Life Of Pi Theme Analysis

The Theme of Life of Pi Imagine being stranded at sea for seven months with limited supplies and a Bengal Tiger being the only other castaway in the ship. Pi Patel, the protagonist of Life of Pi, has to live with these circumstances, and he miraculously survives. This story is about a young boy who grows up in a zoo, since his family owns it, and makes sense of himself through religion. One day, Pi’s father decides he is going to move the family to Canada because he believes there will be better opportunities for all of them there. After about a year, all of the zoo animals are sold, and Pi’s family boards the Tsimtsum, a ship that will take them to their desired destination. The ship sinks, and Pi is left on a lifeboat with a hyena, a wounded …show more content…
From the very beginning it is well established that Pi is a boy who has a strong will to love God and live for Him. This will enables him to face the rebuttals of society, and it keeps him alive while he is on a lifeboat for over two-hundred days. The priest, the imam, and the pandit, who are among Pi’s greatest societal struggles, bicker amongst themselves, which the author uses to make a statement about the ridiculous and frightening religious violence all around the world. The animals of the book all make representations and illusions to things in the Bible. The hyena is sin that makes its weak victims wither away to nothing, and the flying fish represent the manna that was needed in order for the people of Israel to survive. Richard Parker needed to be served, and he suffered and disappeared just like Jesus Christ. Mamaji, Pi’s close friend whom he viewed as family, tells Yann Martel that Pi has a story that will make him believe in God. Through the religious symbolism and ideas scattered throughout the entirety of Pi’s story, it makes what he was trying to convey quite clear. “But religion is more than rite and ritual. There is what the rite and ritual stand for” (Martel