Ritual & Story Telling 

 

Ritual

This story is filled with the practice of ritual, by both the main character Pi and the many animals that are also creatures of habit. As denoted to early on in the story, Pi makeds it clear to readers that he seems to be "in tune" with the animals and notes how zookeepers can tell if something is wrong with their animals by observising changes in their daily routines. Thus, people, too,  have theor own routines and are inherently predictability at time. However, many of us grow stressed or troubled when such habits or routines are altered from the norm (19). 

 

One example of this taken from the story in chapter 63, pages 209 to 212, where Pi begins to give the reader/viewer insight into his daily activities and how he does them. This ranges catching fresh water from the sky in a jug, writing in his journal, scratching day marks into the boat what he does each day, and even his attempts towards fishing to feed himself or Richard Parker. However, even with all of this daily stress and activities to survive Pi manages to find time to set aside and pray to his gods. This is shown prior, in chapter 61, when Pi realizes that Richard Parker is getting very hungry and begins attacking him. Pi attempts to catch fish to feed Richard Parker, but all of his attempts are futile. After many hours Pi gives up and prepares himself for his inevitable death by tiger. All of a sudden Pi randomly smacked in the face by a flying fish that jumped into the boat. Pi believes this to be an act from God, and begins to yell out "thank you, Lord Vishnu, thank you! Once you saved the world by taking the form of a fish. Now you have saved me by taking the form of a fish. Thank you, thank you!" (page 204). After so many days of being stranded alone in the middle of the Pacific ocean with a large and hungary tiger Pi had started to doubt if his God were still with him. Such a relevation of the flying fish helped him re-evaluate his faith, and religion all over, and it once again became a large part of his life. This new found breath of his faith impacted him so much that he was incorporated it theough daily prayer (20). "Without rituals, routines, and habits, the novel implies, people feel uneasy and unmoored. Rituals give structure to abstract ideas and emotions—in other words, ritual is an alternate form of storytelling" (21). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Story Telling 

 

Yann Martel’s Life of Pi is laden with Story telling. From the beginning narration and telling of the story to Pi’s survival and first person accounts of his diary entries, and to finally ending on a choice for the reader/viewer has decide which story they wish to believe- fact or fiction?  This is just the beginning as Life of Pi also contains many  mini stories related to the  associated religions presented throuout the story. Furtheremore, this link of storytelling and religious belief is strong as it shows that "God is known only through the stories told – it is stories that create and sustain belief, and that constitute God in all facets that such a label entails. Storytelling makes God possible" (22).

 

One example of such story telling taken to the next level is experienced when the Author leaps further into a fantasy realm where he begins to tell the story of how Pi is close to starvation and dehydration and he manages to find a carnivorous island that saves his life. This carnivorous island covered in algae and loaded with food was where Pi and Richard Parker feast on the large supply of meerkats. However, as they stay the night on the island Pi opens some foliage only to find human teeth! (23) 

 

During the end of the story, when Pi is in the hospital explaining his experience on this island to the Japanese agents who do not believ him,  Pi begins to develop a counterargument to them using bonsai trees- “’whoever heard  of such trees? They’re botanically impossible’… ‘I believe what I see.’’(Martel 295). This island Pi experienced was literally a hallucination he was experiencing as he was dying. It was him actually indulging in the eating of a corpse of a person who remained on the board over the journey. Thus, this whole island experience metaphorically ties into the reason behind storytelling; to keep hope and faith alive. Therefore, the imagination and beief of the reader is tested with the island and whether or not the readers have belief and faith in Pi and his story itself (24).