Yann Martel life of Pi is an account of a boy, a tiger, and the vast Pacific Ocean. Born to an Indian family, Piscine Molitor Patel(“Pi” for short) was raised in his father’s zoo in Pondicherry. Later, because of India’s political unrest, Pi’s family decides to move to Canada in a cargo ship, long with cages full of zoo animals. The ship, however, sinks, leaving Pi and the tiger Richard parker on the Pacific Ocean in a lifeboat. After a series of events at sea for 227 days, the boat finally washes ashore on a Mexican beach, where villagers rescue Pi and Richard Parker. Pi’s story is a unique, high-seas adventure with many underlying themes. At its core is the idea of religious faith. As a practitioner of Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam, Pi is a remarkably religious youth. He has a sophisticated perspective …show more content…
He claims that “presence of God is the finest of rewards”. Underneath the formality and difference in the three religions, Pi realizes the one theme that binds the three together: love. The significance of Pi’s devotion to God is exemplified in the novel when he loses everything and must rely on this faith to live.
The 450 pound Bengal tiger named Richard parker is also evidence of animals as religious symbols. The marvelous body of Richard parker can be seen as both an image of God and a sign of the brutality of the world. When Pi beholds Richard parker aboard the lifeboat, he describes the body of Richard parker as a “display of mighty art.”
Along with Pi’s embracing of major religious and the animals as religious symbols, the heart of the novel centers around Pi’s religious faith and will to live at sea. Stranded in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with only 450-pound Bengal tiger and a throng of sharks to keep him company, Pi clings to his love for God and partly relies on religious rituals to prevent despair and the feeling of isolation and