The Riddle of LIFE OF PI

LIFE OF PI starts out with a promise of “a story that will make you believe in God;” a promise that the author admits is “a tall order.” Whether one’s faith is altered after reading Pi’s tale surely depends on each reader’s personal “input,” but I can not imagine anyone arriving at the end and not being wholly convinced of Yann Martel’s awesome story-telling ability.

The author, who has allegedly pieced together Pi’s tale from various sources, basically allows Pi to tell his own story. In the first part of the tale, adolescent Pi explores various philosophies and religions and chooses to practice three simultaneously: Hinduism, Catholicism and Islam. His interfaith awakening – and people’s reaction to it – is both comical and touching. Strangely, although he is quite devout, Pi has no problem with atheists. He sees them as his “brothers and sisters of a different faith” and respects their firm convictions. Not so for agnostics like his own father. He has no patience for them and says (p. 28):

“Doubt is useful for a while. We must all pass through the garden of Gethsemane. If Christ played with doubt, so must we ... But we must move on. To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.”

Though Pi does not share his father’s view of religion, he does gain from him a love and respect for all animals as his father is the director of the Pondicherry Zoo in India. We learn a great deal about animals and humanity’s treatment of them and, despite Pi’s claim to the contrary, he gives some solid arguments in favor of zoos. Still, he admits (p. 19):

“I know zoos are no longer in people’s good graces. Religion faces the same problem. Certain illusions about freedom plague them both.”

In Part Two, Pi’s faith in God and humanity is tested in a most unusual way: He is the lone survivor of a shipwreck and ends up in a lifeboat with several zoo animals, among them a Bengal tiger. Here the tale becomes one of endurance and survival against all odds. Told in exactly one hundred (mostly) short chapters, the narrative provides a lot of information. Some of the details are graphically violent or just plain gross. But most often, Martel can devastate us with just a few words, as in Chapter 75, consisting of one sentence. Lost at sea, battling intense solitude, thirst and hunger, Pi reports:

“On the day when I estimated it was Mother’s birthday, I sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to her out loud.”

Pi’s adventure is in a sense an allegory, reminiscent of other epic stories like Jonah’s, Noah’s and Ulysses's. In the end, Pi survives. He triumphs over the elements, extreme hunger and thirst, a Bengal tiger, and unimaginable loneliness, fear and despair. What is it that saves him? Is it his faith? His imagination? Pushed to the limit, Pi goes blind and descends into madness. Shortly afterwards, though, he is saved. In a prescient moment at the beginning of his tale, Pi notes (p. 41):

“All living things contain a measure of madness that moves them in strange, sometimes inexplicable ways. This madness can be saving; it is part and parcel of the ability to adapt. Without it, no species would survive.”

Ultimately, the riddle of Pi’s salvation is left to the reader to solve. It is a riddle well worth contemplating and one which may require a second reading.