The movie “The Life of Pi ? directed by Ang Lee explores the nature of life itself, amongst the humans and the animals existing on this planet through love, morals, beliefs, values and particularly life lessons. We grasp the idea that life is balanced with the people and the animal, how they need each other, in order to survive just like our food chain. Even though they are morally distinct upon several factors of life such as survival and habitual instincts, how there are different dimensions of philosophies between the two types of creatures, it still prevails to be a balance within nature.
How we configure this balance is what the movie explores and lets the ideas unravel itself amongst the audience. We started off with an interview conducted by Yann Martel who is a Canadian novelist. He was interested upon the life of Pi, who is an Indian man named Piscine Molitor, referred in the movie as “Pi. ? Martel wanted to uncover the mysteries of the nature between good and evil, and how is it distinct from human and animal. Therefore we begin his life story reflected to the audience what exactly is the idea behind “Good and Evil ? between two different types of beings.
Is it formed through habitual factors, or is it originated from aspects of life and circumstance? The ideas that the movie prevails are religion perspectives, how they are combined as one through Pi’s eyes, and how they looked upon from society’s expectations of religion. Secondly, we explore the relationship between Pi and the Bengal Tiger Richard Parker. How did the relationship grow through struggles of survival, did it test their standards of morals, beliefs? How was Pi’s religion and beliefs tested? What is the value of a friend; it is tested through the relationship between Pi and Parker.
Pi separated himself from his families and society’s selective views and commitments of various religions’. Pi realized that perception is that a knowledge rather than an oppressions of one’s views thinking of life. He believed that there many ways of loving god through many different types of religions, thus he wanted to respect and understand Islam, Christianity and Hindu, giving him that combination of commitment, and self morals towards God and himself. Many are trained and engraved into believing one religion to guide them morally throughout society and life.
In the movie Pi’s father wished of him to study and practice Hindu with the rest of the family. Society itself are ingrained and programmed to believe in one type of religion and what your parents teach you, we have been imprinted of our family values such as the religion selected, thus we automatically accept the religion that we are born into. Pi, on the other hand was different; he believed that, “None of us knows God until someone introduces us. I was first introduced to God as a Hindu.
There are 33 million Gods in the Hindu religion. How can I not come to know a few of them? Though, some people change religion through life experiences of trial and error, but they don’t accept all religions at once to show a sign of their love for god, because they have a particular mindset or perception upon the image of god, due to the religion that they are committed into since they were born or expected by the society. Pi believes through all the monotheisms and polytheism religions that exist in the modern society, are only taught one way of loving many gods or just one god, not accepting and integrating many religion into your life such as what Pi did.
As Martel gathered information of Pi during lunch they had a conversation, which reflects our theory, “Amen. Yeah, let’s eat. I didn’t know Hindu’s said Amen. Catholic Hindus do. ? Many religious people are either bias or don’t care about learning different religions or are not open-minded. Society’s expectation of religion is very narrow-minded as we are programmed to believe that one religion is the only perception of god and believing or loving god. Pi’s views reflected on Christ at first didn’t make sense why god sent his son to die on the cross.
But he was able to grab the concept of Christianity from father martins principles of how the belief towards Christianity is born, because you have good faith, you are automatically in a sense believing of Jesus Christ’s faith, which is overall Christianity. Form then on, Pi started to practice Christianity and integrated into his life as Hindu and as a believer of Islam. If you try to integrate and believe in many different religions, in a sense you don’t miss out on any aspect of god, whether it be love, commitment or support and practicing gods will.
Pi attempted to be acquainted and connect with the tiger by feeding the tiger red meat. A distinction was brought up as Pi’s dad addressed towards Pi and the whole family, that animals don’t have souls and what you see in their eyes is a projection of your own thoughts and emotions. That they are not your friends, as their main purpose is what to eat. Pi tried to integrate the feelings and perception of animals with his, he felt for the tiger, but his father quickly distinguished that animals will be animals and humans will be humans, that there is no sort of connection between the two groups.
As if two different mind sets, tiger’s will always strategize to eat the pray whereas a human thinks in a deeper level with philosophies, facts, opinions, experiences, emotions and all other aspects of life. Their projection of life is different to the animal’s projection of life, and Pi didn’t clearly distinguish this fact, he thought it was a theory rather than a fact, that it can be falsifiable as we are all beings of god. An example would be when Pi and Parker are stranded on the boat, and Parker on a daily basis eats five kilograms of meat every day has been reduced too none or to Pi’s mass.
Pi stated, “Hunger can change everything you thought and knew about yourself ? is the first inception of survival between the two beings stranded on the boat. But then as time gradually went by, and their habitat changed from captivation in the zoo to being stranded in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, they had to learn how to live with each other, even though there is a clear distinction between Parker who is a hungry tiger living off five kilograms of meat per day compared to Pi who is a human vegetarian. Pi had a choice to kill the tiger but made a choice that in turn saved both of their lives.
Every aspect of the situation changed, he tamed the tiger, which then the tiger adapted to life on the boat rather then living the zoo life on the boat. Parker adapted his perception to fit both of Pi and himself. When in the boat Pi, tried to include Parker in his unique religion views “We’re dying, Richard Parker. I’m sorry. Can you feel the rain, God, thank you for giving me my life, I’m ready now ‘signifies how Pi submits to the universe on the second storm with Parker, as he thought it was god’s will to let go or trust in him, as life wasn’t the place that it once used to be for Pi.
He endured all things magical and beautiful with Parker, he experienced through nature, through his, and Parkers perspective with the circumstances such as losing his family, being stranded on a boat, the will to survive was driven through god’s will, the beauty of life and love that he learnt through the integration of religion beliefs. Because Pi had to share his environment with only Parker, a wild captive animal that was consistently fed meat during period of time. He had to learn and adapt through Parkers perspective and feel what the tiger was feeling in order for his hope to stay strong.
We as humans that’s how we survive, we are able to think what other beings were perceiving, feel their perspective and what they are feeling, such that we can make conclusions and decisions of their actions. Pi used this natural human instinct to his advantage of surviving, even though he has lost everything true to his life, which gave meaning and purpose. But he didn’t lose everything as he had god and his beauty upon earth through nature and the hope to keep living no matter what the circumstance.
In conclusion the movie portrays various different life lessons and experiences that captivate the reader and relates and questions their own values beliefs on life itself. What it means to them and what is their purpose of living life. What makes this film intriguing is that we are able to grasp what society projects on religion the laws of nature such as perceiving an animal that has a soul, and the difference between being a close minded being compared to being an open minded being.
Through Pi’s eyes we see the fine line between integrating different religions together in order to fully love god and his will, than solely perceiving that gods love and will is related to only one type of religion. Also we explore how the environment can influence two opposite beings attitudes towards each other and upon life values and beliefs whether it be spiritual or mental. We see this through the relationship between Pi and the Richard Parker stranded on the boat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
