Preview

Life Of Pi Religious Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
144 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Life Of Pi Religious Analysis
During Pi's voyage across the Pacific, certain objects, creatures, and places helped him survive and also symbolized many aspects of religion found today. Something such as Pi's lifeboat, which he spent 227 days in while floating around the ocean, represented Pi's faith in his religion. Or, the island that him and Richard Parker stopped by, that during the day was peaceful and placid, while at night it took away the things it had once given during the day. This island would have been religion itself, how some are not experiencing true faith and religion. This would connect to the sea and the sun in the story, which could symbolize the truths of life scrutinizing your ideology, or the tests of life. The trees on the island are the clergy,

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In the early stages of Life of Pi, Martel mentions a place that Pi and Ravi had gone to visit while on vacation. While looking aimlessly through the window, they noticed three hills. On top of one hill was a catholic church, another a Hindu temple, and the other a Muslim mosque. Each hill portrays each of the religions in Pi’s complex faith. The hills represent Pi’s struggles to understand each religion. Later on, we find out that Pi is caught in between these three religions. He couldn’t completely disregard any of the religions, so each one kept warring for a place in his life. In How to Read Literature like a Professor, Foster repeatedly says how symbols usually have more than one possible meaning. So another possible meaning for the three hills is that each of the warring religions has a different part in his life. The religions are separated by being on each hill, but they live simultaneously in the same general area. Just as, in Pi’s life, each religion has its separate area of his mind, but they all partake in his life.…

    • 1658 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Sermon in the Mount delivered by Jesus defines the important values of Religion. As the founder of Christian religion, Jesus, in his sermon, presented the evidences of ethics behavior of Christians, which are forgiveness, humility, Justice, love and perseverance. Agreeing to Jesus’ sermon, forgiveness must characterize Christians. In fact, Christian must forgive at the level of accepting a recidivist behavior. According to Jesus “If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also”. In addition humility is a requirement of Christians. Christians prove their humility by asking forgiveness even if they did not offense someone. As Jesus declared, if “your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front…

    • 289 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, Piscine Molitor Patel illustrates the suffering of a survivor following a major traumatic event. After a cargo ship carrying a full zoo and all of Pi’s family sinks, Pi is left with a few animals and his thoughts to keep him company. While at sea, his supplies dwindle and he has to resort to extreme measures. These measures come into full effect when Pi’s boat leads him to another survivor. The characters of Pi and the other survivor, a French man, portray how the need to survive can force these survivors to resort to savage actions.…

    • 598 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the book 'Life of Pi' you find a young man, who grew up in a very religious world surrounded by animals of wisdom. The author goes into deep explanation of Pi's life, about how he grew up in a zoo and had a tough childhood. Pi develops a love for a higher power and starts to grasp the understanding of God, by learning three different religions. The religions were Islam,Christianity and Buddhism. After each of the teachers found that he was following multiple religions, each of them told him that he could only follow one. Pi continued to follow each of the religions and eventually studied zoology, shocker! Anyway in time soon Pi was on a boat with his parents journeying to Canada where the boat mystically crashed and began to sink. Pi escaped…

    • 764 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Having to survive in such an extreme environment is not easy,especially if someone were to be in Keesh and Pi’s position. Keesh and Pi both have been struggling to keep themselves alive,for Keesh he would like to display that he can hunt a bear on his own trying to show that although he is a child he can hunt as a man, and have a fair share of the meat that he will eat . As Pi is stranded in the middle of the ocean trying to find a sign of hope or food to keep himself alive as well. In the Life of Pi and “The Story of Keesh” Pi and Keesh exhibit similarities in regards to their braveness,skillfulness, and their will to survive in an extreme environment.…

    • 588 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    ples of Judeo-Christian beliefs and also the more mystical beliefs are there in the novel? How do they relate to one another? Use at least three quotes. The novel is filled will judeo-christian beliefs and mystical beliefs. The novel starts off in a church where he has a dream, His journey begins which is a christian belief. It is also a very important theme that “…people are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of.” (23). Another is that he sees a picture of a sacred heart at tarifa where he learns much about non-catholic beliefs. Next, when he arrives in egypt he is confronted by a new language,He is respectful to all the Muslims he meets, especially the crystal merchant.He realized that the same hand wrote all, he also recognizes that all the religions have the same precept of honoring the higher powers. The king of salem was in pre biblical roots such as the old testament. The king gives him a gift of the two stones Urim and Thummim which illustrate a non-Christian faith tradition,”Urim and Thummim. The black signifies ‘yes’ and the white ‘no’… Always ask an objective question… But if you can, try to make your own decisions (31). The stones stones comfort…

    • 857 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Pi's Narrative Threads

    • 550 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In the novel Pi's actual name is Piscine Molitor Patel. His gets his name from the French word for pool, which specifically is the pool in which his friend Adirubasamy used to swim in. His name itself connects to the concept of water or ocean from the onset. This connection to water is used to exemplify the theme of surviving which could be a reason he is named Pi since he survived in an ocean for 227 days. Moving on Piscline's nickname is Pi which a mathematical expression for an irrational continuous number that starts with 3.14 and then continues with a repetition of words. This repetition basically exemplifies the repetition of Pi's routine to survive on the boat. Every day he woke with one goal which was to survive, and his name adds to the theme of persistence because with the repetition and persistence he might have not survived 227 days. Moreover the mathematical expression pi is used to calculate a circumference of a circle. A circle represents unity and I think the author used to this to add to theme of unity. On the boat Pi needed to befriend Richard Parker in order to survive and maybe without him he would have not survived. More specifically I think this connection to a circle represents the Chinese symbol for Yin and Yang which cannot exist without each other. Yin represents the negative side while Yang represents the positive, in connection to the positive represents Pi who is hopeful…

