There were several themes that took place in The Life of Pi, the main 3 being humans will to survive, power of story telling, and the power of religion.
Will To Survive:
While on a ship with his family and the entirety of his family's zoo animals, Pi is awaken to a massive thunder storm. Pi still being as curious as he was as a child decides to go to the top of the ship and call forth the gods of thunder and lightning wanting to see how intense he can get the storm to get. This leads to the ship getting flooded and starting to sink. Moments before the ship sinks, Pi manages to get on a life boat with a few other animals leaving most animals, other people on the ship, his father, mother, and brother dead. Any tragedy like this would make a very heavy impact on someone and cause them to enter a depression stage where they would no longer want to live. Pi was able to strive through this faze and gripped to the last bits of hope he had left. Pi broke boundaries he would usually never think of doing like killing and eating meat for the first time. Pi was accompanied by eventually only one animal, Richard Parker. He established a plan to keep the tiger well fed so it wouldn't feel the need to eat him. Despite all the nearly impossible events that Pi went through he managed to stay alive after 227 days out at sea. Pi made the impossible possible because of his will to survive.
Power Of Story Telling:
Near to the end of the Life of Pi, Pi gets interrogated by two agents asking him to explain everything that had happened on the ship. After pi finished explaining his story, the two agents seemed skeptical and questioned everything Pi had told them. The story was hard to believe for the agents. Pi was obviously furious as he kept insisting that his story was indeed true. The two agents refused to accept the story so he went on to tell the 2 men another story. Pi chose to tell the exact same story but instead of having animals stay on the life boat with him, he used other people. He told the story as if he was Richard Parker, and he was the one who murdered the hyena (cook). Once he finished telling the story the two men realized Pi was telling them the same story just with different characters. The agents chose to believe the story with humans instead of the animals. Pi asked the agents "Which story do you prefer? Which is the better story, the story with animals or the story without animals?". The agents responded "The story with animals." After the men responded, Pi told them "Thank you. And so it goes with God." This explains two things. First, it teaches us that human nature refuses to believe in a story if good proof is not provided. Most people enjoy a more far-fetched story better than one that makes more sense. The second thing I learned from this is when Pi hints that the better story is much like the path of religion. When someone chooses to believe in certain religion, it's because the stories of a certain religion is more interesting than the other religions.
Power of Religion:
The Life of Pi is a story that can make someone believe in many different things. One of the things it can make you believe in is God. When young Pi curiously explores the world around him, he learns about many different religions with many different beliefs. Pi learns about Christianity, Hinduism and Islam. Each religion has different beliefs and stories but are all connected with the same purpose, to have faith in (the) God(s). This is the reason why Pi choses to believe in multiple religions as they all have the same purpose but have different stories and beliefs. Pi also explains that he can't tolerate agnostics because they choose not to have any sort of faith at all. Pi also hints that lack of imagination leaves us to believe that religions are all imagination and are the same as any another story.
Will To Survive:
While on a ship with his family and the entirety of his family's zoo animals, Pi is awaken to a massive thunder storm. Pi still being as curious as he was as a child decides to go to the top of the ship and call forth the gods of thunder and lightning wanting to see how intense he can get the storm to get. This leads to the ship getting flooded and starting to sink. Moments before the ship sinks, Pi manages to get on a life boat with a few other animals leaving most animals, other people on the ship, his father, mother, and brother dead. Any tragedy like this would make a very heavy impact on someone and cause them to enter a depression stage where they would no longer want to live. Pi was able to strive through this faze and gripped to the last bits of hope he had left. Pi broke boundaries he would usually never think of doing like killing and eating meat for the first time. Pi was accompanied by eventually only one animal, Richard Parker. He established a plan to keep the tiger well fed so it wouldn't feel the need to eat him. Despite all the nearly impossible events that Pi went through he managed to stay alive after 227 days out at sea. Pi made the impossible possible because of his will to survive.
Power Of Story Telling:
Near to the end of the Life of Pi, Pi gets interrogated by two agents asking him to explain everything that had happened on the ship. After pi finished explaining his story, the two agents seemed skeptical and questioned everything Pi had told them. The story was hard to believe for the agents. Pi was obviously furious as he kept insisting that his story was indeed true. The two agents refused to accept the story so he went on to tell the 2 men another story. Pi chose to tell the exact same story but instead of having animals stay on the life boat with him, he used other people. He told the story as if he was Richard Parker, and he was the one who murdered the hyena (cook). Once he finished telling the story the two men realized Pi was telling them the same story just with different characters. The agents chose to believe the story with humans instead of the animals. Pi asked the agents "Which story do you prefer? Which is the better story, the story with animals or the story without animals?". The agents responded "The story with animals." After the men responded, Pi told them "Thank you. And so it goes with God." This explains two things. First, it teaches us that human nature refuses to believe in a story if good proof is not provided. Most people enjoy a more far-fetched story better than one that makes more sense. The second thing I learned from this is when Pi hints that the better story is much like the path of religion. When someone chooses to believe in certain religion, it's because the stories of a certain religion is more interesting than the other religions.
Power of Religion:
The Life of Pi is a story that can make someone believe in many different things. One of the things it can make you believe in is God. When young Pi curiously explores the world around him, he learns about many different religions with many different beliefs. Pi learns about Christianity, Hinduism and Islam. Each religion has different beliefs and stories but are all connected with the same purpose, to have faith in (the) God(s). This is the reason why Pi choses to believe in multiple religions as they all have the same purpose but have different stories and beliefs. Pi also explains that he can't tolerate agnostics because they choose not to have any sort of faith at all. Pi also hints that lack of imagination leaves us to believe that religions are all imagination and are the same as any another story.