Yann Martel’s The Life of Pi is a certainly a bildungsroman. Pi has all kinds of adventures before ever setting out on his tragic voyage. Pi explores the world of religion in search of ways to commune with the divine because he loves God. We watch as Pi begins to develop a concept of religion based upon the principle of love. A wild sort of love which takes from everywhere and is very uncomfortable for those of my tamed religious observance. Then there is, of course, the 277 days on the life boat in which Pi must wrestle with some major issues. The first is simply mustering the will to survive. Martel writes, “I would have given up—if a voice hadn’t made itself heard in my heart. The voice said, “I will not die. I refuse it. I will make it through this nightmare” (148). Drifting through the Pacific, Pi must learn not only to survive but to tame a tiger as well in order to continue living. His reflections on fear and human existence are incredibly insightful. At the end of the story (or perhaps the beginning the way Martel structured the work), Pi becomes a wise man whose soul has lived through its darkest night and whose eyes have seen both the dreams and nightmares of reality.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment