living animals, and even goes so far as to eat human flesh.

What are the significance of the stories behind how Pi and Richard Parker got their names?

Suggested Answer: Both Pi and Richard Parker’s naming stories are related to water—Pi is named for a swimming pool, and Richard Parker’s name was supposed to be Thirsty, because he drank so emphatically. Pi’s water-related name is significant because he is the only member of his family who Mr. Adirubasamy can teach to swim, and although it does not explicitly save him, this ability gives Pi options while he is at sea. That Richard Parker ends up named after a man, rather than Thirsty as he is meant to be, is also significant because although Pi knows the danger of it, he eventually anthropomorphizes Richard Parker and so feels betrayed by him.

Belief is a major theme in this novel. How are belief in God and belief in a story paralleled in Life of Pi ?

Suggested Answer: Pi parallels the belief in God with the belief in a story by saying that everything in life is a story, because it is seen through a certain perspective, and thus altered by that perspective. If this is the case, he claims that something that doesn’t change factual existence and cannot be determined finally either way can be chosen. Given this, one can, and should, choose the better story, which Pi believes is the story—the life—that includes a belief in God.

Why is it significant that Pi is blind when he meets the Frenchman?

Suggested Answer: Pi’s blindness is symbolic in many ways in the episode with the Frenchman. At the end of Life of Pi , Pi tells the Japanese officials that they would believe in the man-eating island if they had seen it, and thus ties belief to sight. Without sight, belief is much more difficult—so much so that Pi assumes he is hallucinating for much of his conversation with the Frenchman. But in the end he is able to believe without sight, an imperative for belief in God. His blindness is also significant because it parallels the literal darkness to the figurative darkness of the scene, which is perhaps the most disturbing of all of Pi’s ordeal.

Why does Pi give Richard Parker credit for his survival?

Suggested Answer: Richard Parker provides Pi with two things that are essential to his survival—companionship, and a surmountable obstacle. Although Richard Parker’s presence at first seems like a death sentence, the challenges presented by it are in fact surmountable, as opposed to the loss of his family and the despair that it causes, which Pi can do nothing to alleviate. And although Richard Parker is dangerous, once Pi has tamed him, he does, in the wide open sea, provide a certain kind of companionship, which is deeply important to the utterly alone Pi.

If each character in Pi’s two stories are paralleled, Orange Juice to Pi’s mother, the hyena to the cook, the sailor to the zebra, and Pi to Richard Parker, what does the Pi in the first story represent?

Suggested Answer: While Richard Parker in the first story is paralleled to Pi, it can be said that he is paralleled to Pi’s survival instinct, while the Pi in the first story represents Pi’s spirituality and morality. In this way, Pi’s spirituality is able, with much hard work, to exert some control over his survival instinct—at least enough to remain in existence, even when not in control—while the survival instinct remains powerful and dangerous. Pi says that he would not have survived without Richard Parker, and this too is true in the parallel, for Pi’s spirituality and morality needed Pi’s survival instinct to keep his body alive, so that his spirituality could exist as well.

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Life of Pi Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Life of Pi is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

how pi describe the hyena

"I am not one to hold a prejudice against any animal, but it is a plain fact that the spotted hyena is not well served by its appearance. It is ugly beyond redemption. Its thick neck and high shoulders that slope to the hindquarters look as...

What is flight distance? Why is this important for zookeepers to know?

Flight distance is the amount of space that one animal will allow another animal before fleeing. Zookeepers need to be aware of this distance in order to keep from frightening the animals.

Please state your question.

Study Guide for Life of Pi

Life of Pi is a novel by Yann Martel. Life of Pi study guide contains a biography of author Yann Martel, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

About Life of Pi
Life of Pi Summary
Life of Pi Video
Character List

Essays for Life of Pi

Life of Pi essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Life of Pi written by Yann Martel.

Living a Lie: Yann Martel’s Pi and his Dissociation from Reality
A Matter of Perspective: The Invention of a Story in Martel’s Life of Pi
Religion as a Coping Mechanism in Life of Pi
Hope and Understanding: Comparing Life of Pi and Bless Me, Ultima
Religious Allegories in Life of Pi

Lesson Plan for Life of Pi

About the Author
Study Objectives
Common Core Standards
Introduction to Life of Pi
Relationship to Other Books
Bringing in Technology
Notes to the Teacher
Related Links
Life of Pi Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for Life of Pi

Introduction
Inspiration

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Critical Insights: Life of Pi

2020, Salem Press

Yann Martel’s 2001 novel Life of Pi earned him the Man Booker Prize and also served as the basis for the critically acclaimed 2012 movie of the same title. The essays featured in this volume survey the novel’s critical reception, discussing topics ranging from narrative techniques through religion and philosophy to the cultural role of zoos, and also provide a brief introduction to the author’s life and work. This volume, like all others in the Critical Insights series, is divided into several sections. It begins with an introductory piece, “On Life of Pi,” by volume editors Ádám T. Bogár and Rebeka Sára Szigethy, which offers a comprehensive introduction to the titular novel and its multifaceted interpretations. This is followed by a Biography of Yann Martel, written by Gerardo Del Guercio. A collection of four critical contexts essays are intended to treat the novel (1) from a historical vantage point, (2) in terms of its critical reception, (3) using a specific critical lens, and (4) by comparing and contrasting it with another important work. This section opens with an article by Nicolae Bobaru titled, “Life of Pi: A Postmodern Castaway Novel Transcending Boundaries,” followed by a piece written by volume editors Ádám T. Bogár and Rebeka Sára Szigethy, “’…Faith in the Act of Storytelling’: The Critical Reception of Life of Pi.” This essay focuses on the critical responses, including early reviews from the novel’s release to later and more reflective critiques. The following two articles are written by Ester Láncos and Shu-Jiang Lu respectively. The first, “Survival through Meaning: Reading Life of Pi through the lens of Logotherapy,” offers a particular critical lens by examining the novel through the lens of logotherapy, or the concept that the principal motivation of an individual is to look for the meaning of life. The final essay, “Life in Stories: Narrated Time in Life of Pi and To Live,” compares and contrasts Yann Martel’s and Yu Hua’s novels. Following these four Critical Context essays is the Critical Readings section of this book, which contains the following essays: Pi’s Life and What It Tells Us: A Jungian Reading of the Symbols of Life of Pi, Debaditya Mukhopadhyay The New “Demonic” Animal: Crediting God and the Better Story in Life of Pi, Rachel L. Carazo Regarding Others: Ethical Human-Animal Encounters in Life of Pi, Alice Bendinelli Empathizing with Animals through Fiction: Animal Studies in Life of Pi, Monica Sousa Confined Freedom and Free Confinement: The Ethics of Captivity in Life of Pi, Heather Browning and Walter Veit Believing without Evidence: Pragmatic Arguments for Religious Belief in Life of Pi, Alberto Oya Faith as Fiction or Narrative as Salvation? Ang Lee’s Cinematic Adaptation of Life of Pi as a Pascalian Leap of Faith, Christian Jimenez Transmedial Pi (3.1415926…) Part One: Text and Context, Naomi Simone Borwein Transmedial Pi (3.1415926…) Part Two: Visualization and Adaptation, Naomi Simone Borwein What We Bring to the World: Narrative-Making as Hermeneutical Practice in Life of Pi, Francesca Pierini On the Tail of Trauma: The Stories We Tell Ourselves and Others, Jen Yoder Life of Pi and Homer’s Odyssey: Suffering, Survival, and Storytelling, Adam Lecznar Otherness in Pondicherry, Regina A. Bernard In the final section, Resources, easy-to-follow lists are provided to help guide the reader through important dates and moments in the author’s life. A selection of further reading is then provided. Each essay in Critical Insights: Life of Pi includes a list of Works Cited and detailed endnotes. Also included in this volume is a Chronology of Yann Martel’s Life, a list of Works by Yann Martel, a Bibliography, biographies of the Editors and Contributors, and an alphabetical Index. The Critical Insights Series distills the best of both classic and current literary criticism of the world’s most studies literature. Edited and written by some of academia’s most distinguished literary scholars, Critical Insights: Life of Pi provides authoritative, in-depth scholarship that students and researchers will rely on for years. This volume is destined to become a valuable purchase for all.

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A Thematic Analysis on Life of Pi

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Literally Literary

Life of Pi was written by the Canadian writer Yann Martel in 2001. The storyline is based on an Indian Boy, Piscine Patel (aka. Pi), a boy with a zeal to explore the notion of spirituality.

His father is a zoo owner in the Indian state of Pondicherry. Due to a national crisis, he decides to sell his zoo and immigrate to Canada with his family. During their trip, a storm hits their ship, leading to a wreckage, and bringing death to everything on the ship except a zebra, a hyena, a monkey, a tiger, and Pi. These lives are left in a small boat in the middle of the ocean where there is no one to come to their aid. The writer eloquently articulates the conditions, circumstances, thoughts, feelings, environment that was with Pi in the middle of the ocean, with nothing but animals and a survivor kit until he reaches the border of Mexico.

The theme of the book introspects into the concepts of belief, spirituality, hope, and perception that humans adopt to lead their lives. One idea that springs very prominently in the book is that spirituality and an optimistic view on life not only enhance human tendency to survive in adverse conditions, but also alleviate the pain that humans endure during their life term. It also explores the notion of morality and cognitive dissonance in situations where humans are forced to take action contradictory to their moral standards. The author uses personification, contradictions, figurative language and other rhetorical strategies to convey these ideas and make the reader question the various demanding and dictating phenomena that influences their decision making, and life is, alas, all about taking a decision.

1. Nature of Humanity

With his work, Life of Pi, Yann Martel reflects a light upon the perpetual quest of humans to comprehend the spiritual phenomena that affects and rules their lives. The novel demonstrates the immense capability of humans to adapt. The point when Pi becomes zealous to explore different religions sheds light upon that humanistic curiosity which always ponders the question — What could be happening on the other side?

Yann Martel via Pi gives out a very bewildering image of a human. He reveals the different characters within a single person in different circumstances such as the transformation of Pi from a religious priest to a savage. He conveys that humans are subject to influence and are in a continuous struggle to survive and flourish. Martel manifests this idea that humans are not a plain surface of logic and reasoning, but are complex sophisticated beings that exhibit impervious (and sometimes implausible) behavior. It is an ambiguous state when one says that people are “no damned good”.

