Life of Pi: Inspiration, Real Life Situations and Courage

Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, first a book, then later a successful movie. Book was initially rejected by many publishers, before being published and later became ones of the best sellers internationally. Life of Pi written by Yann Martel and directed by Ang Lee a touching story.

In discussing Life of Pi, the theme of survival, inspiration, bravery, curiocity, religion. Life of Pie, is written in a first-person voice. Piscine Molitor Patel (Pi) the protagonist of the story is young man who survives on a lifeboat with a bengal tiger named Richard Parker. The movie starts with a teenageer (Pi) living in India with his parents and brother Ravi. Pi is always searching for new things and exploring the religions. Pi’s father is a zoo owner, and mother is a devoted reader and introduces him to numerous literary works from which he learns the joy of numerous schools of thoughts. At the age of 16 Pi’s father decides to move to Winnipeg, canada for better opportunities. He sells the animals to various zoos in America.

The animals are loaded in the same same ship they are taking to reach Winnipeg. On the journey there has been a storm which he decides to go watch, where it turns out the storm is bad, and the boat starts to flood, he lands on a lifeboat. By this time he has lost both his parents and his brother to the storm. The next morning he finds himself with the company of a badly injured zebra, a vicious hyena, and a matronly orangutan named Orange Juice. Hiding out of sight, beneath the canvas of the lifeboat, is the tiger Richard Parker. The hyena wounds and eats the zebra, then goes after Orange Juice. The orangutan puts up a good fight, but the hyena ultimately kills her. Richard Parker finally makes himself known by killing and eating the hyena. Now only Pi and Richard Parker survive on the lifeboat.

How Pi and Richard Parker survive in the Pacific Ocean makes up the rest of the movie. An undetermined amount of time passes, and Pi and Richard Parker arrive in Mexico. Richard Parker runs into the wild and is never seen again. Pi is brought into custody, given food, and questioned for some time by two officials from the Maritime Department in the Japanese Ministry of Transport. No one is ready to believe his story, after a couple trials he changes the story that others accept. The theme of survival is one of the main themes portrayed in the movie/book. Without the will to survive, Pi would’ve died very early on in the book/movie. Instead of being negative and sad, Pi decides to try to make the best out of a bad situation, and his attitude throughout the entire agony is fascinating. We encounter survival from the beginning, Pi getting on the lifeboat, the fight between zebra and hyena. Later the hyena and orange juice. Later we see Richard Parker and the hyena. The life of nature, survival is crucial. Pi was a Hindu and vegetarian when the movie started, but as the time passes on the boat we see that he ran out of food, where he had to hunt for food to keep himself alive. The first time he kills a fish, Pi weeps, and that shows how emotional he was about it. But after a while, it becomes like second nature to him, and that shows how much he grew as a person over the entire time he was on the boat. Religion was another theme that was interpreted in the book/movie.

Pi was born a Hindu, but as he grew older he adopted Christianity and Islam. He practiced all the three religion. Praying several times a day like a Muslim, being a vegetarian like a Hindu, and he thanks Lord Krishna (hindu) for introducing him to Christianity. He is charmed by all the religion, that he learned about. In the very beginning we see that he questions a lot about God, then he got to known about Christianity, where he learned about Jesus and that God is one. Later we see him outside a mosque, where he learned about Islam. Every religion has its own beauty, which he is ready to admire and follow. Finally, I think religion, faith, and survival skills are important to know/learn in life. Inspirational stories, real life experiences is what teaches us what is necessary for living. How thinking changes, with hunger, frustration, lack of faith, sadness, happiness. One can only imagine how much pain Pi was in during his whole journey. What he must have felt like when he first saw land, people, cooked meal, shelter. Life has its own way of teaching what needs to be taught.