The Life of Pi

The Necessity of Mortality

 

You watch the mortals speed through life desperately, as they struggle to fulfill whatever purpose they feel they have in life. You however, ease through life, because you know there is no marked time when it stops. Death is what gives life purpose, and what drives us to accomplish as much as we can in the short time we have to live. The risks we take in life are effects of our knowledge that one day existence will end, but if one is immortal there’s no sense of urgency that drives us to live life to the fullest. The novel The Life of Pi explains that even though death is abhorred, it drives humanity to live life to the fullest, and act with a sense of urgency.               

 It’s in human nature to fear the unknown, and therefore we fear death and change, but the Life of Pitells that these are required to live when Pi goes to the island, for when Pi is on the island, he is able to find all the basic necessities of life, and an extra surplus as he realizes the quantity of food on the island. After months on a life boat, this seems like an impossible stroke of luck. Pi realizes that the food will continue to come, as will water, and he could continue to live at the island forever. This however would be a life without human contact, without risk, and without a purpose. Living on the island would be a meaningless exist of only comfort, but no experiences to accompany this. When the island is discovered to be carnivorous Pi finally decides that he would rather perish than engage in a bland, meaningless existence.

The island metaphorically represents the fact that living a life of pain and death is better than living one of perpetual comfort, but no connection with other people. Death and Pain force us to make decisions, and live life to the fullest, because we never know what day we will cease to exist. Therefore living with that mindset forces us to engage in all the opportunities we are presented with, and appreciate the people around us, for we may never get the chance again.

Pi feels obliged to move out to the ocean once he realizes how life would be on the island, and in reality, we feel the need to move quickly during life because of the influence death has on us. When one feels as though he has a chance to accomplish something he strikes as quickly as he can in fear that the chance will pass, because humanity knows that death may bite at any given time, and we can only guess when it will occur. For example, romance is a field in which many take extreme risks, but with the risks the rewards are great.  The only reason we take these risks is, because we know that we may never get the chance again. If one was immortal, and was presented with the same situation, he surely wouldn’t take the risk, because there’s nothing stopping life, so  there's no point in taking unnecessary risks, because that would only ruin one’s endless existence?

 In life we take risks, because of death, but we also work hard towards making life better for ourselves. When Pi is in the lifeboat, he occupies his time working towards finding food, and making schedules for him to follow. By doing this he realizes that he is partially in control of whether he dies or not, and what transpires in the life boat. When Pi collects fish, or collects water he tries to make something of his life, because he knows he is the only thing keeping himself from death or insanity, and that his fear of death will conquer all hardships he will have to endure. However if Pi was immortal, he would not bother occupying his time with things as trivial as training Richard Parker, because he would not die, and would do nothing to help himself, or keep Richard Parker alive. He would be adrift forever sitting in his lifeboat, but due to Pi’s actions and knowledge of the possibility of death, he worked as hard as he could and succeeded at surviving.

  Life is a series of risks and opportunities that come in order, and change as one gets older. It changes from   trying out for a sports team to proposing, to saving for retirement. Humanity works hard in the fear of death, because fear is a huge motivator, and nobody knows when it will be their time to end this life. The novel The Life of Pi preaches that one must seize the moment, because even though we fear death, it motivates us to new levels to succeed.

                                               

Faith in Science

Main stream religions such as Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism dominate the populations of many countries in the world, and all religious followers rely on faith to make themselves believe.  Atheists do not believe in a Creator, rather they follow the "laws" of Science, but even believing in science requires faith, which is why heavily religious Pi respects his atheist teacher, Mr. Kumar.

Science is widely recognized as being an emotionless practice that functions entirely on the basis of information gathered by careful research, and one that is constantly taking arms against the theological world, and the mortal enemy of Faith. However science strives to pursue the same common goal that religion hopes to achieve, the acquisition of truth. Religious followers all believe that life has a purpose which needs to be fulfilled, and that humanity was created by one celestial being who gave us life to fulfill the destiny predetermined by this Creator. Believers then follow the philosophy that corresponds with their religion, because of the opinion that acting according to the religious principals will help find Truth.