When we look upon the progress of the society and civilization, centuries upon centuries, it is the humans who have developed, created, and expanded over time, but, on the other hand, it has also been the reason for the destruction of its own species, of its own home. Humanity is obscure; it could be cruel and be polite at the same time; it is a complex system of cognition and emotion that can neither be constant nor consistent. With the novel, Martel does not seem to believe in the redeeming qualities of humans as seen with Pi. Nobody compensated for his loss but everybody forced him to tell an alternate lie about his journey. This indicates that humans shun their level of morality in the quest of being satisfied with their own beliefs. The flawed side of humanity is shown through the disbelief that the two inspectors show towards Pi when he narrates his story to them. This disbelief shows the nature of humans, who judge others and only choose to believe that part of the story that satisfies their logic and reasoning; while ignoring the other parts which are necessary to create the real picture.

2. The Nature of Society

Humans have this ability to connect with each other. The bridge of this connection could be either language, or emotions, or body movements, or phenomena of the complex silent communication. With all these traits and characteristics, humans come together and work coherently to form what we call a society. Society plays a huge role in influencing, and in determining the attitude and behavior of a person.

In his book, Yann Martel portrays Pi as a deviation to the societal norms. He displays a kid with the overwhelming characteristics of curiosity and questioning, which lead him to turn to multiple cultures — Islamic, Christianity, Hinduism — to find the Omnipotent that somehow dictates the path of his life. The writer clearly paints the picture of the conflicts and the upsurging of the humans. Are these societal norms, culture detrimental to or enhancing life? Not necessarily. The consequences are all dependent on the state of mind and the perception that the person takes which is also dependent on another factor — situation.

The character depicted by the writer is in a state of stalemate where he wants to explore all the factions, but also wants to be faithful to his original faction. But as it is the societal rule that one can either be affiliated with one or other (there is no middle space). And deviating from the social norms does cause a dissonance within the members of each faction (the scene where the Muslim priest, Hindu Pundit, and Christian father end up in a conflict when they find out that Pi is following all their religions). In a way, Pi is seen to get more entrapped in this society rather than escaping it. This is evident in the prayers that he prays, in all the ways, to reveal his inner subconscious self to his conscious self; to realize his actual beliefs which still seems to be ambiguous.

The origin of this system of society is all connected to the prophecy and holy books, and perhaps belief. The most prominent factor for this kind of society are the beliefs people hold onto which weres passed to them from their predecessors. And this tradition of passing down adds a sacred value to that belief, to that idea that it persists to sustains itself in the society, and keeps on growing irrespective of the opposition and resistance. Looking from the modern perspective, the society that Pi lives in(1900’s India) seems to be still enveloped by the orthodox ideas and beliefs which are certainly flawed in one or the other way. Being orthodox may not be detrimental or disastrous for any life, but it could hinder the development of the person. It could put restrictions and barriers which may prevent one from breaking that wall that stands between them and success. Society certainly is one of factor or reason that can either annihilate us or make us reach for the stars.

4. The Nature of our Ethical Responsibilities

Morals and Ethics are the subjective notions that one has developed or has gained. These notions are responsible for guiding the person on a path of truth, peace, and tranquility.

In the story, Pi is always seen to be in conflict with his morals and ethics. The first conflict is created by the interest in all three different religions at the same time. He faces various criticisms that lead him to question himself but later, he finds a moral compass between all these religions.

The second conflict is when he is forced to eat fish in order to survive on the boat. His ritual behavior, that of a Brahmin vegetarian, comes into conflict with his action causing a cognitive dissonance and stress which Yann Martel eloquently articulates. Pi has the choice to adhere to his morals and not eat flesh and not kill the tortoise, fish, shark, or meerkats; but the situation and the human instinct to survive lead to an action which directly opposed his morals.

But the question arises — do humans always seek to adhere to their morals, or they become flexible in order to suffer the least? In his book, the writer portrays the double standards of humans when they are trapped in a dilemma of life and death. Morals are ambiguous, and subject to change in order to adjust according to the circumstance and consequences. A human can be very persistent and consistent, but life is not. Life is an indefinite journey which twists and turns, and to tolerate these sudden twists and turns, humans adapt and change every second. Sometimes one has to choose something which is wrong according to their morals and ethics but the situation forces them to take that choice, leaving the human in a state of ambiguity. Similarly, there may be situations where they have to choose the best but not the right option.

Moral choices are flexible and are based upon each person’s perception. Pi’s traditional morals come into conflict with his actions, but considering his situation, it seems to be appropriate. The consequence of the decision are borne by the decision maker, who is responsible for the outcome only to the extent where, if one would have gone the other way, the situation could have been different. In the case Pi, he was partially blamed for his actions as it was completely his decision to follow all three religions at the same time, which had never been witnessed by the society he dwells in. Moreover, his decisions of eating meat and flesh, although conditional, are completely his action due to his instinct to carry on with his life and survive. Pi is responsible for the final outcome as he seems to deliberately take every action into consideration that would guarantee his survival.

4. Conclusion

Looking it as a whole, the moral center of the work seems to be inside Pi himself. His morals and ethics were indeed derived by the religious affiliations that he had, but he was the ultimate player who allowed those ethics and morals to foster inside his spirit. The center of spirituality, morality, humanity was all evident when he struggled to survive in the vast ocean where he was not only physically but also morally, spiritually, and mentally challenged. Moreover, the story picked up the motive that it would make one believe in the superpower that surrounds and influences us. The whole story is narrated from Pi’s point of view, one which is vivid and peculiar. The other characters are there to challenge this model in order to reveal the value of the belief, the value of hope, and the value of life. The moral center embodies the idea that there is a presence of that aura which encompasses human spirit even after death; the idea of hope that there is always someone looking after us; the idea that life is limited and the only thing that is important is what one does with it.

Yann Martel has carefully crafted this moral center that it persuades the reader to question their own existence and morals. It persuades one to deliberate, especially on the flaws that co-exist with the existing behavior and beliefs. Pi does not seem to be flawed as the moral center of the work as he holds onto his faith, his belief, and his morals until necessary for his survival. Although it seems to be wrong to shun morals in the order to survive but without survival, there would be no morals, that is, morals are subject to change. Pi himself not only affects the belief system of his parents, religious priests, and his teacher but also on the tiger itself. He works to raise the question of spirituality that lingers in the reader’s mind, thus affecting the reader.

Written by Faizan Anwar

A philosophy enthusiast, a student of science, an admirer of human behavior.

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Life of Pi Themes

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1. Pi describes freedom within the confines of the zoo, religion, and lack of chaos.

How does Pi define freedom? ( topic sentence )
Explain how Pi defines freedom in relation to the zoo and in relation to religion. Then explain how Pi justifies his assertion when animals choose to escape the confines of the zoo—and presumably, when people escape the confines of religion.
In your concluding sentence or sentences, explain whether you agree with Pi’s definition of what it means to be free.

2. Ritual is an important aspect of Pi’s life as it manifests itself in multiple ways throughout his narrative.

How does ritual pervade the narrative of Life of Pi ? ( topic sentence )

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Critical Analysis: Life of Pi

By examining the novel Life of Pi, the three part novel by Yann Martel, one can observe the psyche of a man who has gone through a horrendous tragedy that has affected his life dramatically. Martel chose the differing setting of India, Canada, the Pacific Ocean, and briefly in Mexico during the nineteen seventies. From the conflicting cultures of the setting, the protagonist, Pi must deal with many adversities, yet he has survived all of them. The novel is narrated in first person with Pi taking on the role of narrator.

This gives an insight into the working of Pi’s mind. A privileged glimpse of how an individual responds to the task of survival makes one wonder how he/she would respond in a similar situation. It also shows what an individual will do to deal with the events that are just too horrible to accept.

The plot is told in flashback and as a framed story. The exposition is established early in the novel. We learn that Pi is a man from India who now resides in Canada. It is obvious that there has been some tragedy in his life, but it is not revealed until later. Pi is married with a son and daughter. The author discovers that he has a passion for cooking with lots of spices.

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This could be a way for him to connect with his past in India. He uses so many layers of spices that it is just too intense for the author. His overly spicy food is symbolic of his past. Pi has tolerated his circumstances, but it is just too tragic for others to be able to identify. As part one unfolds, Pi relates the history of his childhood in India. His father had run the Pondicherry Zoo, and that is where he learns about the nature of animals as well as how human nature can parallel animals. Pi is convinced that the animals are better off in the zoo that in the wild because some one must take care of them. He also learns the way a human can achieve dominance over them.

The conflict of the novel is established in the trip to his new home and the completely different culture he will encounter. Pi’s family is killed in a shipwreck and he is the lone survivor. He must now fight the forces of nature to stay alive. Then he must learn how to deal the events that he has endured. Another conflict in the story deals with religion.

Pi was born into a Hindu family and throughout the novel he states that he considers himself primarily a Hindu. Along the way, he discovered Christianity and a priest convinced him that he needed to become a Christian and Pi agrees. His parents attend his baptism even though they do not accept the religion. Finally Pi meets a Muslim and is persuaded to convert to Islam. Again he embraces another religion. Pi decides that he can be all of the religions.

The rising action of the novel quickly becomes evident when Pi begins to relate his voyage to Canada. His father decides that the family must move because of political unrest in their homeland. Most of the animals are sold and the ones that couldn’t be sold are taken of the boat with the family. After an accident, the boat sinks. Pi, however, is the only one from his family to survive the shipwreck. He and a zebra escape on a lifeboat, but the zebra is injured in the fall.

Shortly after the life boat falls into the water, Pi spots his father’s tiger, Richard Parker. The human name of the tiger is symbolic of the animalistic instinct of man. The three survivors are soon joined by a hyena and an Orangutan. At first all of the animals coexist with each other. It is not long before the hyena chews the leg of zebra for a meal. He then basically eats the animal alive. The symbolism of the savagery of survival is evident in this incident.

The hyena soon turns on the Orangutan and kills her as she is looking for her two sons. Pi is amazed how human like she behaves. Pi and Richard Parker become weary and dehydrated. Pi learns how to fish and make drinking water out of sea water. He uses his basic instincts for his survival. The tiger finally kills the hyena, and even though Pi is glad that the hyena is gone, he becomes fearful of the tiger. He realizes that he must gain dominance of the animal.

He resorts back to the knowledge he gained at his father’s zoo. Pi and Richard Parker are joined by another man and while Pi is suffering temporary blindness due to dehydration. After battling hunger, lack of water, and the elements of nature, Pi’s lifeboat comes ashore in Mexico. Richard Parker escapes into a wooded area and Pi is taken to the hospital.

