Great Works - Life of Pi

Historical Contextualization
Pi's struggle to decide what religion to belong to ends up with him choosing the best of each to adapt to his life. He stresses the fact that it is better to believe something than in nothing at all. Today, in the religious community, many people are disillusioned about faith and religion as a whole and approximately 16.1 percent of Americans are listed as unaffiliated (http://religions.pewforum.org/reports). Pi's age acts as an interesting factor in his interest in finding the truth because children are not always seen as intelligent and many children with brilliant ideas are turned away. An example of this is the prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Joseph Smith Jr. He searched for religion at a young age, and at the age of 16 had a vision where a set of ancient plates where revealed to him. Many persecuted him and the religion he started.

The backdrop of political persecution of Pi's parents serves as an interesting aspect. In India, the government has been known to be very secular for a very long time with many religions originating in India, and also many having very strong roots there. It is interesting that Pi, as a child coming from this country, is so interested in religion. It is also interesting that his family's departure is politically charged. It poses the question that maybe Pi sees religion and beliefs on a personal level to be more relevant and important than widespread laws and government involvement which contributes to a theme of individuality.

Pi's solidarity on the lifeboat happens by accident, but historically being stranded has served as an opportune time to explore ideology. An example is Christopher McCandless, who left what would be considered a privileged life to explore beliefs while in solitude. Although Pi's isolation is not chosen, he develops many beliefs during this time. Pi's only surrounding are animals which give him inspiration and show the true nature of beasts, even though Pi is in the middle of the ocean on a small raft.

At the end of the book, when Pi is describing his story to Japanese officials, they do not believe him at first, but when he makes up a story about each animal actually being a person, they then go back to believing the first "story". This is interesting because after all of Pi's soul searching for truth, they don't at first believe his true story but upon hearing a duller tale choose to believe the more exciting choice, which happens to be the truth. Often stories are made up for entertainment, but in more recent years, especially in films, movies are made based of real events and in essence have a sense of truth to them. Examples are The Blind Side (2009), Freedom Writers (2007), and Invictus (2009) to name a few. Also such movies such as The Cove (2009) and other documentaries show what can be considered a version of an absolute truth to audiences.