Animal Symbolism In Life Of Pi

In the Author’s note of Life of Pi, an anonymous author meets Francis Adirubasamy, an elderly man who offered to tell him a story fantastic enough to give him faith in God. Pi narrates part one and explains that he has suffered intensely and found solace in religion and zoology. Pi refers to reason as fools gold for the bright. Fools gold is science and reality. The real treasure is faith and imagination. Imagination and art leads to belief and dreams that can be killed by crude reality. In Life of Pi, Pi’s father painted on a wall in bright red letters: DO YOU KNOW WHICH IS THE MOST DANGEROUS ANIMAL IN THE ZOO? An arrow pointed to a mirror that was hidden behind a small curtain. Pi’s father believed that there was another animal even more dangerous than us; the redoubtable species Animalus anthropomorphicus, the animal as seen through human eyes. The bane not only of theologians but also of zoologists is the obsession with putting ourselves at the centre of everything. An animal is an animal, essentially
Pi’s father once ran the Pondicherry Zoo, teaching Pi and his brother, Ravi, about the dangerous nature of animals. Pi describes in vivid detail the day his father fed a live goat to a caged tiger to teach Pi and his brother about the danger posed by wild animals. Pi’s father shouted that “Tigers are very dangerous, I want you to understand that you are never--under any circumstances--to touch a tiger, to pet a tiger, to put your hands through the bars of a cage, even to get close to a cage” (34). But, according to the sign in the zoo, the most dangerous animal of all is man. After the lesson was over, Ravi would terrorize Pi by saying “Just wait until we’re alone. You’re the next goat!” (39). Pi explains that the most obedient, loyal, and faithful animals tend to be socially inferior. They have the most to gain from a good relationship with an alpha creature;