Two Japanese officials come to the hospital to interview Pi to gain information about the sinking of their ship. He recounts the whole story of the sinking and his survival on the lifeboat. After they listen to the story they leave to discuss the information they have just received. They return after a short while and inform Pi that they do not believe his story.

He then relates the story of his survival only substitutes humans for the animals. They are horrified and he then asked them which story they prefer. The men admit that the one with the animals was easier to accept. It is then that the climax becomes evident. The whole story of the animals was made up by Pi so that he could deal with the events that had happened to him. The zebra had been a sailor, the hyena was an insane cook, and the orangutan was Pi’s mother. Richard Parker is symbolic of Pi’s animal instincts. He finally gains dominance over them and it is his animal instincts that can alone help him survive.

The falling action comes about when the two Japanese officials write their report. They realize that Pi has no knowledge that can actually help them understand the wreck of their vessel. They resolve that Pi’s survival with a ferocious tiger was unique story. They, along with Pi, did what they had to do in their mind to be able to accept what had actually happened.

Pi is a character that embodies the whole idea of survival. All people go through adversity, and all have to learn to survive. Many times it is painful. An individual must come to grips in his/her own mind with what they must accept to continue on with daily life. Martel takes this into consideration when writing this story. Not only does he engage the reader by using suspense and the element of surprise, but he teaches mankind that we do what we have to do to cope.

He also makes the point that even though humans have come so far with their scientific knowledge and technology yet they still have animalistic instincts when it comes to survival. He could have set the story in the distant past, but instead he set it in the recent past. There was an immense amount of technological and scientific knowledge in the nineteen seventies. If our society were to lose our modern conveniences in a natural disaster, people would still revert to their instincts for continued existence.

Works Cited

Martel, Yann. Life of Pi. Canada: Random House of Canada, 2001.

Cite this Page

Critical Analysis: Life of Pi. (2017, May 31). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/critical-analysis-life-of-pi/

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A critical review of ‘Life of Pi’

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The tale of a young man, a tiger and God, Yann Martel ‘s bestselling novel “ Life of Pi ” had been dubbed “unfilmable” countless times before Ang Lee’s adaptation screened. The Oscar-winning helmer handily silenced skeptics, delivering a pic praised by critics as a remarkable visual achievement.

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illustrated portrait of a tiger with half its face in shadow and the title Life of Pi above it

by Yann Martel

Historical Context

Professional Writer

B.A. from University of Washington-Seattle Campus Ph.D. from University of Iowa

Educator since 2009

131 contributions

Teacher, freelance writer, and short story author.

The War on Terrorism

In late 2002, America, only one year removed from the September 11 attacks, had just defeated the Taliban in Afghanistan but was deeply divided over the impending war in Iraq. At a time of continued anxiety over possible attacks from al Qaeda and other Muslim terrorists, Americans were increasingly curious about Islam. Many struggled to understand why many Muslims hated America and why the al Qaeda airplane hijackers were driven to kill otherwise innocent Americans. Many Americans saw the need to deal with, and perhaps make peace with, Muslims after the carnage that al Qaeda had wrought on the United States. However, books such as Samuel Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations (1996, Simon & Schuster) asserted Christian and Islamic cultures were absolutely opposed and could not peacefully coexist. As an earnest practitioner of Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism who saw no conflict between these three beliefs, Pi became a symbol of how the major religions of the world could coexist and that they in fact shared many common features. Pi’s reconciliation of three different faiths stood in sharp contrast to the violence between Christian and Muslim peoples that was evident both in America and in the Middle East.

In the decades before the issue of a possible clash between Muslim and Christian cultures arose, growing numbers of Americans had also become less attached to specific churches while still affirming a belief in God and seeking to pursue a religious path. In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph (London) shortly after receiving the Man Booker Prize, Martel said his novel “will make you believe in God or ask yourself why you don’t.” Pi, a believer who does not choose between the various visions of God offered by the world’s different religions, offered American readers a way to explore faith and spirituality without having to follow any specific creed or tradition.

Indian History and Culture

India has a long history of hostility between Muslims and Hindus. Soon after the country gained independence from Great Britain in 1947, it embarked on a civil war, which resulted in the partitioning of Pakistan from India as a homeland for the nation’s Muslims. However, clashes over Kashmir, a land in northern India claimed by both India and Pakistan, continued to haunt the region throughout the rest of the 1900s. The conflict led both countries to test nuclear weapons in 1998, and skirmishes on the border nearly brought the countries to war in 1999. Murderous riots and persecution by Muslims and Hindus have also plagued India for decades, including, in February and March 2002, riots in the Hindu nationalist state of Gujarat. In those riots, Hindus were angered over a fire that killed roughly sixty Hindu pilgrims on a train, and they responded by accusing Muslims of setting the fire. Hundreds of Muslims were killed by angry Hindu rioters. Pi is a native of Pondicherry, India, but he displays none of the hatred that had inspired thousands of Indian Muslims and Hindus to kill each other in the fifty-five years between India’s independence and the US publication of Martel’s book.

Cite this page as follows:

Beatty, Greg. "Life of Pi - Historical Context." eNotes Publishing, edited by eNotes Editorial, eNotes.com, Inc., 9 June 2024 <https://www.enotes.com/topics/life-pi/in-depth#in-depth-historical-context>

“In Life of Pi we have chosen an audacious book in which inventiveness explores belief,” said Lisa Jardine, chair of the committee which selected Yann Martel’s novel for the 2002 Man Booker Prize, Britain’s most publicized and arguably most prestigious literary award. The choice was surprising given the competition; the shortlist comprised Sarah Waters, Tim Winton, the venerable William Trevor, and three Canadians: Carol Shields, dying of breast cancer; Rohinton Mistry, all three of whose novels have been shortlisted for the Booker; and Martel. Although the dark horse, Life of Pi was much admired by reviewers, including fellow Canadian and former Booker winner Margaret Atwood: “a terrific book . . . fresh, original, smart, devious, and crammed with absorbing lore . . . a far-fetched story you can’t quite swallow whole, but can’t dismiss outright.” The power of Martel’s novel may be gauged by how well it survived a tabloid-style attack, following the Man Booker ceremony, for not being original enough, borrowing too freely from an obscure 1956 Brazilian novel, Moacyr Scliar’s Max and the Cats . Set in 1933, Scliar’s novel concerns a young Jew who, fleeing Nazi Germany, survives shipwreck by sharing a lifeboat with a panther. That Martel acknowledges Scliar’s novel in his “Author’s Note” as having provided the “spark of life” to Life of Pi hardly mattered, least of all at a time when accusations of plagiarism in high places (against historians Stephen Ambrose and Doris Kearns Goodwin) and the debate over intellectual property rights in the global economy were all the rage.

Martel’s “Author’s Note,” a playful mélange of fact and fantasy (the “author” here is and is not Martel), puts the novel in a more autobiographical context. Born in Spain to French Canadian parents (his father a diplomat and poet), the well-traveled Martel grew up wherever his father was posted. After studying philosophy at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, he published a collection of short stories, The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamantos (1993), and a novel, Self (1996). Both received good notices but were commercially unsuccessful. Martel went to India, where, depending on whether one believes the author or the “Author’s Note,” one (or both) of two things happened. Either the writer who had planned to write a novel set in Portugal in 1939 suffered writer’s block until he ran into an elderly man, Mr. Adirubaswamy, who told him “a story that will make you believe in God,” the story that became Life of Pi , or the writer, this time speaking ex cathedra rather than from within the factoidal “Author’s Note,” had a vision. The north Indian plain before him became in his imagination an ocean with a lone lifeboat floating upon it. He began researching his novel while still in India, visiting zoos in the south, then returned to Canada, where he read extensively in zoology and animal psychology, Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam; he even started attending Catholic mass. Over the course of writing his novel, he became what his protagonist is, a believer, albeit a believer of an odd and oddly inviting kind.

That protagonist is Piscine Molitor Patel, from Pondicherry, a former French colonial city that is now part of the modern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Named for a Parisian swimming pool but later saddled with the moniker Pissing Patel by a classmate, he reinvents himself as Pi. “And so, in that Greek letter that looks like a shack with a corrugated roof, in that elusive irrational number with which scientists try to understand the universe, I found refuge.” The son of secularized parents (as is Martel), Pi becomes as enamored of religion (or religions) as he is of science, but when priest, pandit, and imam each tries to claim him as his own, as his atheist science teacher previously tried, Pi balks, critical of their small-mindedness. When a short time later Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, proving similarly small-minded and territorial, brings down the local government, Pi’s father, owner of the local zoo, decides that the family will immigrate to Canada.

On July 2, 1977, just eleven days after leaving Madras, the ship goes down. After 277 days in a twenty-six-foot lifeboat, Pi and Richard Parker, a 450-pound Bengal tiger, arrive in Mexico, the sole survivors. At first, however, the lifeboat is a bit more crowded, its “ecosystem” more complex. The hyena eats the zebra and then the orangutan, before being eaten in turn by Richard Parker, who does not eat Pi. That he does not is as improbable as the tiger’s name, only more ambiguously explained. The simple explanation is that Pi, the zookeeper’s son, manages to master the beast. However, nothing is ever quite so simple in this artful fable, in which simplicity is invariably a means, not an end in itself. Man (or boy) and tiger, Pi and Parker, become dependent on each other: the tiger on Pi for food and water, Pi on the tiger for a strange kind of companionship that is as much spiritual as psychological.

Pi’s “I” is omnipresent but unpretentious in this not-quite-first-person story-within-a-story of a novel, and it is his voice that delights and beguiles. At times he sounds like a fortune cookie, at others like a mini–Salman Rushdie, practicing an art of restrained excess. The humor is all the more effective for being understated and the despair made more poignant, more real, because it is so rarely and reticently expressed. Fantastical and ultimately metaphysical as his story is, Pi grounds it in the details of his severely circumscribed everyday reality. Precise descriptions of butchering a turtle, operating a solar water still, and taming a tiger alternate with brilliantly wrought comic scenes, skits, and shaggy dog stories: the arrival of the three not-so-wise men (pandit, priest, and imam), for example, and Martel’s version of how the leopard got its spots (how the tiger got his name). There is the scene, reminiscent of silent film comedy, in which Pi frantically encourages Richard Parker to save himself from drowning by swimming to the lifeboat only to realize, as the tiger climbs aboard, what he has just done, and then leaping into the ocean to save himself from the tiger he has just saved. Best of all is the lengthy Beckett-like scene (five times longer in manuscript) in which a temporarily blind Pi crosses nautical paths with a blind French cannibal, a hallucination that turns out to be real (or as real as anything else in this fabulous, faux-factual novel): The whilom companion-turned-killer is himself killed and eaten by Richard Parker, Pi’s hungry savior. Differently funny, more blackly humorous is the floating island which Pi first believes is his salvation and only later realizes is carnivorous. Mistaken first, and second, impressions are common in the novel, for the reader no less than for Pi, who steps on to a Crusoe-like island and right into a Swiftian satire.

