Canada Reads

“Fanatics do not have faith - they have belief. With faith you let go. You trust. Where as with belief you cling” Yann Martel. In Yann Martel’s novel, Life of Pi, both faith and reason have influenced Pi’s beliefs to create a centrality in his thinking and survival. His faith has influenced the way he believes in explanations as well as creating a significance in his life style. As well as keeping his faith, Pi’s thinking is also swayed by reason. In order to maintain centrality, Pi observes…

God of Wonders “And he’ll break open the skies to save those who cry out his name the wind and waves obey is strong enough to save you. ’’ Tenth Avenue North Religion has been at the center of many conflicts. During the past and even til this very day. Don’t get me wrong they're positive outcomes but on the other hand, religion has caused all sorts of chaos all across the world putting people's lives in jeopardy causing wars due to the fact that one's belief is…

his horrible journey at sea. In the Life of Pi, Pi Patel loses his family, his home, and at times even his hope and religion leaving him just a bare castaway. When Pi Patel is 16 his family packs up everything they have and put it on a boat to go to Canada but when a normal storm hits and something unknown goes terribly wrong the boat sinks leaving Pi on a lifeboat with an orangutan, a hyena, a zebra, and a Bengal tiger. Soon Pi and Richard Parker, the Bengal tiger, are the…

One of the most fundamental aspects of humanity, is the need for community. The process of socialization is crucial for survival. In Yann Martel 's Life of Pi and the movie Cast Away, the severe effects of social isolation are depicted. Pi Patel is a young Indian boy in search of faith and Chuck Noland is a grown man whose identity revolves around the concept of time. Between the two narratives lies a similar message regarding man 's will to live. Both protagonists reach extreme points of…

[Pi’s] the tiger!” (311). These specific network of parallels and exact associations reveal enormous amounts of personality. The Taiwanese sailor, who did not know English. seemed rare and out of place. Much like a zebra he was hard to understand and read due to his communication barrier. Orange Juice, the orangutan, acted the most human out of the animals. Pi’s mother being represented by an orangutan is substantial due to the fact that orangutans are closely similar to homosapians. The cook…

Perspective and belief will vary from person to person, but what will always remain the same is the truth. Yann Martel, in his book Life of Pi, shows that varying stories can convey the same truth and underlying message, in different ways. In the book, Piscine Molitor Patel, also known as Pi, tells two stories of his time stranded in the Pacific Ocean. In the first story he tells of how he is accompanied by animals that occasionally act like humans. The fact that Pi was able to survive in…

the purpose of the latest picturebook by the celebrated author-illustrator Eric Carle. At first glance, the theme is made evident to readers; the front dust jacket cover illustrates a yellow duck popping out of a peeled banana. The text on the cover reads “THE NONSENSE SHOW”, and is written in a colorful block font, using all capital letters. The dedication page features Rene Magritte’s famous painting The Treachery of Images, which leads the reader to anticipate a heavy surrealistic theme, in…

In A long walk to water, Linda Sue Park tells the story of a lost boy refugee, destined to cover africa on foot, searching for his family and safety. The story takes place in southern sudan, 1985.In the beginning of the book salva lived a normal life, but it takes a turn when out of nowhere a war began, and salva was told not to go back to his village and just go to the bushes where is is safe.Salva than became a lost boy finding a way to cope with this type of situation where he don’t know…

Yann Martel’s Life of Pi encourages readers to choose between Pi’s two versions of his story at sea. However, I will argue that it is important to understand both the human and animal story. Pi’s human story is disguised by the fictional animal story in order to conceal the inhumane and savage acts of people Pi encounters at sea. Furthermore, the imaginative fabrication of Richard Parker in Pi’s animal story aids the reader in understanding the trauma and immoral actions that Pi endures on his…

A zebra, an orangutan a hyena and a tiger? Or, a Taiwanese sailor, a mother, a French cook, and Pi? These are two stories that give the same meaning, but one tells a better story. In Life of Pi by: Yann Martel, Pi gets stuck on a lifeboat for 227 days after he is the victim of a shipwreck. He is forced to survive the harshness of the sea. After a truly incredible journey to ultimate survival, Pi tells the story of his miraculous survival in the company of a tiger to Japanese men from the…