Blog #4

“Life of Pi” by Yann Martel
This week I read pages 63-100. In these pages Pi goes more in depth about his religion and how he came to have his religion. Neither of Pi’s parents are religious. They don’t attend any type of service or observe religious practices at home. This is quite different from Pi. He participates in three religions: Hinduism, Christianity and Islam. It is strange that he comes from an environment with no religion, but he himself is very interested and involved in religion. Personally, I first got involved in religion because of parents. They are both religious. As they’ve attended services and celebrated religious holidays at home I’ve done the same. I’ve gone to church and celebrated with them. They’ve guided me in my religion. I can’t imagine how I would have gotten involved in religion without my parents leading me. Pi, on the other hand, found his religion totally independently without his parents. He found Christianity while he was on vacation. Pi went to a church alone and simply walked into the priest’s office. Pi asked the priest to explain his religion and from that the two began talking. Pi learned about Christianity and found that he liked it a lot. Pi found Islam by going into a town and talking to a Muslim mystic. They had long conversations and Pi learned he also enjoyed Islam. After that, Pi began going to three services. He went to an Islam service, a Hindu service and a Christian service. It is confusing to me how one person can believe in three different religions. They do no believe in the same things, so how could one agree with all of them? Pi uses a quote from Gandhi to explain his reasoning. Gandhi said, “All religions are true”. I don’t know if I agree with Pi’s observation of three religions, but I am interested to see how it develops throughout the novel.