This leisurely told tall tale wears its meanings on its sleeve. Martel may be an allegorist, but he is no José Saramago, nor does he wish to be. “In a novel, you must amuse as you elevate,” Martel has said, preferring the accessible and amusing Pi not only to the “complicated and dense” fiction of writers such as Salman Rushdie and Gunther Grass but to his own earlier fiction as well, with its “stylistic excesses.” Even Pi’s extensive intertextuality proves inviting rather than off-putting. Instead of demanding that readers play (and lose) a game of literary trivial pursuit, Martel allows them to make connections and find resemblances without making the reader’s pleasure dependent on either: Noah’s ark, Edward Hick’s painting The Peaceable Kingdom (c. 1833), Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719), Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726), Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1844), Herman Melville’s Moby Dick (1851), Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book (1894), Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat” (1898), Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798), Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea (1952), and Max and the Cats , as well as (unfortunately) the Tom Hanks film Cast Away (2000), Michael Ende’s Die Unendliche Geschichte (1979; The Neverending Story , 1983), and (even more worrisome) Richard Bach’s Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970).

Martel’s intertextual range contributes to his larger purpose, turning either/or into both/and, undermining all forms of exclusivity (religious in particular but secular humanist as well) by positing a more inclusive alternative. In the Peaceable Kingdom of Life of Pi , realism lies down with fabulation, the mundane with the miraculous, humor with despair, science with religion, past with present, storyteller with novelist. As Pi says two decades after his ordeal, “My suffering left me sad and lonely. Academic study and the steady, mindful practice of religion brought me back to life.” At the University of Toronto, he majors in zoology and religious studies, writing theses on the sixteenth-century Kabbalist Isaac Luria and on the thyroid function of the three-toed sloth. “Sometimes I got my majors mixed up.”

“Life in a lifeboat isn’t much,” he says, any more than it is in any confined space, whether an academic discipline or a specific religion or, in Martel’s telling, Pi’s account of survival on the high seas. Thus, Martel prefaces that story not only with his or a surrogate’s “Author’s Note,” but with Pi’s account of his early years, and he intersperses the “author’s” italicized remarks on hearing the story from Pi, including glimpses into Pi’s later life (his marriage and children). He follows it with “excerpts from the verbatim transcript” of a tape made by two representatives of the Japanese Ministry of Transportation who had interviewed Pi years before in Mexico as part of their investigation into the sinking of the Tsimtsum . That transcript includes the very account that has just been read, or some version of it; chapter 96 reads in its entirety, “The story.” His Japanese listeners find Pi’s account both unhelpful (because it does not explain why the Tsimtsum sank—Pi thinks he may have heard an explosion—a big bang) and unbelievable. So Pi tells them a much shorter story in which, instead of Pi, hyena, tiger, zebra, and orangutan, there is Pi, a monstrous cook, Pi’s mother, and a young sailor (both of whom the cook kills before being killed in turn by Pi). Why does Pi begin crying at this point? Because this brutal story is painfully true, his fable patently false? Perhaps, but the more likely explanation is that Life of Pi is not just a story about salvation, one with a happy ending (Pi saved, his formal studies completed, his family settled and secure). It is also a story about the loss of Pi’s other home and other family: mother, father, and older brother, as well as Richard Parker. As soon as they reach Mexico, “Richard Parker, companion of my torment, awful, fierce thing that kept me alive, moved forward and disappeared forever from my life,” like a dream, one is tempted to say: a recurring dream, for Richard Parker continues “to prey” on his mind.

Released in Canada on the same day as the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Life of Pi is the perfect “literary novel” for the post-ironic age: earnest, uplifting, global (translated into at least sixteen languages). It is, as the Nation ’s Charlotte Innes has noted, “a religious book that makes sense to a nonreligious person” and restores the reader’s “faith in literature.” True enough, but Life of Pi is more than that. As the “Author’s Note” points out, “They speak a funny English in India. They like the word bamboozle.” The novel’s charm derives in part from Martel’s capturing that slightly stilted, slightly dated Indian colonial English so perfectly and uncondescendingly and in part from its “bamboozling” readers with its metafictional embedding of stories within stories. Life of Pi bamboozles most, however, in pretending to cover up and overcome what it exposes and illuminates: that sense of loss upon which Life of Pi and the life of Pi are founded. In this, novelist Martel is engaged in an activity surprisingly similar to his volunteer work at a Montreal hospital: palliative care.

Sources for Further Study

Booklist 98 (May 15, 2002): 1576.

Library Journal 127 (June 15, 2002): 95.

The Nation 275 (August 19, 2002): 25.

The New York Times Book Review 107 (July 7, 2002): 5.

Publishers Weekly 249 (April 8, 2002): 200.

"Life of Pi - Analysis." Literary Masterpieces, Critical Compilation, edited by Frank Northen Magill, eNotes.com, Inc., 1991, 9 June 2024 <https://www.enotes.com/topics/life-pi/in-depth#in-depth-analysis>

Literary Style

Life of Pi can be read as a parable. A parable is a story told in such way that it parallels a particular lesson that the storyteller is trying to teach the audience. The most famous parables in Western culture are those told by Jesus in the New Testament Gospels of the Bible. In Life of Pi , Pi himself is the storyteller, and he relates two very different stories: a fantastic yet hopeful and encouraging story about being stranded on a lifeboat with animals, and a more realistic yet bleak story about being stranded on a lifeboat with human beings. The choice Pi offers between the two stories is a parable for the choice between having faith in God that cannot be proven or atheism. The parallel is explicitly drawn when the Japanese businessmen, to whom Pi offers the choice, choose the story with animals as “the better story.” When they make their choice, Pi concludes, “And so it goes with God.”

Narrative Structure and Point of View

In Life of Pi , Martel utilizes three distinct narrative voices. The first is the voice of the author, which narrates both the opening Author’s Note as well as parts of part 1 in the first person. The first-person point of view, in which the narrator speaks as “I” and is a participant in the story, relates the narrative exclusively from the subjective, biased, and therefore limited point of view of that character. The Author’s Note, which describes how the author came upon Pi’s fantastic story, has the effect of grounding the novel in reality: the author sees Pi’s story as biography, not fiction. The author also points out that although Pi’s story will be told “in [Pi’s] voice and through his eyes,” it is written by the hand of the author, and “any inaccuracies or mistakes” are his. This note introduces one of many levels of doubt experienced in the reading of this tale.

Parts 1 and 2 are narrated in the first person by Pi himself. The first-person point of view is fitting for the account of a solitary character surviving in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, but it also is limited to Pi’s particular and subjective perspective. The increasing incredulity of Pi’s story—from being trapped on a lifeboat with a tiger, to meeting a blind man on the open sea, to finally landing on an island made entirely of carnivorous algae—gives the reader cause to doubt the veracity of Pi’s subjective narrative, begging the question of what is fact and what is Pi’s imagination. But since his story is told strictly from his point of view, the reader is deliberately deprived of an objective evaluation of Pi’s story.

Part 3 provides the most objective narrative structure of the novel. It is a transcript of a conversation between Pi and the two Japanese businessmen who try to determine why his cargo ship sank. There is no narrator to filter the proceedings of the conversation, and thus it is presented in an entirely objective manner. It is during this conversation that Pi’s second version of his survival surfaces: one which does not involve any animals, but rather involves him committing murder and cannibalism. However, no matter what the narrative voice—be it Pi’s subjective account or the factual transcript—the novel does not give any clues as to which of Pi’s stories, if any, is the accurate version of his life. Just as the Japanese businessmen are left to decide which story they will believe, the reader, too, is left to choose.

Foreshadowing as a Structural and Thematic Device

To foreshadow means to use symbolic or plot devices within the narrative to prefigure, or give clues, as to what will arise later in the story. Martel uses part 1—the account of Pi’s childhood and his formative influences—to foreshadow the trials and tribulations he will face in part 2. The most obvious example of foreshadowing is the lesson that Pi’s father gives his sons on the danger of wild animals by feeding a goat to a tiger in front of their eyes. This lesson in the potentially brutal behavior of the wild tiger foreshadows Pi’s future challenge in surviving Richard Parker.

The themes introduced in part 1 also foreshadow the challenges that Pi faces in part 2. For example, his discussion of zoomorphism among different species of animals foreshadows his own strange cohabitation with Richard Parker. Part 1 details the origins of Pi’s fervent devotion to a number of different religions. The equality of divine inspiration that Pi finds in Hinduism, Catholicism, and Islam seem to infer the universality of humanity’s quest for divinity and uniquely spiritual drive. At the same time, Pi discusses at great length the instinctual and particular behaviors of different animals. Pi’s detailed discussions of both the higher calling of spirituality and religion and the overpowering instinctual drive of wild animals in part 1 foreshadow Pi’s own inner struggle in part 2, in which he finds himself trying to reconcile his animal instinct to survive and his aspirations to seek the divine.

Beatty, Greg. "Life of Pi - Literary Style." eNotes Publishing, edited by eNotes Editorial, eNotes.com, Inc., 9 June 2024 <https://www.enotes.com/topics/life-pi/in-depth#in-depth-style>

Media Adaptations

The audiotape version of Life of Pi was issued in January 2003 by Highbridge Audio, with Jeff Woodman narrating.
A movie adaptation of the book iwas released in 2012 from 20th Century Fox, with Ang Lee directing and David Magee writing the screenplay. The film won four Academy Awards, including Best Director.

Beatty, Greg. "Life of Pi - Media Adaptations." eNotes Publishing, edited by eNotes Editorial, eNotes.com, Inc., 9 June 2024 <https://www.enotes.com/topics/life-pi/in-depth#in-depth-media-adaptations>

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Critical Essays

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Critical Insights: Life of Pi

Yann martel’s 2001 novel life of pi earned him the man booker prize and also served as the basis for the critically acclaimed 2012 movie of the same title. the essays featured in this volume survey the novel’s critical reception, discussing topics ranging from narrative techniques through religion and philosophy to the cultural role of zoos, and also provide a brief introduction to the author’s life and work..

