Pet Peeves

Edward Lau

The Life of Pi

Yann Martel


          Humans have always been thought of as more superior than animals, while that may be true, an animal can still rip apart a human easily. In this novel, religion and animals have a way of interacting. Pi Patel - a Religion and Zoology graduate from Toronto - tells his story about how learning religion from a young age has changed his view on animals. He tells the reader that his name comes from Piscine Molitor Patel - a swimming pool - but his bullies eventually led him to name himself Pi, as in 3.14, due to his love for math at the time. From a young age, Pi had been exposed to animals since the Indian government had placed them in his home country: “huge zoos, designed and run according to the most modern, biologically sound principles” (15). His exposure to these animals is what got him into Zoology but his Aunt Rohini: “who brought me to a temple when I was a small baby” (Martel 59). She was the one who made Pi really interested in the study of Religion.

          From the beginning of the novel - Pi - the narrator - foreshadows his incident on the boat by stating that he is afraid Richard Parker, the tiger that was on the boat with him. Pi states his views on different topics throughout the sixteen chapters that I’ve read. Most of them are talking about animals. From the start of the novel, Pi talks about the three toed sloth with great detail. Being interested with the animal, he realizes that the sloth lives the most intriguing life because it is so calm. He relates the sloth back to religion - more specifically Catholicism and Christianity - due to the sloth representing the two religions by its characteristics of sleeping and not causing any carnage in the world due to its vegetarian diet. Later on in the novel, he speaks about how people that follow Hinduism won’t approve of zoos because the animals there are unhappy. He tells the reader a lot of his ideas and how he thinks about each animal that he has had contact with in his life. After talking about the animal, he talks about how the animal relates back to religions. He got this point of view from his biology teacher, Mr. Satin, a communist and atheist. His thoughts about communism and his reason for being a atheist makes Pi realize that agonistics are the people that he hates the most. He got his ideas about animals especially from his father when he was young. His father told him and his brother that an animal will only cooperate if it wants something. That will play into the story heavily when Pi is on the boat with the tiger. The rest of the chapters talk about animals that he encounters and reasons why he went to Hinduism.

          I would strongly recommend this book to people. Not only does it have a good plot (so far) but the detail that Yann Martel put into making the reader actually understand Pi as a protagonist is great. The way he thinks “it’s not atheist who get stuck in my craw, but agonists” (Martel 35), or, “we are all born like Catholics” (58), and how he knows, “it’s a trainers best interest to form a good relationship with Omega animals” (56) shows the reader the personal opinions that Pi has to a great detail. That detail is reinforced by having ten or more mini paragraphs in the first part to show how he thinks. This book will make you have a bigger perspective on how animals behave and why people will choose follow a certain religion, but more importantly it will make you open your mind on things.