“The Life of Pi” and The Happiness of True Salvation The constant hope to find true happiness and bliss is an essential component of human nature. As Pi finds himself within the short reach of salvation he is overcome by relief as his days of hardship perchance to come to an end: “Can there be any happiness greater than the happiness of salvation?” (260). Salvation does not just materialize out of thin air but is found in the challenges faced everyday by man. In the novel, Life of Pi, Yann Martel explores the aspects of salvation through the challenges of survival and perpetual belief that grants man happiness. Martel uses a didactic style to allow deeper understanding of what fabricates salvation and how Pi overcame desperation and truly
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Pi is a true believer and he knows that faith and believability is the bridge between fact and fiction. When the Japanese investigators reject Pi’s animal story as fact, he indignantly replies with: “Love is hard to believe, ask any lover. Life is hard to believe, ask and scientist. God is hard to believe, ask any believer.” (330). Pi asks the reader to believe in the animal story and even fictional characters such as the investigators agree that the animal story is of higher quality. At first, the Japanese investigators do not believe Pi, like many would have, so they conduct the floating banana test to prove there are holes in Pi’s story. Pi finds salvation in the banana floating on the surface of the water as he changed what the investigators perceived as fiction into pure fact. Believing makes humans, and Pi, more connected to the world around them. Pi believing in three religions allows him to see the world from the perspective of three majorly different perspectives: “Thank you Lord Vishnu, now you have saved me by taking form of a fish” (204). Pi relates religion to the real world through the capturing of his first dorado. He believes that Vishnu, the Hindu God is responsible for his success. Pi was distraught and almost helpless as he had small amounts of food remaining, the capture of the fish gave him a spark of happiness and hope. Pi never knew he had the ability to capture, kill, and eat a fish being a vegetarian but because of his faith in God and Pi believing in himself, Pi, and his stomach, found
Pi is a true believer and he knows that faith and believability is the bridge between fact and fiction. When the Japanese investigators reject Pi’s animal story as fact, he indignantly replies with: “Love is hard to believe, ask any lover. Life is hard to believe, ask and scientist. God is hard to believe, ask any believer.” (330). Pi asks the reader to believe in the animal story and even fictional characters such as the investigators agree that the animal story is of higher quality. At first, the Japanese investigators do not believe Pi, like many would have, so they conduct the floating banana test to prove there are holes in Pi’s story. Pi finds salvation in the banana floating on the surface of the water as he changed what the investigators perceived as fiction into pure fact. Believing makes humans, and Pi, more connected to the world around them. Pi believing in three religions allows him to see the world from the perspective of three majorly different perspectives: “Thank you Lord Vishnu, now you have saved me by taking form of a fish” (204). Pi relates religion to the real world through the capturing of his first dorado. He believes that Vishnu, the Hindu God is responsible for his success. Pi was distraught and almost helpless as he had small amounts of food remaining, the capture of the fish gave him a spark of happiness and hope. Pi never knew he had the ability to capture, kill, and eat a fish being a vegetarian but because of his faith in God and Pi believing in himself, Pi, and his stomach, found