This volume, like all others in the Critical Insights series, is divided into several sections. It begins with an introductory piece, “On Life of Pi ,” by volume editors Ádám T. Bogár and Rebeka Sára Szigethy, which offers a comprehensive introduction to the titular novel and its multifaceted interpretations. This is followed by a Biography of Yann Martel, written by Gerardo Del Guercio.

A collection of four critical contexts essays are intended to treat the novel (1) from a historical vantage point, (2) in terms of its critical reception, (3) using a specific critical lens, and (4) by comparing and contrasting it with another important work. This section opens with an article by Nicolae Bobaru titled, “ Life of Pi : A Postmodern Castaway Novel Transcending Boundaries, ” followed by a piece written by volume editors Ádám T. Bogár and Rebeka Sára Szigethy, “’…Faith in the Act of Storytelling’: The Critical Reception of Life of Pi .” This essay focuses on the critical responses, including early reviews from the novel’s release to later and more reflective critiques. The following two articles are written by Ester Láncos and Shu-Jiang Lu respectively. The first, “Survival through Meaning: Reading Life of Pi through the lens of Logotherapy,” offers a particular critical lens by examining the novel through the lens of logotherapy, or the concept that the principal motivation of an individual is to look for the meaning of life. The final essay, “Life in Stories: Narrated Time in Life of Pi and To Live, ” compares and contrasts Yann Martel’s and Yu Hua’s novels.

Following these four Critical Context essays is the Critical Readings section of this book, which contains the following essays:

Pi’s Life and What It Tells Us: A Jungian Reading of the Symbols of Life of Pi , Debaditya Mukhopadhyay
The New “Demonic” Animal: Crediting God and the Better Story in Life of Pi , Rachel L. Carazo
Regarding Others: Ethical Human-Animal Encounters in Life of Pi , Alice Bendinelli
Empathizing with Animals through Fiction: Animal Studies in Life of Pi , Monica Sousa
Confined Freedom and Free Confinement: The Ethics of Captivity in Life of Pi , Heather Browning and Walter Veit
Believing without Evidence: Pragmatic Arguments for Religious Belief in Life of Pi , Alberto Oya
Faith as Fiction or Narrative as Salvation? Ang Lee’s Cinematic Adaptation of Life of Pi as a Pascalian Leap of Faith, Christian Jimenez
Transmedial Pi (3.1415926…) Part One: Text and Context, Naomi Simone Borwein
Transmedial Pi (3.1415926…) Part Two: Visualization and Adaptation, Naomi Simone Borwein
What We Bring to the World: Narrative-Making as Hermeneutical Practice in Life of Pi , Francesca Pierini
On the Tail of Trauma: The Stories We Tell Ourselves and Others, Jen Yoder
Life of Pi and Homer’s Odyssey : Suffering, Survival, and Storytelling, Adam Lecznar
Otherness in Pondicherry, Regina A. Bernard

In the final section, Resources , easy-to-follow lists are provided to help guide the reader through important dates and moments in the author’s life. A selection of further reading is then provided. Each essay in Critical Insights: Life of Pi includes a list of Works Cited and detailed endnotes. Also included in this volume is a Chronology of Yann Martel’s Life , a list of Works by Yann Martel , a Bibliography, biographies of the Editors and Contributors , and an alphabetical Index .

The Critical Insights Series distills the best of both classic and current literary criticism of the world’s most studies literature. Edited and written by some of academia’s most distinguished literary scholars, Critical Insights: Life of Pi provides authoritative, in-depth scholarship that students and researchers will rely on for years. This volume is destined to become a valuable purchase for all.

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Movie Reviews

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Ang Lee's "Life of Pi" is a miraculous achievement of storytelling and a landmark of visual mastery. Inspired by a worldwide best-seller that many readers must have assumed was unfilmable, it is a triumph over its difficulties. It is also a moving spiritual achievement, a movie whose title could have been shortened to "life."

The story involves the 227 days that its teenage hero spends drifting across the Pacific in a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger. They find themselves in the same boat after an amusing and colorful prologue, which in itself could have been enlarged into an exciting family film. Then it expands into a parable of survival, acceptance and adaptation. I imagine even Yann Martel , the novel's French-Canadian author, must be delighted to see how the usual kind of Hollywood manhandling has been sidestepped by Lee's poetic idealism.

The story begins in a small family zoo in Pondichery, India, where the boy christened Piscine is raised. Piscine translates from French to English as "swimming pool," but in an India where many more speak English than French, his playmates of course nickname him "pee." Determined to put an end to this, he adopts the name " Pi ," demonstrating an uncanny ability to write down that mathematical constant that begins with 3.14 and never ends. If Pi is a limitless number, that is the perfect name for a boy who seems to accept no limitations.

The zoo goes broke, and Pi's father puts his family and a few valuable animals on a ship bound for Canada. In a bruising series of falls, a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena and the lion tumble into the boat with the boy, and are swept away by high seas. His family is never seen again, and the last we see of the ship is its lights disappearing into the deep — a haunting shot that reminds me of the sinking train in Bill Forsyth's " Housekeeping " (1987).

This is a hazardous situation for the boy ( Suraj Sharma ), because the film steadfastly refuses to sentimentalize the tiger (fancifully named "Richard Parker"). A crucial early scene at the zoo shows that wild animals are indeed wild and indeed animals, and it serves as a caution for children in the audience, who must not make the mistake of thinking this is a Disney tiger.

The heart of the film focuses on the sea journey, during which the human demonstrates that he can think with great ingenuity and the tiger shows that it can learn. I won't spoil for you how those things happen. The possibilities are surprising.

What astonishes me is how much I love the use of 3-D in "Life of Pi." I've never seen the medium better employed, not even in " Avatar ," and although I continue to have doubts about it in general, Lee never uses it for surprises or sensations, but only to deepen the film's sense of places and events.

Let me try to describe one point of view. The camera is placed in the sea, looking up at the lifeboat and beyond it. The surface of the sea is like the enchanted membrane upon which it floats. There is nothing in particular to define it; it is just … there. This is not a shot of a boat floating in the ocean. It is a shot of ocean, boat and sky as one glorious place.

Still trying not to spoil: Pi and the tiger Richard Parker share the same possible places in and near the boat. Although this point is not specifically made, Pi's ability to expand the use of space in the boat and nearby helps reinforce the tiger's respect for him. The tiger is accustomed to believing it can rule all space near him, and the human requires the animal to rethink that assumption.

Most of the footage of the tiger is of course CGI, although I learn that four real tigers are seen in some shots. The young actor Suraj Sharma contributes a remarkable performance, shot largely in sequence as his skin color deepens, his weight falls and deepness and wisdom grow in his eyes.

The writer W.G. Sebold once wrote, "Men and animals regard each other across a gulf of mutual incomprehension." This is the case here, but during the course of 227 days, they come to a form of recognition. The tiger, in particular, becomes aware that he sees the boy not merely as victim or prey, or even as master, but as another being.

The movie quietly combines various religious traditions to enfold its story in the wonder of life. How remarkable that these two mammals, and the fish beneath them and birds above them, are all here. And when they come to a floating island populated by countless meerkats, what an incredible sequence Lee creates there.

The island raises another question: Is it real? Is this whole story real? I refuse to ask that question. "Life of Pi" is all real, second by second and minute by minute, and what it finally amounts to is left for every viewer to decide. I have decided it is one of the best films of the year.

Read and make comments here .

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film Credits

Life of Pi (2012)

Rated PG for emotional thematic content throughout, and some scary action sequences and peril

127 minutes

Tabu as Gita

Suraj Sharma as Pi

Rafe Spall as Writer

Gerard Depardieu as Cook

Directed by

David Magee

Based on the novel by

Yann Martel

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Truth, faith and hope in life of pi ? a philosophical review.

The Life of Pi – as both a novel and a recent Oscar winning 3D film – opens up the fascinating dialogue between the worldviews of Secular Humanists, Hindus and Christians. This article compares and contrasts how these three worldviews deal with the inter-related concepts of truth, faith and hope.

When it comes to defining 'truth', Christians have generally endorsed the classical philosophical tradition of the Greco-Roman word, in which 'truth' has two meanings. One refers to the accurate saying of things about reality. The other refers to the reality about which things may be accurately or inaccurately said.

That is, Christians distinguish between: a) true beliefs about reality and b) the truth of reality that true beliefs accurately represent. For example, if the cat's on the mat, this is a truth of reality. That's one sense of the 'truth': what reality is . If the cat's on the mat and I believe that the cat's on the mat, then the truth of my belief is another sense of the term 'truth'. My belief is true to the truth of reality (it accurately represents the way things are). As Thomas Aquinas observed: "it is from the fact that a thing is or is not, that our thought or word is true or false, as [Aristotle] teaches." [1]

Aristotle's definition of the primary meaning of truth can be given in words of one syllable: "If one says of what is that it is, or of what is not that it is not, he speaks the truth; but if one says of what is that it is not, or of what is not that it is, he does not speak the truth." [2] This 'correspondence' meaning of truth refers to a quality of beliefs. It's not a quality of all beliefs, but only of those that correspond to the truth of reality : "truth in the mind ... isn't determined by how the mind sees things but by how things are: for statements – and the understanding they embody &ndash ; are called true or false inasmuch as things are or are not so ..." [3] As Aristotle wrote: "it is by the facts of the case, by their being or not being so, that a statement is called true or false." [4]

The facts of the case (like the cat either being or not being on the mat) are the truth of reality , and it's the truth of reality that determines whether or not our beliefs about reality are true to reality . Reality calls the shots: "We may be entitled to our own opinions, but we are not entitled to our own facts. Believing a statement is one thing; that statement being true is another." [5]

We may be entitled to our own opinions, but we are not entitled to our own facts

- Douglas Groothuis

Many Secular Humanists accept the correspondence theory of truth, whilst often restricting the means of access to truth to empirical and / or 'scientific' ways of knowing. They would hold with Mr. Kumar from Life of Pi that: "There are no grounds for going beyond a scientific explanation of reality and no sound reason for believing anything but our sense experience." ( Life of Pi , p.27.) Some Secular Humanists have advocated alternative definitions of truth, such as the pragmatist idea that truth is whatever works (a claim that contradicts itself if it claims to be more than 'a working definition').

