The Importance Of Religion In Yann Martel's Life Of Pi

Pi, a teenager who believed in Christianity, Hinduism and Islam was stuck in a lifeboat with a tiger. During his adventure, Pi’s belief and trust in God help him got through a serious of difficulties. Along with Pi’s concern and trust in the God, Pi survived the end of the novel. Although religion makes Pi feel guilty and concerned in Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, religion still helped Pi to survived when he was on the sea because religion was Pi’s spiritual pillar, and it made Pi believe God could save him. Even though religion was Pi’s sensitive spot, religion still helped Pi to survived on the sea. The food shortage became the biggest difficulty Pi was facing. In order to survive, he might need to do something which goes against some of the rules of the religion he believes in, which made him struggle a lot. “Lord, to think that I’m a strict vegetarian. To think that when I was a child I always shuddered when I snapped open s banana because it sound to me like the breaking of an animal’s neck. I descended to a level a savagery I never imagined possible” (Martel 249). Since the food resources are very limited on the lifeboat, Pi needs to find food by himself. For survival, Pi has to kill fishes and eat them. According to the book, Pi is a Hindu. Hinduism advocates non-violence, which means as a Hindu, Pi is allowed to kill animals. When Pi finally realized he was dangenerated into “savagery’’, he felt guilty. Before that Pi was a strict vegetarian , but survival forced Pi