    • 550 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Although the bare essentials to human survival are just food, water, and shelter, there is also other things that humans need. They need spiritual needs like believing in a faith. Or emotional needs like friendships and feelings. In the novel, Life of Pi by Yann Martel, Yann gives Pi spiritual, physical, and emotional needs. Pi meets these needs by staying true to his faith.…

    • 1073 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    According to Viramontes, the unique challenges by Latina females is caused greatly by their ethnic background. Often women are oppressed by society, but when the issue is of color these challenges are harder to avoid. This does not only occur in this novel, but exists today in the real world. Many Latina females are often discriminated and harassed by societal influences, which makes them feel forced into specific roles. As seen in Under the Feet of Jesus, Estrella is a victim of these ongoing challenges, for being part of a low socioeconomic status, lack of education, and not being a legal U.S. citizen.…

    • 655 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Even though the two stories are completely different in plotline, the algae island was created from the Garden of Eden story because the Garden of Eden story is well known and there are more similarities than differences. Some differences in the stories are the way the characters left the paradise, the reasons for eating the fruit, and the amount of fruit trees in their paradise. Some similarities are that the fruit became a foreshadow that something bad or evil was going to happen, trees both resulted in death/exile, and the characters are naked.…

    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Life Of Pi Religion Essay

    • 1930 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Yann Martel’s Life of Pi and H.G. Wells’ Island of Dr. Moreau both creatively use a combination of a shipwreck and a storytelling theme to create a sense of inner struggle that questions and tests one’s own relationship with religion, faith and science. Both authors approach these matters in contrasting ways that make the reader think for themselves and question what is right and what is wrong. Wells’ approach is done through a satirical manner that mocks having faith in religion and shows a preferential approach towards having faith in science. In contrast, Martel’s story is told in such a way that suggests that all three can harmoniously exist together in peace and can “make you believe in God” (citation).…

    • 1930 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are four connections that explain the theological interpretive circle. The first connection, spirituality to religion, ties the self and the neighbor together. We as individuals differ in our levels of spirituality and our decision making process, however, we choose our religion based on our beliefs, yet we find ourselves entangled with our neighbors who also follow our religions. What separates us is the level of spirituality we contain, but we conjoin with our neighbors regardless. This emphasizes unity regardless of difference, which follows the Golden Rule, as you would like to be treated no different from your peers. Reflection and action allow us to formulate our beliefs and reflect on others’ beliefs and viewpoints, while action…

    • 418 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Life of Pi Symbolism

    • 885 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Karanvir Dhami Ms. Yu ENG3U March 7, 2011 Symbolism in Life of Pi In Life of Pi there are many literary devices used to present the different themes in the novel. The main literary device used in Life of Pi is symbolism. Symbolism is often used to represent an object to something else, either by association or by resemblance. Most of the names of animals, objects and even humans in this novel have a symbolic meaning. In Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, symbolism such as pi’s name, the colour orange and the algae island, are used throughout the novel to provide Pi with protection to help him either survive or overcome his emotional pain. The mathematical pi is undefined, infinite and unable to be understood, just like Piscine Patel. Piscine’s nickname is Pi and it has a symbolic relationship with the mathematical pi. Pi is sixteen when he is shipwrecked, and pi is also the sixteenth letter of the Greek alphabet. Not only is the mathematical pi symbolic towards Pi, but it also provided him protection from school. Many of Pi’s classmates made fun of his full name and called him names such as “Pissing Patel”. When Pi transferred to a new school he took the first available opportunity to use his nick name, with “that Greek letter that looked like a shack … *Pi+ found refuge” (Martel, ). This nickname allowed him to find the protection from the bullying he would have got if he had used his actual name. The Greek letter symbolizes the roof the nickname has placed over Pi emotionally. Before the nickname was being used all his former classmates new him as only as…

    • 885 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    The first, in example 7, you see a big oak tree right in the center. Off in the background is another oak tree but that one is smaller and on both of the trunks, you see a small little cluster of leaves. The big huge tree in the front is to symbolize Christianity and it's firm hold in the ground. The smaller oak tree in the background represents science, which is growing in size and almost as big as the first. The small little leaf clusters symbolize the arguments on both sides and the effects that they are having on religion and science as a whole. In many different cultures, the oak tree is a symbol that is very highly regarded and associated with the Gods and strength. It is no wonder why they chose Christianity to be the main oak on the cartoon because it is what our country is founded on. It has been there for a lot longer than much else. The science oak tree however, is rapidly catching up to the size of the Christianity tree because more and more things are starting to make sense the farther science comes along. In addition, it is becoming a major principle that the newer United Stated is being founded on. The caption at the bottom is a very powerful one because it links religion and science together. The caption "The oaks that braved a thousand storms," says that throughout everything Religion (Christianity) and Science have withstood the test of…

    • 1700 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The famous Sermon on the Mount delivered by Jesus is considered to be one of the main focal points of the entire religions moral belief system. It delivers many applicable methods to approach salvation and the lifestyles choices/fruits that come along with embracing God’s grace and sacrifice. Jesus gave this sermon at an early point during His ministry. In the previous two chapters, Jesus was baptized, gathered His disciples and gained more of a following throughout Syria. Once Jesus noticed his following, He traveled up the mountain and began teaching His disciple’s. I think that specific part at the beginning of verse two in chapter five is extremely important. It shows that Jesus is targeting only His specific group of followers yet it ended with a a large amount of people that came to listen. This sermon shows great symbolism of how actual salvation works. It is made for the specific but is offered to many.…

    • 1222 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays