““But Piscene!” she said… “Father and I find your religious zeal a bit of a mystery.” The following is the end of their dialogue: His father, a busy zoo-owner/keeper and loving but at times absent figure, argues and eventually presses Pi to talk to Mother. In one scene while growing up in India, Pi approaches his father and makes some religious requests. Reading the story through my worldview lens, I found myself rapt, as a reader/writer/human, throughout each page. Without it, no species would survive” (41). This madness can be saving it is part and parcel of the ability to adapt. “All things contain a measure of madness that moves them in strange, sometimes inexplicable ways. He comes to questions of wonder on his own, in response to his unique world view. He struggles with people, but understands humanity on the scale of animal survival and evolution. They were like nails being driven into my flesh” (7).), spiritually charged (“To me, religion is about our dignity, not our depravity” (71).), life-aware (“First wonder goes deepest wonder after that fit in the impression made by the first” (50).) young boy. Pi is an emotionally evolved (“He had no idea how deeply those words wounded me. Martel’s first person narrative of Pi is very smart, very direct, and often poetic.
“Pi” is a self-inflicted nickname a response to teasing and mispronunciation.
The book’s first section, “Toronto and Pondicherry,” richly details the early life and development of the book’s main character and narrator, Piscine Patel. Within the first 10 pages, I knew I was in for a ride. The story as a whole is an expressive, brutal, and tender account that inspires the imagination and answers unanswerable questions – all through the eyes of a teenage Indian boy adrift on a small lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean with an adolescent Bengal tiger. At times, the story progresses in a fairy-tale manner of wonder, while at others it’s a philosophic and/or religious text, and still at others it’s a journal of tragedy and adventure. Martel’s control of language is gripping both in its power and lyricism. Early on, the story evokes a sense of wonder that encompasses all parts of life: physical, emotional, spiritual, rational, survival. Yann Martel’s Life of Pi is, as writing for life goes, brilliant. “The reason death sticks so closely to life isn’t biological necessity – it’s envy.”
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