WATCHED: Life of Pi (Reading/Viewing Response)

(Lots of)Spoiler alert!!

April 17, 2013 | Humanities 320

It is Faith We Choose

By Richa Neupane

The feelings of five years ago came swirling back to my mind as I sat in the theatre to watch Life of Pi. It was remarkable how the movie evoked the same feeling of despair, queer numbness and bitter-sweetness that the corresponding novel by Yann Martel did. I had read the book about five years ago. I did not remember all the details from the book, but I can tell that the movie did it justice. It helped me visualize certain scenes even better. Director Ang Lee has done a wonderful job of presenting the fascinating story. In the story, a boy, a lifeboat, and a declining cast of wild animals get lost in the vastness of the Pacific Ocean. With only these characters to work with during the bulk of the story, the movie still does a brilliant job of faithfully portraying them and keeping the audience glued to the seat. It tells an enthralling story of hope, faith, and survival.

Setting

There are three settings in the movie. One is present-day Canada, where the protagonist Pi Patel, lives as a grown man and a prospective novelist visits Pi to know and write about his life story. Second is in the French colonial city of Pondicherry in India where Pi’s family lived. Third is the Pacific Ocean where Pi wanders in a lifeboat, keeping up the intermittent hopes of finding land, with an adult Royal Bengal tiger as companion.

East and West

The movie has a partial and a little indirect theme of east meets west. First of all, west meets east when the American and other European audience go to the theatres to watch this movie about an Indian boy. We also see this in a basic fact that the story is about an Indian boy journeying to the West. In addition, we see this theme at the beginning, when the character in the role of the Canadian novelist meets Pi.  

Pi tells him about his family’s life in Pondicherry. He also mentions Mamaji. The writer had met this character in India and had been directed by him to find out Pi’s intriguing story. When they talk about Mamaji, we get to know that although ‘Mama’ means a relative, an uncle, he was a close friend of Pi’s father and not related by blood to his family. Here, the audience learn a bit about eastern family and friendship system. Likewise, Pi further describes that Mamaji traveled a lot and was often in the company Europeans. The very fact that Pi’s name is short for ‘Piscine’- a word Mamaji chose to depict his love for swimming- gives us a feel of that juxtaposition of many cultures. He had seen the word in a display name of a swimming pool in Paris, in one of his travels.  This again shows that he, as a person from the east, was very familiar with the western countries.

The town of Pondicherry, where Pi grew up, was a French colony. So, we are presented with a very ‘western’ presence in the city’s elite areas. It showcases India’s colonial era.

In Pi’s narration, he and his family are traveling in a Japanese cargo ship to Canada where they hope to live a better life. Pi’s father plans to sell his Indian zoo animals to buyers in North America. In the ship, we get to observe east meeting west. Pi and his mother are vegetarians. But the cook, probably from the West, has no respect for that fact. He simply asks them to consider whatever he will be serving is vegetarian, although he was serving meat. There is a tension between the father and the cook as he tries to negotiate with him so that his beloved wife got what she wanted.  The cook did not understand the Hindu tradition of not eating meat, while the family did not understand that meat was the staple food in a ship sailed by mostly western crew.

Childhood, Religion and Faith

The movie goes back and forth between Pi’s narrative and the actual encounter where he is talking to the narrator about the journey.  Pi starts with his early school days and how his name became modified from Piscine to Pi then. Then we see his first encounter with various religions. His mother is a devout Hindu whereas his father is an atheist. Adult Pi, on the other hand, follows all three religions – Islam, Hinduism and Christianity, but identifies himself as a Catholic. It is a delight to see the young boy’s curiosity and perseverance in trying to know God.

Faith is one of the two major themes of this movie. The audience is made aware of this at the very beginning when Pi says to the author, ‘This story of my journey will make one believe in God.’  In fact, these words add to the audience’s eagerness to find out what will happen in the movie.

We also meet his teenage love-interest Anandi. She took Bharatnatyam classes and Pi met her during one of her sessions. He had gone as a substitute for his friend to play the Tabla, a musical instrument that provides a melody to the dancers.

