Yann Martel’s Life of Pi is a very well written book, intended for an adult audience. As many of you probably already know, as I did before the book, there is a ship that sinks and a young boy, Pi, is left stranded in the middle of the ocean with a tiger. Before reading the book, that was about the only information that I had gathered on the story. The book starts out with an old Piscine Molitor Patel introducing the story to, what I thought at the time of opening the book, the reader. From the beginning, Pi, short for Piscine, is tagged as a religious man. Pi tells the story of his family’s sailing across the Pacific Ocean, from India to Canada, along with the animals from their recently closed zoo, that have been bought by various zoos across North America. On their way to Canada, the ship sinks and only Pi, a tiger, an orangutan, a hyena and a zebra survive, all upon the same lifeboat. After the five start to get hungry and cranky, the hyena kills the zebra. After killing the zebra, the hyena and the orangutan get into a brawl, the hyena winning kills the orangutan.
The Tiger, known in the story as Richard Parker, kills the hyena, leaving a less than average sized young man, on a lifeboat with a 450 pound Bengal Tiger. The two face many challenges while on the boat, but overcome each one with each other. With each crisis, one of the passengers is saved by the other. The story ends when the duo find land in Tomatlán, Mexico and are rescued by a hospitable group of indigenous people, who do not understand English. Pi is cleaned up by the people, then taken to a local hospital. While at the hospital, Pi is confronted by to Japanese men who want to find out more information on how the ship sank and Pi’s story of survival. Pi tells them the original story of his survival, many aspects being unbelievable. The men tell Pi they do not believe him, and ask for the true story. They ask, Pi tells. Pi tells them that he was not aboard a lifeboat with animals, but instead, each animal in the story was actually a surviving member of the shipwreck. The Animals and their egos are as follows:
· Hyena – The cook
· Zebra – Young sailor
· Orangutan – Pi’s mother
· Tiger – Pi Patel
Online, there are many different opinions as to what the main idea of Life of Pi really is. Of these opinions are: storytelling, religion, will to live. Now, I can understand how one could see storytelling as the main idea of the book, and I agree. The storytelling element of this novel would suffice as a great main idea, but I personally believe that Martel was trying to get the religion element across above all others. Pi says many things, in all three parts of this story, that would provide reason for my choice. From the beginning of the book, before we even start the story, Francis Adirubasamy, better known to the reader as Mamaji, says “I have a story that will make you believe in God.” (Life of Pi, Yann Martel, pg. X). Pi turned to God many times during his “experience”. Now, one major element of this book, is Pi’s religious outreach. Pi isn’t sure as to which religion he wants to devote to. He is torn between the Christian, Hindu and Islamic religions. A great example of his confusion would be when he sees Richard Parker floating in the water toward the boat and exclaims “Jesus, Mary, Muhammad and Vishnu, how good to see you Richard Parker!” (Life of Pi, Yann Martel, pg. 97). Pi ends up finally choosing the Christian religion, but rebounds when he asks his parents for a prayer rug, used in the Islamic religion. So, throughout the entire book, Pi is undecided of his “official religion”. Pi somewhat creates his own religion, with the idea that there is one God, shared between all religions.
Like every author of every novel, Martel’s story had many messages. The message that I derived from this story is to believe, and have faith in something. If you don’t have faith in something, your entire life will be of waste and you will have nothing to live for. Mamaji demonstrates this well when he says “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, Yann Martel, pg. xxi). You are defined by your beliefs. If Pi didn’t believe and have faith in God, he would not have survived his solitude. Pi’s believing in God gave him the extra “umph” to get through his struggle. You will only go as far as your beliefs will take you. “Atheists are my brothers and sisters of a different faith, and every word they speak speaks of faith. Like me, they go as far as the legs of reason will carry them -- and then they leap.”( Life of Pi, Yann Martel, pg. 28).
Many questions have been unanswered by this book. I’m sure that Martel left these questions unanswered intentionally, most likely to spur the imagination. After reading the book, there is one question that remains in the back of my head; What does the blind, elderly Frenchman represent? I know that the blind man is another ego of the cook/hyena, but why have the cook killed by Richard Parker twice? If I had to answer these two questions, I would say that the reasoning behind the Frenchman’s appearance in the story would be the fact that Pi killed, and consumed part of him. Pi, being a vegetarian, had never killed another living animal before the sinking of the ship. Pi’s first experience with bloodshed would be the killing of the flying fish in chapter 61, “I wept heartily over this poor little deceased soul. It was the first sentient being I had ever killed. I was now a killer. I was now as guilty as Cain. I was sixteen years old, a harmless boy, bookish and religious, and now I had blood on my hands. Its a terrible burden to carry. All sentient life is sacred. I never forget to include this fish in my prayers.” (LIfe of Pi, Yann Martel, pg. 183). As Pi not only killed the Frenchmen, but also ate him, he has to live with the fact that he murdered and consumed his own kind. By completing this action, Pi essentially lost his innocence, "He was such an evil man. Worse still, he met evil in me--selfishness, anger, ruthlessness. I must live with that." (Life of Pi, Yann Martel, pg. 310). As if the loss of his family, and 227 days stranded on the Pacific Ocean weren’t enough, Pi has to live with the guilt of killing a man, and eating his remains.
Just as with every other novel, there are those who do, and those who don’t like it.. I personally liked the book. I thought that it was written beautifully, and tells a great tale. I am not the only one that feels this way, as the book received 4 out of 5 stars on Good Reads. The majority of people who read the book, enjoyed it. On Good Reads, Stephanie said “Wow... I would've loved it just for Part 1 and how I adored the idea that Pi so wanted to love God that espoused three religions... why not? Who's to say which is better.” (September 21, 2012). I agree completely with Stephanie. But even still there are those who did not particularly enjoy reading the book. From Good Reads, Mary stated “It's not that it was bad, it's just that I wish the tiger had eaten him so the story wouldn't exist. I read half of it, and felt really impatient the whole time, skipping whole pages, and then I realized that I didn't have to keep going, which is as spiritual a moment as I could hope to get from this book.” (January 24, 2008) Personally, I think that Mary should have read the whole book, and been baffled by the style of the writing and the story.
Yann Martel, the author of Life of Pi, was born on June 25, 1963 of Canadian parents. Martel was born in Salamanca, Spain, but moved frequently during his childhood, due to the fact that his father was a professor and a diplomat. For the greater part of his life, Martel resided in Ontario, Canada, where he received a degree in philosophy from Trent University in 1981. Martel has traveled alone, and lived in many countries since the receiving his degree. Of these countries are India, Iran, and Turkey. Life of Pi was first published by Martel in 2001, was then translated into 41 different languages, won the Man Booker Prize in 2002, and spent 57 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list. Martel is also the author of many other renowned books, including Beatrice and Virgil and Self, The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios, and a collection of letters to the prime minister of Canada.(ENotes.cm, Life of Pi: Author Biography, 2013). The author decided to start writing novels after his success in his writing courses in college, while obtaining his degree. Martel’s inspiration for Life of Pi was to discuss faith, but not organized religion, which is why he decided to give Pi the three religions, rather than choose a dead set one. Martel says this in an interview had with Written Vioces on October 2, 2002 “I wanted to discuss faith, not organized religion, so wanted to relatives organized religion by having Pi practice three. I would have like PI to be a Jew, too, to practice Judaism, but there are two religions that are explicitly incompatible: Christianity and Judaism. Where one begins, the other ends, according to Christians, and where one endures, the other strays, according to Jews.”
