Photo from the movie adaptation of the Life of Pi; image via: criterioncast.com

Yann Martel’s imaginative Life of Pi is a delightful reading experience. Life of Pi is one of those great books which are “to be chewed and digested”. The story of a shipwrecked 16 year old boy revolves around his survival and existential concerns. Martel presents a horrible vision of a boy who is left trapped on a raft with some wild animals due to an accident...

His survival is somewhat unbelievable. All the things he learns, his fight against adversity and his growth as a person during that struggle for survival make this one a thought provoking book.

image source: danielyunhx.wordpress.com

Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it,

a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can.

But life leaps over oblivion lightly, losing only a thing

or two of no importance, and gloom is butthe passing shadow of a cloud...

Yann Martel (Life of Pi)

Existentialism pertains to finding one’s meaning in a world. It is the idea of trying to define a life and its concepts using everyday experiences. Existentialism involves a human being self-determining his specific meaning in life and becoming responsible for his own actions. Pi's 227 days at sea are leading to his understanding of self.

The book has three parts. The first part deals with the young boy's reflection on spirituality and Indian life. In the first part, Pi (Piscine) Patel tells us of his childhood in India and of his two main interests- zoology and religion. Pi is a curious boy who practices Hinduism, Christianity and Islam over the objections of his family and religious leaders. He says "I just want to love God" (p.69). The second part of the book is narrated by Pi explaining how he survived on the ship for 227 days with his companion, the tiger, Richard Parker. At first Pi plots to kill Richard Parker. Then he becomes convinced that the tiger's survival is absolutely essential to his own. It is hard to imagine a fate more desperate than Pi's as he says, "I was alone and orphaned, in the middle of the Pacific, hanging on to an oar, an adult tiger in front of me, sharks beneath me, a storm raging about me" (p. 107). In the third part of the book, Pi wonders whether to tell the truth about his harrowing adventure or make up something more believable and saleable for the authorities.

image source: danielyunhx.wordpress.com

It seems that the Life of Pi is a culmination and the story of the life of people. Our journey through life is filled with wonderful and dangerous events, death, fear and pain, yet it is difficult to convince ourselves, even with religion, that what we have is truly what we need to survive – however little and odd that may be.

Yann Martel’s message could be encapsulated in the Japanese poet, Kenji Miyazawa’s words of wisdom:

“We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey.”