Life of Pi Essay

Religion is often deemed as a manmade concept used to suppress the natural way of thinking. However there are certain people who have triumphed over the social norm by demonstrating contradictory ideas. For instance in the novel Life of Pi, Yann Martel portrays that religion is essential in a person’s life through the experiences of the protagonist, Pi Patel. Through one of Pi’s experiences Martel shows that religion can be used as a medium to ease self-burden. In addition religion provides a sense of comfort, and security through the presence of an eternal higher entity. Lastly religion gives people a sense of direction in life. It can be argued that a true connection with god can only be achieved by practicing religion which is why religion is the essential path needed to be taken by man to be successful.
Religion is essential in a person’s life because it is the only concept a person can use to confront problems they cannot solve. People need the luxury of taking their burdens off their shoulders, and handing them to a higher power which can only be reached through religion. The time in the novel when Pi was a child his whole family stressed constantly over how Indira Gandhi was running the country. Pi reveals the level of stress his father was enduring at the time by saying, “But it was to father the crowning touch in Mrs. Gandhi’s dictatorial takeover of the nation. The camel at the zoo was unfazed, but that straw broke Father’s back” (Yann Martel 99). Pi had stated earlier in the book that his father did not have a religious bone in his body. Consequently when his father is confronted with a problem he cannot handle like Indira Gandhi’s state of emergency, he becomes sick with worry and completely gives up his life in India. Through Pi’s experience with his father, Martel shows when a person does not have religion they have no chance of overcoming problems which are out of their control. On the contrary Pi reveals by his attitude and way of life that his