For Hinduism, there is One Ultimate Truth of Reality:

The ultimate reality is 'Brahman', the one infinite impersonal existence. Brahman is all that exists, and anything else that appears to exist is maya , and does not truly exist at all. Ultimate reality is beyond distinction, it merely is. There is therefore a unity of all things . [6]

However, if there's "a unity of all things" the conceptual distinction between 'true' and 'false' must itself be maya , which means that statements such as "there is a unity of all things" and "Brahman is all that exists" cannot be advanced as being true rather than false . When Pi defines Brahman as "That which sustains the universe beyond thought and language" ( Life of Pi , pp.48-49.) he uses both thought and language to make a specific truth-claim concerning the nature of something he claims to neither know the nature of nor to be able to communicate the nature of. No wonder he also says that "language founders in such seas" ( Life of Pi , p.15). As James W. Sire observes:

Knowledge … demands duality – a knower and a known. But the One is beyond duality; it is sheer unity … as the Mandukya Upanishad says , "He is Atman, the Spirit himself … above all distinction, beyond thought and ineffable ." … reality is one; language requires duality; several dualities in fact (speaker and listener, subject and predicate); ergo, language cannot convey truth about reality . [7]

And yet this claim is made using language . Again, according to the Hindu definition of Brahman: "The ignorant think that Brahman is known, but the wise know him to be beyond knowledge." [8] But if something is 'beyond knowledge' it is by definition impossible to know of it that it is beyond knowledge. As philosopher Norman L. Geisler argues:

The very claim that 'God is unknowable in an intellectual way' seems to be either meaningless or self-defeating. For if the claim itself cannot be understood in an intellectual way, then it is a meaningless claim. If the claim can be understood in an intellectual way, then it is self-defeating, since it affirms that nothing can be understood about God in an intellectual way. In other words, the pantheist expects us to know intellectually that God cannot be understood intellectually . [9]

"Now we see … why Eastern pantheistic monism is non-doctrinal" , writes Sire, "No doctrine can be true. Perhaps some can be more useful than others in getting a subject to achieve unity with the cosmos, but that is different. In fact, a lie or a myth might even be more useful." [10] On the subject of truth Hinduism bears a similarity to those Secular Humanists who reject the correspondence theory of truth for a pragmatic definition. Of course, the pragmatist can't coherently claim that one doctrine truly is more useful than another, or to make any claims about what it is useful for truly achieving.

It is precisely because Hinduism rejects the classical distinction between truth and falsehood that Pi believes he can think of himself as "a practicing Hindu, Christian and Muslim" ( Life of Pi , p.64.) despite the fact that all three religions contradict each other. Pi can report: "Bapu Ghandi said, 'All religions are true.'" ( Life of Pi , p.69), but Ghandi's claim is self-contradictory because every religion contradicts all the others. Indeed, the idea of jettisoning truth as an important category is the key to understanding Life of Pi : "if we, citizens, do not support our artists, then we sacrifice our imagination on the altar of crude reality and we end up believing in nothing and having worthless dreams." ( Life of Pi , p.xii.)

On the other hand, if we don't support the classical concept of truth, we necessarily end up believing that nothing it true and being unable to differentiate between fact and fantasy, right and wrong, beauty and ugliness. Isn't truth essential for imagination? Christians and the majority of Secular Humanists thus find themselves in mutual opposition to the Hindu obfuscation of truth. As Pi's father says: "Believing in everything, is the same as not believing in anything."

The authorial voice within Life of Pi recognizes the importance of trust: "Doubt is useful for a while. We must all pass through the garden of Gethsemane… But we must move on. To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transport." ( Life of Pi , p.28.) When the New Testament talks positively about trust, or 'faith': "it only uses words derived from the Greek root [pistis] which means 'to be persuaded.'" [11]

To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transport

- Life of Pi

As Michael J. Wilkins and J.P. Moreland affirm: "the modern view of faith as something unrelated or even hostile to reason is a departure from traditional Christianity and not a genuine expression of it." [12] In other words, the Christian understanding of 'faith' is of placing personal trust in someone that one is rationally convinced is trustworthy. Moreland thus defines faith as "a trust in and commitment to what we have reason to believe is true" , [13] and explains:

The essence of faith – biblical or otherwise – is confidence or trust, and one can have faith in a thing (such as a chair) or a person (such as a parent, the president, or God), and one can have faith in the truth of a proposition... When trust is directed toward a person / thing, it is called 'faith in'; when it is directed toward the truth of a proposition, it is called 'faith that'.... It is a great misunderstanding of faith to oppose it to reason or knowledge. Nothing could be further from the truth. In actual fact, faith – confidence, trust – is rooted in knowledge . [14]

C.S. Lewis defined faith as: "the art of holding onto things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods." [15] For moods change whatever view your reason takes:

Now that I am a Christian I do have moods in which the whole thing looks very improbable: but when I was an atheist I had moods in which Christianity looked terribly probable ... unless you teach your moods 'where to get off,' you can never be a sound Christian or even a sound atheist, but just a creature dithering to and fro, with its beliefs really dependent on the weather and the state of its digestion… When we exhort people to Faith as a virtue, to the settled intention of continuing to believe certain things, we are not exhorting them to fight against reason... If we wish to be rational, not now and then, but constantly, we must pray for the gift of Faith, for the power to go on believing not in the teeth of reason but in the teeth of lust and terror and jealousy and boredom and indifference that which reason, authority, or experience, or all three, have once delivered to us for truth . [16]

According to Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami (writing in Hinduism Today ), faith ( astikya in Sanskrit) is a process of moving from "blind faith to conviction bolstered by philosophy, and finally to certainty forged in the fires of personal experience." [17] He writes:

The cultivation of faith can be compared to the growth of a tree. As a young sapling, it can easily be uprooted, just as faith based solely on belief can easily be shaken or destroyed. Faith bolstered with philosophical knowledge is like a medium-size tree, strong and not easily disturbed. Faith matured by personal experience of God and the Gods is like a full-grown tree which can withstand external forces . [18]

Some Secular Humanists (e.g. those of a 'neo-atheist' persuasion) equate faith with 'blind faith' in order to portray all religious believers as anti-intellectual. According to A.C. Grayling: "Faith is a commitment to belief contrary to evidence and reason..." [19] Likewise, Richard Dawkins definesreligiousfaith as: "blind trust, in the absence of evidence, even in the teeth of evidence." [20] However, Secular Humanist Richard Norman cautions that "faith means different things to different religious believers, and from the fact that they claim to have faith you can't infer that they are all irrationalists who believe things on 'blind faith' without any evidence..." [21] On the meaning of 'faith', then, it would seem that there's a degree of commonality between Christians, Hindus and many Secular Humanists; a commonality upset primarily by the blind rhetorical stance of certain 'new atheist' writers.

Secular Humanism has an ambiguous relationship with the concept of hope. On the one hand Richard Norman explains that: "Humanism is more than atheism, it is about putting humanist beliefs and values into practice and trying to make the world a better place." [22] According to the Humanist Manifesto III: "Humanism is a progressive philosophy of life that, without supernaturalism, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfilment that aspire to the greater good of humanity." [23]

On the other hand, the naturalistic worldview that undergirds Secular Humanism provides no foundation for hope in the long term , as Peter Atkins acknowledges: "We are children of chaos, and the deep structure of change is decay. At root, there is only corruption, and the unstemmable tide of chaos. Gone is purpose; all that is left is direction. This is the bleakness we have to accept as we peer deeply and dispassionately into the heart of the Universe." [24] Peter Cave muses: "We humanists know we shall cease to exist, yet we believe the world goes on. We build monuments, preserve libraries and save whales, when all will be lost. Vanity, all is vanity." [25]

Moreover, naturalism appears to exclude the freedom of will necessary for the ethical responsibility cherished by secular humanists. According to atheist William Provine:

Humans are comprised only of heredity and environment, both of which are deterministic. There is simply no room for the traditional concepts of human free-will. That is, humans do make decisions and they go through decision-making processes, but all of these are deterministic. So from my perspective as a naturalist, there's not even a possibility that human beings have free will . [26]

Little wonder atheist John Gray concludes: "A truly naturalistic view of the world leaves no room for secular hope." [27]

When your intellect has cleared itself of delusions, you will become indifferent to the results of all action, present or future

- Bhagavad-Gita

For the Hindu, "atman [the 'true self'] seeks to realize Brahman [the impersonal Fundamental Reality with which atman is actually identical] , to be united with the Absolute, and it travels in this life on a pilgrimage where it is born and dies, and is born again and dies again, and again, and again [samsara] , until it manages to shed the sheaths that imprison it here below [moksha] ." ( Life of Pi , p.49.) One might be tempted to think that in the idea of moksha (the Hindu term for the liberation of the 'soul' from the wheel of karma ) Hinduism provides adherents with a goal to hope for and look forward to. However, the individual cannot hope to reach this goal, nor can they look forward to it, because this goal is precisely the abolition of the (illusory) individual; for the existence of individual persons is Maya , an illusory or provisional reality, in-as-much-as "Atman is Brahman. Brahman is one and impersonal. Therefore, Atman is impersonal… Human beings in their essence – their truest, fullest being – are impersonal." [28]

Contrary to the common western understanding of reincarnation, for the Hindu "no human being in the sense of individual or person survives death. Atman survives, but Atman is impersonal. When Atman is reincarnated, it becomes another person." [29] Likewise, the naturalistic worldview of the Secular Humanist entails that when a person dies, although their matter continues to exist and to be incorporated into new things (even new people), the person is dead and gone.

