In this third installment within this series, I tackle one of the most important and engaging novels of the early 21st century. Yann Martel’s 2001 novel, “The Life of Pi” was an astounding, bestselling success. The book eventually seeded a 2012 major motion picture release which provided a surprisingly good adaptation of Martel’s wonderful novel.
There are 3 key themes to this novel.
The Story of God is not unique to a subset or category of people.
The main protagonist, Piscine (Pi) Molitor Patel, despite being raised under Hinduism, begins to explore the Abrahamic religions and decides that Christianity offers some particular points of interest. Pi begins questioning the nature of whether God in any religion would have attributes of the hero or hope and humility. More specifically, Pi becomes frustrated between his traditional views of the Hindu god incarnate Krishna who is all powerful vs the very different Christian trinity and thus, Jesus. Pi simply doesn’t understand at first, why any God would not adopt a more authoritarian, commanding attitude towards the lowly humans in order to effect change.
He states “I couldn’t imagine Lord Krishna consenting to be stripped naked, whipped, mocked and dragged through the streets and…crucified”1 (Martel #54). A little later, he further states when describing Jesus, “What kind of God is this? It is a God on a human scale” (Martel #55)
But Pi becomes obsessed with learning more about the Christian God and goes to church to request to become Christian only to be told that his quest to learn more about the nature of God has already made him a Christian.
Pi also explores Islam and then becomes more aligned with Quranic views. But then Pi’s character makes an all-important thematic pivot when he decides not to select one religion over another. After much family and neighbors bickering about the 3 major religions, Pi instead elects to adopt all of them and their paradigms because as he states:
“I just want to love God. All religions are true” and “if there is only one nation (kingdom) in the sky, shouldn’t all passports be valid for it” (Martel #74)
It is better to believe in God than to abstain from belief.
The magical quality of this brilliant story relates to Martel’s intelligently crafted, pluralistic religious message of “believing” in something rather than nothing at all. This resonant philosophical message appeals to many in today’s world of conflicts and ideological dissonance.
Pi even suggests that atheists have more conviction in their non-belief than agnostics. This antithetical premise actually strengthens the message of religious belief because “belief” any type of belief, by its default definition is drawing a conclusion based upon incomplete knowledge and thus, advocating for such beliefs.
Further along in the novel, brings us to more understanding of Martel’s or at least Pi’s religious beliefs, philosophy and worldviews.
The novel is really constructed as an allegory for life, what is needed for life and the important gift from God that is life itself. There are numerous metaphorical Biblical references throughout the book indicating that Martel may have intended his book as a quasi-apologetic fable.
The key to understanding Martel’s message throughout his fable is that “life” itself is a story since we bring ourselves into the mix to understand and explain it to others. In other words, life would not exist without humans since we’re the only beings capable of conveying its existence.
Strangely, although “The Life of Pi” is a story deeply steeped in religious themes, Martel’s very existential message that we, as humans, are essential for the story of life, offers an interesting counterpoint herein.
A Slight Plot Twist: God is just a better story, and it should be believed.
But then Martel segues a little in the other direction and does an 180 degree philosophical turn when, at the end of the book, he advocates that the story of God is simply a better story than another story that cannot be proven by human perception or by evidence.
Although this is a little weak in the apologetics department, Martel cleverly ended his magnificent novel by suggesting that since no one can conclude upon the existence or on the non-existence of God with a level of scientific certainty, isn’t it a better option to believe than not to believe? Isn’t the story of God a better moralistic and purposeful reason for living than any other in our known canon of knowledge?
End Note:
Martel’s other works have not nearly achieved the prominence of “The Life of Pi” and maybe that’s ok. When an author hits the proverbial “grand-slam” on the grandeur of this book, he doesn’t really need to go further.
His message has been duly noted and received. Nothing more is needed.
Work Cited
Martel, Yann. Life of Pi. Harcourt, 2001.
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