Yann Martel's Life Of Pi: A Literary Analysis
When it comes to the existence of a god or gods, there are three kinds of people in this world: Those who believe, those who do not believe, and those who do not concern themselves with the subject. In Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, it is promised that Pi Patel’s narrative “will make you believe in God” (X). In Life of Pi, there are two stories by this protagonist: Pi’s “dry, yeastless factuality” (63) tale of survival and the “better story” (63). Martel does not indicate to the reader which story actually occurred, and neither can be proven as the legitimate one, which parallels the arguments between the existence of a god and scientific reason. In the story, Pi’s father believes in humankind’s contemporary discoveries, which contradicts Pi’s
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Because Pi is a Hindu, Christian, and Muslim, he incorporates many of their religious stories into his narrative. When Pi is fourteen, he goes on holiday with his family to a hill station in Munnar. There, he meets a priest named Father Martin. Once Father Martin introduces him to the story of Jesus Christ, it is impossible for Pi to get the Christian Messiah out of his head. Pi says, “I couldn’t get Him [Jesus Christ] out of my head… And the more I learned about Him, the less I wanted to leave Him” (57). For Pi, the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the humanity found in the “one Story” (53) of Christianity move him to believe in the Christian view of a Trinitarian God. Although the story cannot be proven, Pi is infatuated with the story of Jesus Christ because it provide more hope and love than the realities of science and progress. Because Pi believes in Christianity, he gains more internal goods than he would from modernization. As a Muslim, Pi enjoys the sacredness that comes with his prayers with Mr. Kumar. After one prayer session, Pi is riding back to his house when he “suddenly felt [he] was in heaven” (62). Even though Pi has ridden this route many times before, his “way of seeing it had changed” (62). For once, “the trees, the air, the sun all spoke differently to [him], now they spoke one language of unity” (62). This feeling cannot be explained by science nor caused by anything but the presence of God “coming so close to [Pi]” (62). Because of his connection with God, Pi feels as though he is in a harmonious state of bliss, which is only made possible through his believing in the existence of religions and God. If Pi experienced these moments through “dry, yeastless factuality,” he would never have been able to appreciate Christianity and Islam because he would have been trapped trying to identify all
Because Pi is a Hindu, Christian, and Muslim, he incorporates many of their religious stories into his narrative. When Pi is fourteen, he goes on holiday with his family to a hill station in Munnar. There, he meets a priest named Father Martin. Once Father Martin introduces him to the story of Jesus Christ, it is impossible for Pi to get the Christian Messiah out of his head. Pi says, “I couldn’t get Him [Jesus Christ] out of my head… And the more I learned about Him, the less I wanted to leave Him” (57). For Pi, the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the humanity found in the “one Story” (53) of Christianity move him to believe in the Christian view of a Trinitarian God. Although the story cannot be proven, Pi is infatuated with the story of Jesus Christ because it provide more hope and love than the realities of science and progress. Because Pi believes in Christianity, he gains more internal goods than he would from modernization. As a Muslim, Pi enjoys the sacredness that comes with his prayers with Mr. Kumar. After one prayer session, Pi is riding back to his house when he “suddenly felt [he] was in heaven” (62). Even though Pi has ridden this route many times before, his “way of seeing it had changed” (62). For once, “the trees, the air, the sun all spoke differently to [him], now they spoke one language of unity” (62). This feeling cannot be explained by science nor caused by anything but the presence of God “coming so close to [Pi]” (62). Because of his connection with God, Pi feels as though he is in a harmonious state of bliss, which is only made possible through his believing in the existence of religions and God. If Pi experienced these moments through “dry, yeastless factuality,” he would never have been able to appreciate Christianity and Islam because he would have been trapped trying to identify all