God and The Zoo.

I love the way "Life Of Pi' starts. I love learning about the back round of Pi's life including his life in the Pondicherry Zoo, his name, and his great desire to love God through many different religions. I thought that this was a brilliant way to set up the novel. Pi's story is truly unbelievable, truly a story to 'make you believe in God'. However, if Yann Martel had begun this story with the shipwreck and Richard Parker we as readers would already have had our "Yeah right" faces securely in place and thereby would have been unable to truly enjoy the story. By giving us a foundation to start with Martel gives us much more reason to believe.

God and spirituality plays a great part in Pi's life. It's one of my favorite things about him. He wants to love God and finds no greater joy than in that. His parents sit astounded as he joins two different religions in addition to his own for the sole purpose of being able to draw closer to God in as many ways as possible. He uses faith and spirituality as a first resort to carry him along the pathway of life. In the very first part of the book it becomes apparent to the reader that despair, doubt, and disbelief are not things that Pi sets a great deal of store by. In fact, as he says "to choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation". So we see in such a desperate and hopeless situation as being stranded on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger Pi has hope held in his living soul so he may always rely on that even and most especially when the world is offering him none.

The other thing Martel sets up is Pi's great knowledge of animals and there attributes. Having grown up in a Zoo owned by his father Pi gets to know the characteristics and habits of animals much better than the average person would. Animals and their territory becomes especially significant. Pi teaches us how respectful animals are of territory and a ranking system of power. A lion tamer at the circus need only establish the ring as his territory, establish himself as the Alpha, to keep the lions at bay. This knowledge becomes of greater significance to us and certainly to Pi when he must later establish boundaries with Richard Parker. Because of his already extensive knowledge of animals he knows how to do this.

It goes back to books that teach you how to read them. Martel teaches you how to read this story and how to believe it by giving you powerful reason to. He seems to be saying this is a story that is fantastic, incredible, and mind-blowing. But not impossible. It's a brilliant way to write. We are invested. We believe.