We get to know his father’s ideals and methods of raising him and his elder brother. Pi is a very kind-hearted and sensible boy.  He believes that there should be kindness in the world. He feels that he can understand everyone; so much so that one day he tries to see if the fearsome tiger named Richard Parker at his father’s zoo could understand him too. He goes very close to the tiger with a chunk of meat and tries to talk to the tiger; suddenly his father hauls him away from the bars from which the tiger was only about 10 feet away. To show him what a carnivore like Richard Parker could have mercilessly done to him, his father makes him watch the tiger kill a goat tied to the bar on the outside and pull it inside the cage for a feast.

This anecdote forms a basis to the rest of the story.

The Tiger

After an unpredicted thunderstorm causes their cargo ship to shipwreck, Pi find himself on a lifeboat with Richard Parker, an adult Royal Bengal tiger, a chimpanzee, a hyena and a wounded zebra. These were some of the zoo animals his father had meant to sell in America.  The group was the only survivors.

However, unable to take the peril of sea-sickness and hunger, the rest of animals die soon and become Richard Parker’s food. Pi helplessly sees them die and is very afraid that he might be the next meal.

Need to survive

When the two are the last ones alive in the boat, the focal point of the story unravels. Pi and the tiger are merely afraid of each other at first. His childhood lesson helps here. He does not trust being too close to the tiger. So, Pi utilizes the items available on board for a makeshift raft that he attaches to the boat with a long rope and hoists himself away from the tiger. He first survives on the bananas that the chimpanzee had used as a raft before to reach the lifeboat. Then he searches the lifeboat when the tiger is hiding or sleeping under a little covered part of the boat. He gets some supplies of bottled water, biscuits and a survival guide. When he runs out of food supply, he forces himself into fishing to eat. He also fishes for the tiger so that it doesn’t get hungry and come after him. However, at one point both learn that if the tiger dives into the ocean to catch fish, it won’t be able climb back without Pi’s help. So, Pi realizes the tiger’s need of co-existence.  

When he feels the need for a long-term survival plan, he goes to the boat and establishes a boundary between the tiger and him. By claiming authority he learns to ‘train’ the tiger if not ‘tame’ it.

This goes on for months and they encounter various aspects of the Pacific- thunderstorms, flying fishes, whales, etc. to name a few.  Pi confides that he could not have gone so far without the tiger. Catering to the tiger’s needs helped him focus on doing his duty rather than losing hope.

During the final days of the wandering, when they are the frailest and have lost all hope, the duo land into a peculiar island full of edible wild weed, trees and herds of meerkats. They linger there for a bit, but Pi finds a human tooth inside a little leaf bud. He takes it as a signal from God to go on and not get swallowed by the promises of the lonely island. So he amasses as much food as possible for himself and the tiger and moves on.

Back to the real-land

On the 227th day they finally reach the Mexican coast. Richard Parker simply treads away, not looking back, without any dramatic goodbye gesture. Pi narrates that this ‘broke his heart’. He had been so used to having the tiger by his side as his aide in survival that he was sad to see him go.

Life After and Interpretation

As he recovers, Pi is interviewed by the ship company officials to find the cause of the shipwreck. He tells them the same story and that God guided him. They do not believe him. When he offers a short alternative story that involved humans killing each other in the lifeboat for survival, the officials opt to believe the first account with Richard Parker in it, the one with God.

Pi later asks the novelist which story he would believe and write about. The writer chooses the one with the island and realizes that he had just picked to believe God.

All in all, this is how the creative genius of the Yann Martel unfolds in front of the audience. Even the audience is caught in between choosing a more practical story. The one with humans is so gory and inhumane that people would never easily accept it. Whereas the one with Richard Parker and the unreal island is a survival account full of hope, but one would not want to accept it either if they do not believe in God.

Therefore, Life of Pi has a leaves us questioning our beliefs. It also strengthens one’s belief and it does so in an incredible fashion. The movie left me in a state of awe and  transcendence; I could feel the same sentiment among the rest of the viewers in the theatre.

© Written for Dr. Czynski's Humanities class