1. “I know zoos are no longer freedom plague them both” (Martel 21).
Apparently, the above quote reflects how closely relatable the subjects of zoology and religion are, at least in Pi’s mind. He compares zoo animals to people of faith and the animals in the wild to people who have no faith. In both cases, the animals and the people with no religious system of belief are considered “free,” but according to Pi that freedom is nothing an illusion because of which zoos and religion have gotten a bad name. The truth is that animals in the zoo are in the safety and security of an enclosure, while they face constant threats death and starvation in their natural habitat. Similarly, people with no religious system of belief simply do not allow themselves to use their imagination and believe in God, rather than entering the secure enclosure of religion, they opt to bear the hardships of life like wild animals do, embracing the illusion of freedom.
2. “Life on a lifeboat isn’t much nor the stakes higher” (Martel 217).
On the surface, Pi is comparing the time he spent on the lifeboat to the endgame in chess, where the board has a few remaining pieces on it. In the same way, Pi was the only human survivor in the lifeboat after the Tsimtsum sank. Just like chess players end up in a strategic battle of wits when they are near the endgame, Pi and the rest of the animals had to do the same on the lifeboat. Just like the endgame in chess where the game is simplified but with winning or losing on the line, the time spent on the lifeboat made life utterly simple but raised the stakes to either life or death. However, Pi is also indirectly comparing the simplicity of the time he spent on the lifeboat to the simple, bare-bones life of a religious mystic, who does not have many distractions in his life to cloud his faith. Therefore, when life seemed simpler and the stakes higher, it ended up strengthening Pi’s faith.
3. “The lower you are, the higher your mind will want to soar” (Martel 358).
In the above quote, the author implies Pi’s desire of hoping and wanting to continue living on a lifeboat as he had been before being rescued at the coast of Mexico, a life that brought change in routine. By “lower” Pi is referring to the physical reality, which he feels is the lowest point of his life. Therefore, as he says, his mind wants to soar higher, so he makes use of faith and imagination to his advantage to reach that higher point, which for him is an escape from reality and a means of getting rescued.
Work Cited
Martel, Y. (2001). Life of pi. (1st ed.). Toronto: Knopf Canada.