Anthropologist David Burnett explains that within the Hindu worldview:

Individuality and human consciousness are just a part of the total illusion of Maya . The individual soul, atman, is in fact the divine self, which is identical with 'Brahman'. The focus of human achievement therefore becomes world-denying rather than world-affirming as with the secular worldviews. To realize one's true oneness with the cosmos is to pass beyond personality… Personality demands self-consciousness that requires a distinction between the thinker and the thing thought about . [30]

If long-term hope is an inappropriate category to apply to the Hindu worldview, what about the short term? Like the Secular Humanist, the Hindu can of course have their own subjective hopes for their immediate, worldly future. However, the monistic nature of both Pantheistic Hinduism and Naturalistic Secular Humanism appears to preclude any objective grounding for values, any objective distinction between good and evil. Cave talks about the way in which "Humanists are tempted to think that 'deep down inside' each human is valuable" [31] and ponders: "Is it not utterly ridiculous that things should matter so much to us, when from outside they matter not at all?" [32]

There is nothing that one objectively ought or ought not to hope for within either worldview. The Bhagavad-Gita says: "When your intellect has cleared itself of delusions, you will become indifferent to the results of all action, present or future." [33] Moreover, the Hindu doctrine of karma works itself out in a caste system that precludes any hope of social mobility: "Each caste has its own skills and specialized functions. A person is born into a particular caste and as such, his or her lifestyle, occupation and even the food he or she eats are designated. There is no possibility of social mobility." [34]

The apostle Peter commanded Christians to "always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have … with gentleness and respect" (1 Peter 3:15) For Christianity, then, hope is grounded in truth – especially (a) truth concerning the character and intentions of God and (b) truth concerning Jesus' divinity and resurrection from the dead. If the resurrection of Jesus is a historical fact, then the Christian hope is one solidly grounded in reality. If not, then the Christian hope is an illusion.

As the apostle Paul observed: "if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith" (1 Corinthians 15:14). At one stage of his journey Pi professes to have "lost all hope" and to have "perked up and felt much better" as a consequence. Be that as it may, it would seem that Christians, Hindus and Secular Humanists all agree that if Christian faith isn't truthfully grounded in reality, we face the absence of any long-term personal hope.

Discussion Questions:

Pi's father says: "Believing in everything, is the same as not believing in anything." Do you agree? Do we need to believe in anything?
How do you respond to Pi's three different 'conversions' and his desire to hold all three at once?
Pi says: "You might think I lost all hope at that point. I did. And as a result I perked up and felt much better." Do you think it is good for us to have hope? Or to lose it? Or to lose one type of hope and find another?
Pi suggests that we can choose our own story, and that it is better to choose a good story than a true story. Do you agree?
What is the difference between faith and blind faith? Is it possible to have blind doubt?
[1] Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica , Part I, Question 16, Objection 3.
[2] Quoted by Peter Kreeft, Between Heaven and Hell , Downers Grove, Illinois: IVP, 1982.
[3] Thomas Aquinas, Questiones Disputatae de Veritate , in McDermott (ed.), Aquinas – Selected Philosophical Writings , Oxford University Press, 1998, p.58.
[4] Thomas Aquinas, quoted by Norman L. Geisler & Paul D. Feinberg, Introduction to Philosophy , Grand Rapids: Baker, 1987, p.247.
[5] Douglas Groothuis, Christian Apologetics , Nottingham: Apollos, 2011, p.124.
[6] David Burnett, Clash of Worlds , London: Monarch, 2002, p.71.
[7] James W. Sire, The Universe Next Door : A Basic Worldview Catalogue , 5 th edition, Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2009, p.155.
[8] 'Kena,' in The Upanishads , p.31 quoted by Norman L. Geisler & William D. Watkins, Worlds Apart , 2 nd edition, Grand Rapids: Baker, 1989, p.80.
[9] Geisler & Watkins, Worlds Apart , p.104.
[10] Sire, op.cit ., p.155.
[11] Tom Price, 'Faith is about "just trusting" God isn't it?', available at http://www.bethinking.org/truth/faith-is-about-just-trusting-god-isnt-it .
[12] Michael J. Wilkins & J.P. Moreland, Jesus Under Fire – Modern Scholarship Reinvents the Historical Jesus , Carlisle: Paternoster Press, 1996, p.8.
[13] J.P. Moreland, 'Living Smart' in Paul Copan & William Lane Craig (eds.), Passionate Conviction , B&H Academic, 2007, p.22.
[14] J.P. Moreland, The Kingdom Triangle , Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007, pp.130-131.
[15] C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity , available at http://merelewis.com/CSL.mc.3-11.Faith.htm .
[16] Ibid .
[17] Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami, 'The Three Stages of Faith', available at http://hinduismtoday.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=5041 .
[18] Ibid .
[19] A.C. Grayling, Against All Gods , London: Oberon Books, 2007, pp.15-16.
[20] Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene , Oxford Paperbacks, p.198.
[21] Richard Norman, 'Holy Communion', New Humanist , November-December 2007, p.18.
[22] Norman, Ibid . , p.19.
[23] Humanist Manifesto III, available at www.americanhumanist.org/Humanism/Humanist_Manifesto_III .
[24] Peter Atkins, quoted by Richard Dawkins in Unweaving the Rainbow , Penguin, 2006, p.ix.
[25] Peter Cave, Humanism , Oxford: OneWorld, 2009, p.132.
[26] William Provine in Russell Stannard (ed.), Science and Wonders , London: BBC / Faber and Faber, 1996.
[27] John Gray, Straw Dogs , London: Granta, 2002, p.xii.
[28] Sire, op.cit ., p.154.
[29] Ibid , p.158.
[30] Burnett, op.cit ., p.72.
[31] Cave, p.134, my emphasis.
[32] Ibid , p.139.
[33] Bhagavad-Gita , translators Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood, New York: Mentor, 1972, p.41.
[34] Burnett, op.cit ., p.75.

This article originally appeared in Dialogue Australasia Journal, May Issue 2013.

Peter S. Williams

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Life of Pi — Yann Martel’s “The Life Of Pi”: Book Review

Yann Martel's "The Life of Pi": Book Review

Categories: Book Review Life of Pi Literature Review

About this sample

Words: 980 |

Published: Oct 2, 2020

Words: 980 | Pages: 2 | 5 min read

Works Cited

Martel, Yann. Life of Pi. Harcourt, 2001.
Bocking, Brian. “Life of Pi, Virtue, and the Question of Religion.” Literature and Theology, vol. 29, no. 2, 2015, pp. 150–162.
Forbes, Bruce David. “Cognitive Ecology, Religion, and The Life of Pi.” CrossCurrents, vol. 63, no. 2, 2013, pp. 233–252.
Gifford, James. “The Limits of Literary Interpretation : Life of Pi and the Philosophical Significance of Animal Symbolism.” Journal of Critical Animal Studies, vol. 10, no. 2, 2012, pp. 62–79.
Higginson, James. “Animals, Empathy, and the Ethics of Narrative: Yann Martel’s Life of Pi.” Philosophy and Literature, vol. 37, no. 2, 2013, pp. 404–417.
Jolly, Margaretta. “Sacred Spaces and Literary Practices in Yann Martel’s Life of Pi.” Religion and the Arts, vol. 17, no. 1–2, 2013, pp. 127–152.
Kavenna, Joanna. “The Resilience of Religion in Life of Pi.” The Spectator, 30 June 2018, www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-resilience-of-religion-in-life-of-pi.
Malik, Ameena. “Faith, Fiction, and the Human Journey: Yann Martel’s Life of Pi.” Religion and the Arts, vol. 20, no. 5, 2016, pp. 625–644.
Mathur, Piyush. “Animals as Narrative Devices in Yann Martel’s Life of Pi.” Journal of Indian Writing in English, vol. 42, no. 1, 2014, pp. 1–8.
Sinclair, Mark. “Writing Faith: Pi Patel and Yann Martel.” Literary Imagination, vol. 18, no. 3, 2016, pp. 348–366.

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Theme Analysis

Francis Adirubasamy first presents Pi ’s tale to the fictional author as “a story to make you believe in God,” immediately introducing religion as a crucial theme. Pi is raised in a secular, culturally Hindu family, but as a boy he becomes more devoutly Hindu and then also converts to Christianity and Islam. He practices all of these religions at once despite the protests of his three religious leaders, who each assert that their religion contains the whole and exclusive truth. Instead of dwelling on divisive dogma, Pi focuses on the stories of his different faiths and their different pathways to God, and he reads a story of universal love in all three religions. In fact, it seems that faith and belief is more important to Pi than religious truth, as he also admires atheists for taking a stand in believing that the universe is a certain way. It is only agnostics that Pi dislikes, as they choose doubt as a way of life and never choose a “better story.”

When he is stranded at sea, Pi’s faith is tested by his extreme struggles, but he also experiences the sublime in the grandiosity of his surroundings. All external obstacles are stripped away, leaving only an endless circle of sea and sky, and one day he rejoices over a powerful lightning storm as a “miracle.” After his rescue Pi returns to the concept of faith again. He tells his interviewers two versions of his survival story (one with animals and one without) and then asks which one they prefer. The officials disbelieve the animal story, but they agree that it is the more compelling and memorable of the two. Pi responds with “so it goes with God,” basically saying that he chooses to have religious faith because he finds a religious worldview more beautiful. The “facts” are unknowable concerning God’s existence, so Pi chooses the story he likes better, which is the one involving God.

Religion and Faith ThemeTracker

Religion and Faith Quotes in Life of Pi

He took in my line of work with a widening of the eyes and a nodding of the head. It was time to go. I had my hand up, trying to catch my waiter’s eye to get the bill. Then the elderly man said, “I have a story that will make you believe in God.”

Sometimes I got my majors mixed up. A number of my fellow religious-studies students – muddled agnostics who didn’t know which way was up, who were in the thrall of reason, that fool’s gold for the bright – reminded me of the three-toed sloth; and the three-toed sloth, such a beautiful example of the miracle of life, reminded me of God.

In the literature can be found legions of examples of animals that could escape but did not, or did and returned… But I don’t insist. I don’t mean to defend zoos. Close them all down if you want (and let us hope that what wildlife remains can survive in what is left of the natural world). I know zoos are no longer in people’s good graces. Religion faces the same problem. Certain illusions about freedom plague them both. The Pondicherry Zoo doesn’t exist any more. Its pits are filled in, the cages torn down. I explore it now in the only place left for it, my memory.

It was my first clue that atheists are my brothers and sisters of a different faith, and every word they speak speaks faith. Like me, they go as far as the legs of reason will carry them – and then they leap. I’ll be honest about. It is not atheists who get stuck in my craw, but agnostics. Doubt is useful for a while. We must all pass through the garden of Gethsemane… But we must move on. To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.

I can well imagine an atheist’s last words… and the deathbed leap of faith. Whereas the agnostic, if he stays true to his reasonable self, if he stays beholden to dry, yeastless factuality, might try to explain the warm light bathing him by saying, “Possibly a f-f-failing oxygenation of the b-b-brain,” and, to the very end, lack imagination and miss the better story.

