by Susan Quilty

Created on: March 01, 2010   Last Updated: March 08, 2010

Religion and spirituality lie at the heart of Life of Pi, by Yann Martel. This is no surprise as the Author's Note at the beginning of the book claims that this is a story that will make you believe in god. The immediate question then becomes, how does a story about a shipwrecked boy trapped on a lifeboat with a hyena, an orangutan, a zebra, and a Bengal tiger attempt to make the reader believe in god?

The main character, Pi Patel, is the son of a zookeeper who runs a small zoo in India. Despite his family's ideas of modern secularism, Pi is drawn to religion. In his adolescence he adopts not only the beliefs of Hinduism, but Catholicism and Islam as well. Each religion gives Pi something that he felt was missing in his spiritual life. He never feels compelled to choose one belief system over the other, although he does keep his worship secret from his family, and from each of his religious leaders, as long as possible.

Though Pi's family is largely secular in practice, they are Hindu in tradition. As such, Pi was first introduced to Hinduism and describes it as the religion of his birth and a deep part of himself. For Pi, Hinduism is not a religion to be left behind when he discovers another, but rather the intrinsic framework of his own spirituality. When he discovers Catholicism, he studies it through curiosity for what it entails, not because of any dissatisfaction with his current understanding of Hinduism. The same is true when he later adds the religion of Islam to his quilt of religious beliefs.

While Pi is comfortable with his firm belief in three seemingly disparate religions, the leaders of these religions are not happy when they learn of his expanded view of religion. As chance would have it, Pi's priest, pandit and imam all happen upon Pi and his parents at the same time. The ensuing conversation captures current religious discord as all of the religious leaders agree that Pi cannot be Hindu, Catholic, and Muslim at the same time. Despite their prodding, Pi insists that he simply wants to love god and will not choose between religions.

During his adolescence, Pi also discovers atheism through his biology teacher, Mr. Kumar. Though Pi greatly respects Mr. Kumar, and calls him his favorite teacher, Pi is not comfortable exploring the ideas of atheism or seeing how science holds its own beauty without need for a deity. He decides that atheists are his "brothers and sisters of a different faith", but it is not a belief that he understands or chooses

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