The Life of Pi

The life of Pi by Yann Martel is a story incorporating fantasy in to real life situations. The story is graded as a fictional work but intriguing and attention catching. Piscine Molitor Patel or Pi is the protagonist in the story. He is an Indian boy living in Pondicherry, and principal theme is the exploration of spirituality. Pi started his spiritual exploration journey at an early age of fourteen (Martel 5). He gets involved in a shipwreck which he survives with a tiger called Richard Parker.Martel’s inspiration to write this story was his urge to make his lonely and unexciting life have direction. He wanted destruction from loneliness and the story gave him just that. The story is full of metaphors about life chances and purposes which can give a reader some insight if practiced. Another inspiration for the story was from a Brazilian book which seemed as imaginary and real as Martel’s story.The plot of the story, Life of Pi, is divided in to three portions. First part involves the adult Pi recalling about his childhood. His name, Piscine Molitor Patel, was from a swimming pool in France which he did not like that much. He later changes his name to simply Pi during his secondary school when his friends nicknamed him Pissing Patel. His father is a biologist and owns a zoo in their small town, Pondicherry (Martel 6). This life gives Pi a comprehensive ability to know animal psychology and life. The protagonist grows as a Hindu since it is the main religion of his family. However, at the age of fourteen, he gets exposed to religions like Islam and Christianity. He follows all the three religions with the mentality of just wanting to love God. He analyzes all the three religions and tries to understand God in every aspect. His analysis makes him realize the benefits of each religion and respects it for that. Political concerns in India become pronounced, and Pi’s family moves to Canada selling their zoo and animals (Lee). They, however, carry with them some of the animals to Canada. They travel in a Japanese freighter, which after some days from the port capsizes due to a heavy storm. His parents die from the storm, and he remains alone but unconscious from the storm. He later regains consciousness in a small lifeboat with some animals, an injured zebra, a spotted hyena and an orangutan. Pi strives to survive among the animals while the hyena kills the zebra and the orangutan. Pi then realizes that a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker hidden under the boat’s tarp. The tiger then kills and eats the hyena making Pi frightened than ever. He decides to make a raft from the floating devices in the life boat and retreats to it. Trying to satisfy the tiger, he harvests some fish and water from the ocean and delivers to the animal (Powell’s). Pi’s strategy to the tiger, Richard Parker, succeeds, and they learn to co- inhabit with …