08/12/2020 – Life of Pi and Religion

What does a tiger have to do with religion? Let’s find out. This is TenOnReligion.

Hey peeps, it’s Dr. B. with TenOnReligion. The idea of a journey has long fascinated humanity. Sometimes journeys are framed externally, as a temporary travelogue, or a permanent relocation. Other times journeys are construed internally, as intellectual, emotional, or spiritual experiences over the course of time. The story of the Life of Pi heavily draws on both the external and internal aspects of the journey concept.

Life of Pi was a novel published by Yann Martel in 2001 and subsequently made into a movie in 2012 directed by Ang Lee. It was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and won four of them. One of the main actors, Irrfan Khan, who passed away in April 2020 also stars in another one of my favorite movies, The Namesake. It has a similar journey theme based on culture rather than religion and the depiction of cultural clashes in that movie are excellent.

Now if you haven’t watched the Life of Pi film please stop right now and come back after you’ve seen the movie. Not only will we give away key plot points and refer to the ending, but much of this vlog is not going to make any sense if you’ve never seen the movie. So watch it and come back here for the vlog.

Okay, we’re going to do a quick overview of the plot as a refresher for those of you that haven’t seen the movie in a while and then a deep dive into some of the religious themes and imagery going on throughout the entire picture.

First, the inspiration for the film was the earlier novel, but the novel was based on multiple tertiary influences. These influences included a Brazilian novella (Max and the Cats) and three different Richard Parker accounts from literature and history. The characters, though, are not direct copies from the original sources to the 2001 novel, and yet again the characters are not direct copies from the novel to the film. As elements in a great plot, the characters can be both no one and anyone at the same time.

The film can be divided into a series of journeys, which all comprise a much larger journey communicated in retrospect from the first scene of the arriving author at the professor’s house to the end scene at the same house. The film possesses an organic unity in that if any of the scenes were removed, the final conclusion would not have the materialized effect that it does.

The film has three distinct sections which are readily discernible to any viewer. The beginning is composed of the scenes in the present day with the visiting author conversing with the professor and continue through the early life of Pi until the ship sinks and he loses his family. The middle comprises the entirety of the lifeboat experience at sea as told via a series of long flashbacks with the occasional return to the present. The conclusion represents everything that happens after the rescue which includes the Mexican hospital scenes with the Japanese businessmen and the climatic final conversation between the professor and the visiting author.

Some of the most interesting films involve either plots that arouse amazement or plots that are complex. This film has both. Plots that arouse amazement contain terrifying and pitiable incidents, and there are a number of these in the film, not least of which include the shipwreck and being stranded on a lifeboat with a tiger. Yikes!

Complex plots are those in which the transformation of action is accompanied by a recognition, a reversal, or both. I don’t think the Life of Pi could be justifiably construed as including a reversal, but it undeniably contains a recognition. In fact, the salient question at the end of the film is “who” recognizes and “what” is the content of that recognition? There is the scene where the Japanese businessmen at the Mexican hospital in the past do not believe Pi’s first story and after hearing the second story, go back to opting for the first one as authentic as evidenced by the final report read by the visiting author (one of the last lines in the movie).

Then there is the final climactic scene of the professor asking the author which story he prefers. After the author indicates the first one (“the one with the tiger – that’s the better story”), the professor quietly and subtly declares, “And so it goes with God,” inferring (or perhaps implying?) that the entire set of experiences were religious in nature – a religious journey.

When one reads the novel, the conclusion is not nearly as clear and obvious, but in the film, if the viewer is able to pick up on all of the clues left like a trail of breadcrumbs (both visually and aurally in the dialogue), the recognition of what just transpired hits you like a bombshell. Let’s get into some of the religious themes and imagery.

The film, Life of Pi, is a journey. Or perhaps a layered series of journeys slowly revealed in a bifold way. There is the external journey of a lifeboat adrift across the ocean with a wild tiger. Then there is the internal journey of inquiry into the nature of religious pluralism as Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism are all referenced both directly and indirectly in the film.

The ship the family travels on, the Tsimtsum, is a Hebrew word for God contracting light to make space so creation can happen. The Jewish themes of Noah’s ark and the suffering of Job are obvious as is the Buddhist skillful means theme of taking a boat to the other side. When the shore is reached, the boat is no longer needed. The storms represent trial and tribulation, with Pi losing his family in the first one and all his survival supplies in the second one while calling out the Islamic names of God and seeing an epiphany of the Hindu god Vishnu. After nearly giving up all hope of life, a floating carnivorous island also in the shape of the Hindu god Vishnu appears, the god who is the sustainer of life.

And we haven’t even gotten to the tiger yet! The tiger is polysemic symbolism, which means it can easily symbolize multiple things at the same time. Kind of what happens in religion. The word “God” for example, can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. In the storyline of the film the audience learns at the end that Pi is the tiger. In the hospital scene, Pi explains he couldn’t understand the happy Buddhist sailor’s suffering, the first of the Four Noble Truths in Buddhism. During an earlier scene we also learn that the tiger’s original name was “thirsty” but due to a clerical error was switched to the hunter, Richard Parker. The original tiger’s name, “thirsty,” relates to Pi. First, he was called “thirsty” ironically by the Christian priest near the beginning of the movie, and much later, as a reference to the second of the Four Noble Truths in Buddhism as desire, or thirst, as the cause of all suffering. The tiger, Pi, originally sacrifices his love in India, Anandi, and after much of the film is played out, gives himself up to God as a sign of eliminating his desires and thus is no longer “thirsty.” Then, the floating island appears to ultimately carry him to his final redemption. When the tiger left him on the shore, part of Pi was relieved the ordeal was over and part of Pi was anguished beyond belief at the ending of the struggle. What a poignant statement about the concept of journey in religion.

So, what are the religious takeaways from this film? The themes of polysemic symbolism and religious truth as a participatory event are prominent in the relativity of a relational hermeneutical model. We interpret reality with religious experiences based on the ones we participate in. What I mean by that is, the movie asks of the viewer what, if any, is the difference between historical and mythical stories? We all believe in stories whether we realize it or not. Which is the better story? Why should one be preferred over the other? The end result is how one comes to the point of choosing which story to believe. In the film, the religious mythos of multiple traditions helped Pi overcome his many struggles ultimately leading to his redemption while simultaneously finding God in the midst of the journey.

The Life of Pi has an organic plot with an overall unity of action. The final climactic scene leaves the audience thinking and reflecting on the myriad religious symbolism contained in the power of story itself. Put simply, it’s a cool movie.

Well I hope this vlog has helped you better understand this topic. Until next time, stay curious. If you enjoyed this, please like this video and subscribe to the channel. This is TenOnReligion.