While religion believes that following philosophy is the best way to find truth, science attempts to find the same thing, but they conduct this search in a different way. Atheists believe that truth can be found in reason and logic, but just like religion, it takes faith to trust reason because humanity has realized that research can deceive us, and convolute our sense of fact or truth, but religion takes faith because advocates of a certain religion have to place trust that their views are moral and not the wrong way of conducting life. Pi Patel is an avid religious person who firmly believes in the way he conducts his life, and realizes that faith is mandatory if one stands for anything in life, so Pi is essentially the opposite of an agnostic who doesn’t believe in anything.

When Pi discovers that his teacher Mr. Kumar is an atheist, he doesn’t view him as an agnostic, but respects his beliefs because he stands for something, and shares some of the same values as religion. Pi quotes," Like me, they go as far as the legs of reason will carry them- and then they leap." This means that Pi accepts that while science pursues Truth in a different way, they both share the same goal and require a leap of faith. For this reason, Pi has a respect for Mr. Kumar’s views because even though they are different, science is a religion of its own because it achieves the same thing as religion. Pi notices how Mr. Kumar admires the animals in the zoo, because they represent the advances of his religion, and the accumulated power of knowledge. Therefore, what a synagogue is to Judaism, or a mosque is to Islam, a zoo or museum is to science, for Pi realizes that going to a zoo is more than just a recreational outing for atheists, it’s a religious experience.

Since Mr. Kumar is an atheist, Pi’s description of Mr. Kumar symbolizes his ties to science and reason. Pi describes him as a geometric figure that consists of two triangles stacked on top of parallel lines, and that his body is supported by small rectangular shaped legs that can barely support his weight. This strange appearance is telling that Mr. Kumar consists of figures and logic, and that he thinks differently than many people, but is not necessarily a bad person.

             Religion and Science constantly exchange blows and heated words, and seem as though they are each other’s opposite, but in reality they are very similar. Both attempt to find Truth and require faith in this pursuit, and for this reason Pi develops a respectful relationship with Mr. Kumar, even though others may look at him  with disdain because he is an atheist.   



Pi and the Ship

                Life moves quickly, and leaves many of us standing in its wake, looking in retrospect at the opportunities that we missed, and how we let life’s most important events transpire and slip away. In the Life of Pi, Pi is drifting in a life boat when he sees a passing ship however he does not act quickly, and allows his opportunity to pass by. This is a metaphor telling that we need to seize the moment, and not let life pass us by while we watch, because we will always regret missed opportunities.

                The oil tanker that nearly runs into Pi is his one last true hope at escape, but Pi’s actions prevent him from achieving that. He debates sending up a rocket flare, but does not act; he becomes fixated on the vast size of the tanker, and his house in Canada. In the time it takes to think about this, the tanker passes by and his chance at freedom has passed. His actions represent how in life, we are presented with countless opportunities to do something worthwhile, and make a difference in the world. While there are many chances, we find ourselves often thinking to hard about the logic in situations, and the repercussions of what may occur, but this passage of the Life of Pi says we have to act in the moment, because our instincts can carry us a long ways. If we don’t act, and don’t take risks, we fall into failure, and this drives many people to insanity, because after failure comes the period of reflection when we constantly wonder what we could have done to make something of ourselves, and ask why we didn’t live in the moment, enjoy ourselves, and act.

                When Pi thinks about what he could do to get the ship’s attention, the ship passes him, and he acts when it is too late, this represents how acting will get us to success, but thinking too much will allow the moment to slip and pass as it travels at top speed down the highway that is life until it is out of our grasp. After this Pi gazes outward towards the ship, and thinks about how close he was to salvation.  This behavior acts as a warning that if we miss an opportunity, we must not let our behavior get the best of us, even though Pi’s did, because dwelling on past failures allows more chances to slip by, for life moves way too fast for our control and the best we can do is ride along.

                Pi Patel thinks hard before life’s events happen, and this restricts him from reaching success in life. This action allows life to slip out of grasp while we try to analyze what happened, so Pi’s actions in this passage warn not to wait for life, but to go enjoy what is happening, and seize any chances one gets while living it.