A ubiquitous theme in literature is religion. The Bible is a very popular book, and the first-ever printed, and has many stories of faith. In Life of Pi, Pi is a boy who is Indian and is learning about different types of religion and faith. After the ship sank on the way to Canada, Pi got lost at sea. In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Pi was on a lifeboat with a tiger who was called Richard Parker. By faith he used was shown on his face. Pi’s survival was put into a story to show perseverance and the faith he showed. In Life of Pi, Yann Martel used different religious meanings to show the circumstances of the story’s overall meaning of the allegory. In the novel, the life of the religion is symbolized by the ocean and the island throughout Pi’s experience.
The author, Yann Martel, used Pi’s faith as a story to reveal a hidden meaning. An allegorical meaning behind a part of the novel, Life of Pi is how he learned how to survive using different instincts. For example, “When your own life is threatened, your sense of empathy is blunted by a terrible, selfish hunger for survival.” Pi discovers that the hyenas are viciously attacking the zebras, but he doesn't care that much due to the priority of his own survival. Second, “Survival had to start with me. In my experience, a castaway’s worst mistake is to hope too much and do too little.” Pi also discovers that when Richard Parker comes onto the lifeboat, he comes up with a new plan for survival until he is saved by others. Lastly, “There was a tiger in the lifeboat. I could hardly believe it, yet I knew I had to. And I had to save myself.” Pi decided to build useful equipment by using the material he found, like the life jackets and ropes from the locker. To keep a little distance between Pi and Richard Parker, the tiger, the raft is floating away. To summarize, Pi blocked out the distraction, the animals, to focus on himself and his own survival. Pi practiced the different religions and never gave up his faith. By always having faith it showed the strength he had and the thrive to survive. Pi survives in his struggle. When people think more rationally, they tend to be in a life-or-death situation.
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As a child, growing up and gets stranded. He forms a relationship with animals and looks back on everything. This is proven in the novel, Life of Pi, when Pi states, “He was too far. But the sight of the lifebuoy flying his way gave him hope. He revived and started beating the water with vigorous, desperate strokes.” Pi spots Richard Parker in the bright blue ocean water and throws him a tube-like, lifebuoy to save him from drowning. Pi states what he believes Richard Parker is going through in his mind thus he is a tiger. Pi also states, “Richard Parker had been a zoo animal for as long as he could remember, and he was used to sustenance coming to him without his lifting a paw.” Pi’s success in taming Richard Parker is immaculate that the two can have some type of communication on the lifeboat, as it is explained that he is no longer a wild animal. In the real world, Richard Parker would normally hut, but since he was in the zoo for most of his life, food and water were provided for him. Lastly Pi states, “But I don’t want to take too much credit for what I managed to do with Richard Parker. My good fortune, the fortune that saved my life, was that he was not only a young adult but a pliable young adult, an omega animal.” Pi continues to show who is alpha to Richard Parker, by training him to jump through hoops and showing the success, progress, and most of all the trust, and bond they have with each other. To sum this up, the training puts together a strong bond that can’t be broken. This represents the human encounter due to the qualities of the lifeboat.
In the novel, Life of Pi, everything is connected in some type of way and has a message that is valued. For example, when Pi states, “The world isn’t just the way it is. It is how we understand it, no? And in understanding something, we bring something to it, no? Doesn’t that make life a story?” When Pi was in the hospital, the other humans wanted to hear about how and why the ship had sunk. Given their responses, they didn't believe Pi’s story with Richard Parker. Another example is, “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?” Pi told two different tales to the Japanese people. His question relates to if he believes what they would think about the stories. “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.” Pi expands the truth of the themes concerning the stories, and the story pursues God in his life. If there is no proven way to show that God is by your side and that God is real, How do you know if he is there? How do we know if he is with us? This actively demonstrates that Pi kept moving forward with life by not giving up hope. Throughout the story, he always pulled through and had hope. Pi never gave up hope of survival.
To sum up, everything that has been stated, in Life of Pi, religious allegory is used to deepen the meaning of the text. This allegory showed that Pi got too comfortable with being alone and stranded. Nobody believes his story when he makes it back to land safely. One thing that Pi did believe in was taking a leap of faith. Having faith is starting by believing in the story of Pi and Richard Parker. The better story included the animals which Chiba and Okamoto believed in. In both versions of the stories, they all stated that Pi’s family had died, Pi had survived being stranded, and the ship sinks
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