Yann Martel's Life of Pi has developed quite a reputation since it won the Man Booker Prize, an annual award that any English novel written by a citizen of the Commonwealth of former British colonies and Ireland is eligible for, in 2002. Almost everyone has been told to read it sometime in the last six years. Most people say, "Oh yeah, another friend of mine told me that I should read it too," yet many copies of Life of Pi bought years ago still remain unread.
This could be because the first 90-page part of the novel is slow moving. But the action picks up quickly after the first section, and ultimately, the novel's plot can be divided into two journeys. The first, while Pi grows up as a son of a zookeeper in India, is spiritual. The second, where he braves the Atlantic ocean as the sole human survivor of a mysterious shipwreck, is geographical.
Pi's Spiritual Journey
Pi Patel discovers God on a very unorthodox path. Much to his modernized parents' chagrin, he considers himself Hindu, Christian, and Muslim. He also declares atheists "my brothers and sisters of a different faith."
The spiritual journey is written in a in a way that promotes tolerance for different ideas. It never goes into complicated discussions about whether or not it is theologically possible for someone to simultaneously belong to three different faiths. Pi simply expresses his love of God through different practices of all three religions.
To be sure, members of the three religions may be upset by this, no matter how strongly the novel argues in support of God's existence. Life of Pi also argues defends aspects of religion in some unusually creative ways.
For example, it questions a popular notion of freedom using zoos as an example. While wild animals outside of a zoo are usually regarded as free, they actually live unstable and hazardous lives, never knowing whether they will find food to eat or be eaten. Inside a well-managed zoo, they occupy a space that they are comfortable in, and never have to worry about food or safety, except when particularly insensitive human visitors come across their paths.
This defense of zoos is not put into the novel without religious implications; it is one of many connections the author draws between religion and zoos.
Pi's Geographical Journey
The story of Pi surviving on a small lifeboat with a Bengal tiger takes up the majority of the novel. The story is still recounted in first-person narrative by Pi, and while the narrator's voice is consistent, the tone is considerably darker in the second part of the novel.
Descriptions of the normally vegetarian Pi catching fish and turtles and eating their every last possible source of nourishment--including bone marrow--can be stomach churning. But they pale in comparison to an episode early in the second part involving a hyena, a zebra, and an orangutan. Without contradicting the feel-good universal spirituality of the first part, the story of Pi's sea journey reads like the spiritual journey's polar opposite.
The novel concludes with a short and humorous third part, which takes the form of an interview between Pi and some incredulous Japanese authorities.
Narration and Style
The majority of the story is told from Pi's first-person point of view. Every now and then, italicized chapters in parts one and three pop up from inside the mind of an unnamed observer, who is apparently interviewing Pi. The third part is mostly is a completely dialogue-driven interview. The novel contains deep themes concerning spirituality, nature, and questions about story vs. reality, while maintaining a conversational style. This makes Life of Pi an easy read that can is still conducive to some hard thinking.
Source
Martel, Yann. Life of Pi. Random House of Canada 2001. ISBN 978-0-15-602732-8
