Life Of Pi Analysis

Belief is the most scary thing in this world. People also have different beliefs in their lives. When you are facing different environments, you may be compelled influence your personal beliefs. In Life of Pi, there were three sections in this book, the first described Pi’s life in India, the second part talked about his life with Richard Parker on the lifeboat, and the last was the Japanese officer asked him about the lifeboat story. From the second part in book, Pi gave up some beliefs that he learned in India because his life on the lifeboat was in contrast from his childhood life in India. In order to survive on the lifeboat, he changed from vegetarianism to a carnivore, former beliefs in carnivorous animals, and the animals’ sense of belonging to nature.The first belief that Pi changed was when he stopped being a vegetarian. He believed faithfully Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam. He believed in Hinduism religiously because he made Hinduism as his own enlightenment teacher.

So he thought it was very important to him. India is also a country which believe in Hinduism. About 83% of the population is Hindu in India. Because of this, Pi was Hindu when he was young. According to Pi(π), Belief & Universe, “much of Hinduism does not eat meat, and Brahman is a branch of Hinduism called Brahman, a Hindu monk who definitely does not eat meat” (Woodstock). Pi was devoted to Hinduism, so he was not allowed to eat meat. He was vegetarianism until his life on the lifeboat came.Pi started eating meat in order to stay alive on the lifeboat, which was against his own religions. According to Life of Pi, Pi only had food rations for him for 93 days. He counted the amount of the water and he only had 124 days (Martel, 144). When he was on the lifeboat for the first 10 days, he found food and water from the locker under the lifeboat. But it was not enough for them to survive. He started catching fish for tiger and him. Pi had to give up being a vegetarian because the environment he was in.

At that time, Pi chosen to live instead of religions. In the face of reality, Pi was forced to violate the religious views by means of livelihood, but he did not change the attitude to religions. As a result, Pi’s belief changed and he stopped being a vegetarian. Pi believed that tigers are always a kind of ferocious animal in the world. When Pi was young, he learned a lesson from his dad. His dad put a goat in the tiger’s cage in order to show him how dangerous tiger is. “A streak of black and orange flowed from one cage to the next” (Martel, 35). Pi saw how fast and how dangerous carnivorous animals are. The tiger ate the goat mercilessly and it really terrified Pi. He was also very scared when he saw the scene. This was the lesson that Pi was never going to forget in his whole life.

They would attack you when you were in their cages. You will get eaten by them easily because human is very little in front of tigers. Pi changed his opinion when he was on the lifeboat. He stayed with the tiger who named Richard Parker for 227 days. If you tell this story to a person, he would say that it is impossible. But Pi actually did. He trained the tiger and feed him as well. “TREEEEEE! TREEEEEE! THREEEEEE! TREEEEEE! TREEEEEE! TREEEEEE! He backed off and dropped to the bottom of the boat. The first training and sat down heavily on the raft, out of breath and exhausted. And so it came to be: Plan Number Seven: Keep Him Alive” (Martel, 166). He realized that he can tame tiger by using whistle. Pi knew that he could treat the tiger like in the zoo because the tiger are used to its life in zoos. Pi noticed that tiger would attack anyone entering their space, not because of hunger, but because invaders seemed to threaten their social status. Tigers do not only protect their territory, but also respect other people's terrain. Pi feed the tiger as his tamer and take the advantage of this respect. Pi and the tiger had their own area, so they could harmonious coexistence. “Truly I do. I love you, Richard Parker. If I didn’t have you now, I don’t know what I would do” (Martel 236). At the end, Richard Parker became pi’s bosom friend. Pi started talking the annoyance things to the tiger. The tiger truly became his friend because if Pi did not have the tiger to stay with him, he would not know if he going to be survive.

Finally, he changed his former beliefs in carnivorous animals by staying with a tiger on lifeboat for 227 days. Pi thought that animals in the zoo are much more better than nature because they have their own shelter area, no one will ride roughshod over them, zoo keeper would feed them food and water, and they won’t face larger predators. Comparing the zoo to nature, the animals had their own scheduled plan everyday and they can enjoy their territories. The animals could get a safe guarantee from natural predators if they were in the zoo. “I have heard nearly as much nonsense about zoos as I have about God and religion. Well-meaning but misinformed people think animals in the wild are ‘happy’ because they are ‘free’” (Martel, 15). Pi thought animals did not lose their freedom because they were living in a safe and opening area. They were not controlled by the zoo because the zoo prove their environment and their life scheduled. Therefore, domestic animals are better than untamed animals.

After his lifeboat experience, he drifted to Mexico. He realized that animals should live in the nature because that is their real home and they can learn a lot of stuff from their life experience. Pi said: “you have known the confined freedom of a zoo most of your life; now you will know the free confinement of a jungle” (Martel, 286). During his time on the lifeboat, he real understood how all the animals are yearning for the jungle. They did not want to be controlled by the humans. They want to get food for themselves, not people. The tiger spent 227 days with Pi, being trapped on the lifeboat, as if it is like animals trapped in the zoo. After they arrived at the shore, the tiger left Pi without any hesitations because it thinks nature is where it belongs to. It made Pi think that the life of wild animals is not bad and that is their original home. From a tiger’s heart, it did not want to have a prisoned life. They want to become more strong, so they can live more energetic. They were looking for real freedom life. At the end, Pi knew tiger and human are the same and they both were looking for their own freedom.

Belief is one thing that has been affecting people’s lives everyday. Everyone has their own beliefs. However, the changing of the nearby environment can also be a key factor for people to change their belief. From the lifeboat time, he learned a lot of new things and some experiences. He change from being omnivore and trained the tiger as well in order to survive on the lifeboat. At last, he understood that animals are dying to stay in the nature more than the zoo. However, Pi grew a lot during this experience adventure and found out the philosophy of his life.