Pi = 3.14
Today I finished reading Life of Pi by Yann Martel. It's a story told by Piscine Molitor Patel, nicknamed (by himself) Pi because of various childhood taunts and teasings, about his growing up in Pondicherry, India and of his not-so-normal trip to his new life in Canada.The story begins with Pi telling the writer, Martel, about his life growing up in Pondicherry at the Zoo owned by his father and where his family, including his mother and brother lived. He would talk about his childhood influences that caused him to study Zoology and Religious Studies at the University of Toronto. They were an athiest teacher and a poor muslim who lived in the area. They both went by the same name, but had such different qualities between them.
The story also chronicles the young Pi's hunger for religious knowledge growing up. He was raised Hindu, although his family did not appear to be outright religious. He developed the need to know about other religious practices including Christianity, Judaism and Islam. This presented some ovbious troubles when three religious men, the priest, rabbi and imam came to speak to his parents at precisely the wrong time (all at once).
Finally the "real story" begins. Pi and his family are set to leave Pondicherry zoo for Canada, where they are set to live their brand new life. They must travel with the animals they are transporting on a cargo ship not suited for passenger travel, necessarily. This ship comes into contact with a rather large storm and his sunk. Pi is left alone on a life raft, the sole survivor of the ship as everyone else has perished. The twist comes when we find out that Pi is on the life boat with four rather unexpected guests.
The ordeal of being abandoned in the Pacific Ocean would follow and Pi would take the reader on an incredible journey of epic proportions. He would describe in detail many different events that would happen with him and his co-castaways. Pi would be cast at sea from July 2, 1977 to February 14, 1978; perhaps the longest living castaway of all time.
The end of the story presents a new twist for me. I ended up believing the events happened the way they did and were not ficition (even though it's plastered all around the book and is found in the fiction section of the book store). I don't know the feeling I feel knowing what I was told throughout the entire book was fake, and that the entire story was summed up in around two or three pages at the end. However, I do feel that the story had a bigger meaning than any real story could have provided and it in itself was incredible and I would recommend it to anyone, if you haven't read it yet.
It says the book will make the reader believe in God, but it didn't change anything for me. I didn't find it a religious experience, although religion played a big part in this story for Pi. I found it an incredible book of survival and incredible good fortune when Pi was on his last straw. However I can also see how someone could find the book holding a lot of religious signs in the same good fortune that Pi received and in the strength he gained from his faith.
Peace.
posted by Sean @ 10:02 PM
Comments: 17