The pandit spoke first. “Mr. Patel, Piscine’s piety is admirable. In these troubled times it’s good to see a boy so keen on God. We all agree on that.” The imam and the priest nodded. “But he can’t be a Hindu, a Christian and a Muslim. It’s impossible. He must choose…” “Hmmm, Piscine?” Mother nudged me. “How do you feel about the question?” “Bapu Gandhi said, ‘All religions are true.’ I just want to love God,” I blurted out, and looked down, red in the face.

I didn’t have pity to spare for long for the zebra. When your own life is threatened, your sense of empathy is blunted by a terrible, selfish hunger for survival. It was sad that it was suffering so much… but there was nothing I could do about it. I felt pity and then I moved on. This is not something I am proud of. I am sorry I was so callous about the matter. I have not forgotten that poor zebra and what it went through. Not a prayer goes by that I don’t think of it.

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, so long as God is with me, I will not die. Amen.”

Despair was a heavy blackness that let no light in or out. It was a hell beyond expression. I thank God it always passed. A school of fish appeared around the net or a knot cried out to be reknotted. Or I thought of my family, of how they were spared this terrible agony. 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.

Life on a lifeboat isn’t much of a life. It is like an end game in chess, a game with few pieces. The elements couldn’t be more simple, nor the stakes higher. Physically it is extraordinarily arduous, and morally it is killing… You get your happiness where you can. You reach a point where you’re at the bottom of hell, yet you have your arms crossed and a smile on your face, and you feel you’re the luckiest person on earth. Why? Because at your feet you have a tiny dead fish.

I was dazed, thunderstruck – nearly in the true sense of the word. But not afraid. “Praise be to Allah, Lord of All Worlds, the Compassionate, the Merciful, Ruler of Judgment Day!” I muttered. To Richard Parker I shouted, “Stop your trembling! This is miracle. This is an outbreak of divinity. This is… this is…” I could not find what it was, this thing so vast and fantastic… I remember that close encounter with electrocution and third-degree burns as one of the few times during my ordeal when I felt genuine happiness.

By the time morning came, my grim decision was taken. I preferred to set off and perish in search of my own kind than to live a lonely half-life of physical comfort and spiritual death on this murderous island.

High calls low and low calls high. 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.

“If you stumble at mere believability, what are you living for? Isn’t love hard to believe?... Life is hard to believe, ask any scientist. God is hard to believe, ask any believer. What is your problem with hard to believe?” “We’re just being reasonable.” “So am I! I applied my reason at every moment… Nothing beats reason for keeping tigers away. But be excessively reasonable and you risk throwing out the universe with the bathwater.”

“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.”

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Call for Papers for Critical Insights: Life of Pi (2020)

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION DEADLINE EXTENDED UNTIL MARCH 1, 2020

This is a call for chapter proposals for a forthcoming edited collection on the 2001 philosophical novel Life of Pi by Canadian author Yann Martel. This volume will be published in Fall 2020 by Salem Press as part of the following subseries of their Critical Insights collection: https://www.salempress.com/ci_works .

In line with the expectations of the Critical Insights series, I ultimately seek essays that:

- Provide undergraduate and advanced high school students with a comprehensive introduction to the work and elucidate various aspects of the novel that they are likely to encounter, discuss, and study in their classrooms;

- Help students build a foundation for studying Martel’s novel (as well as other related works) in greater depth by introducing them to key concepts, contexts, critical approaches, and critical vocabulary.

The format of each volume includes:

A BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR essay (2,000 words) that offers an overview of Yann Martel’s life. (THIS HAS ALREADY BEEN ASSIGNED)
An HISTORICAL BACKGROUND essay that addresses how the cultural backdrop of the early 21st century influenced the work as well as what makes the author and his work relevant to readers today.
A CRITICAL RECEPTION essay reviews the history of the critical response to the Martel’s novel, surveying the major concerns to which critics of the work have attended over the years. This essay should examine the history of criticism of Life of Pi rather than offering a specific critique or perspective.
A CRITICAL LENS essay that offers a close reading of Life of Pi from a particular critical standpoint, such as, for example, animal studies, narratology, or New Criticism.
A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS essay that analyzes Life of Pi in the light of another (similar, comparative or contemporary) work, either by Martel or by another author.

The volume will also include 10–14 essays (4,500–5,000 words each) that will offer critical readings of Life of Pi . Although all proposed topics will be considered, some possibilities include:

Animal studies
Comparative approaches
Self-representation
Critical race studies
Survival narratives
Narrative techniques
Religious studies
Feminism, Postcolonialism, Performance studies, or other critical approaches
Life of Pi and the arts
Life of Pi in other media (film, theater etc.)

I encourage proposals from both established and early-career academics (including independent scholars), graduate students as well as practitioners in other disciplines (artists, clerics etc.), and welcome any questions or inquiries. If you are interested in contributing to this project, please submit an abstract of approximately 250-350 words and a brief resume/CV to Adam T. Bogar ( [email protected] ) by Sunday, March 1, 2020.

Selected authors will be notified by Sunday, March 8, 2020, and completed essays will be due on Sunday, May 31, 2020.

For accepted essays, each contributor will receive a $250 honorarium.

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Life of Pi Critical Essays
Critical Evaluation. The central theme of Yann Martel's Life of Pi concerns religion and human faith in God. However, the novel pointedly refrains from advocating any single religious faith over ...
Life of Pi: Theme Analysis: [Essay Example], 538 words
Life of Pi, written by Yann Martel, is a novel that explores various themes such as survival, faith, and the power of storytelling. The protagonist, Pi, finds himself stranded on a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean with only a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker for company. As the story unfolds, Pi must navigate the challenges of survival while ...
Life of Pi Essays
Join Now Log in Home Literature Essays Life of Pi Life of Pi Essays Freudian Theory in Life of Pi Alyssa Wakefield 10th Grade Life of Pi. Many people are under the impression that humans have evolved past their origins, that they have risen above animalistic tendencies; however, mankind forever remains part of the animal kingdom, and such a truism is demonstrated within Yann Martel'...
Life of Pi Essay Questions
Essays for Life of Pi. Life of Pi essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Life of Pi written by Yann Martel. Living a Lie: Yann Martel's Pi and his Dissociation from Reality; A Matter of Perspective: The Invention of a Story in Martel's Life of Pi
Life of Pi Study Guide
His first three books received little critical or popular attention, but with the publication of Life of Pi in 2001 Martel became internationally famous, and he was awarded the Man Booker Prize in 2002. ... Most of Life of Pi takes place at sea, but the novel's initial setting is Pondicherry, India, during a period of Indian history called ...
(PDF) Critical Insights: Life of Pi
The essays featured in this volume survey the novel's critical reception, discussing topics. Yann Martel's 2001 novel Life of Pi earned him the Man Booker Prize and also served as the basis for the critically acclaimed 2012 movie of the same title. The essays featured in this volume survey the novel's critical reception, discussing topics ...
A Thematic Analysis on Life of Pi
Unsplash. Life of Pi was written by the Canadian writer Yann Martel in 2001. The storyline is based on an Indian Boy, Piscine Patel (aka. Pi), a boy with a zeal to explore the notion of ...
Themes in Life of Pi with Examples and Analysis
Theme #4. Wildlife and Nature. The novel shows the wildlife's best and worst sides. There are various animals as ferocious lions and hyenas, including meek guinea pigs. The characters also experience natural calamity when the sea at its worst. Pi learns that life matters for both humans and animals.
Life of Pi Essay Questions
Thanks for exploring this SuperSummary Study Guide of "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel. A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Critical Analysis: Life Of Pi Essay Paper Example
Essay type: Pages: Download. By examining the novel Life of Pi, the three part novel by Yann Martel, one can observe the psyche of a man who has gone through a horrendous tragedy that has affected his life dramatically. Martel chose the differing setting of India, Canada, the Pacific Ocean, and briefly in Mexico during the nineteen seventies.
A critical review of 'Life of Pi'
The tale of a young man, a tiger and God, Yann Martel's bestselling novel "Life of Pi" had been dubbed "unfilmable" countless times before Ang Lee's adaptation screened. The Oscar-winning helmer ...
Life of Pi Analysis
Dive deep into Yann Martel's Life of Pi with extended analysis, commentary, and discussion ... Critical Essays. Premium PDF. Download the entire Life of Pi study guide as a printable PDF! Download
Salem Press
September 2020. Yann Martel's 2001 novel Life of Pi earned him the Man Booker Prize and also served as the basis for the critically acclaimed 2012 movie of the same title. The essays featured in this volume survey the novel's critical reception, discussing topics ranging from narrative techniques through religion and philosophy to the ...
Life of Pi movie review & film summary (2012)
Written by. Ang Lee's "Life of Pi" is a miraculous achievement of storytelling and a landmark of visual mastery. Inspired by a worldwide best-seller that many readers must have assumed was unfilmable, it is a triumph over its difficulties. It is also a moving spiritual achievement, a movie whose title could have been shortened to "life."
Truth, Faith and Hope in Life of Pi
Truth, Faith and Hope in Life of Pi - A Philosophical Review. The Life of Pi - as both a novel and a recent Oscar winning 3D film - opens up the fascinating dialogue between the worldviews of Secular Humanists, Hindus and Christians. This article compares and contrasts how these three worldviews deal with the inter-related concepts of truth, faith and hope.
Yann Martel's "The Life of Pi": Book Review
Journal of Critical Animal Studies, vol. 10, no. 2, 2012, pp. 62-79. Higginson, James. "Animals, Empathy, and the Ethics of Narrative: Yann Martel's Life of Pi." ... Life of Pi: Theme Analysis Essay. Life of Pi, written by Yann Martel, is a novel that explores various themes such as survival, faith, and the power of storytelling. The ...
Religion and Faith Theme in Life of Pi
Francis Adirubasamy first presents Pi 's tale to the fictional author as "a story to make you believe in God," immediately introducing religion as a crucial theme. Pi is raised in a secular, culturally Hindu family, but as a boy he becomes more devoutly Hindu and then also converts to Christianity and Islam. He practices all of these ...
Life of Pi
Writing the literary essay proves to be a struggle for many matrics. This video aims to make it easy to understand the formula of writing this particular ess...
Call for Papers for Critical Insights: Life of Pi (2020)
A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS essay that analyzes Life of Pi in the light of another (similar, comparative or contemporary) work, either by Martel or by another author. The volume will also include 10-14 essays (4,500-5,000 words each) that will offer critical readings of Life of Pi .

by Yann Martel

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