CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
In this part of the study, the answers to the problem formulation are explained. This chapter is divided into three subchapters respectively. The first subchapter elaborates the description of the main character. This subchapter mostly consists of the character’s life timeline, which includes the characteristics of the main character and the main character’s paradigm, attitude, and perspective towards the things happening in his life. Understanding these helps us to draw a pattern on how the character deal, see, and act towards his religions and draw a philosophy out of it. The next subchapter deals with the main character’s philosophy of Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam along with his philosophy about God and religiosity in general. The subchapter elaborates the philosophy in detail, so that it can be used to reveal the idea of postmodernism as reflected through the philosophy in the last subchapter.
A. Description on the Main Character
The description of the main character, Pi, is elaborated using Roberts and Jacobs theory. According to Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacobs in Fiction: An Introduction to Reading and Writing, a character can be disclosed by considering the following factors: what the character says (and thinks), what the character does, what other characters say about him/her, and what the author says about him/her (1989: 147, 148). Therefore, here the character will be disclosed by applying the theory using the quotations from the novel as the main source of data.
To start with, the life timeline of the main character is elaborated. This is needed to be the background knowledge about whom the thesis is about.
Piscine Molitor Patel is a son of a zoo owner. He spends his childhood in 1970s Pondicherry, India, when Indira Gandhi served as the Prime Minister. Piscine is born into a secular family. It is said in page 82 (Martel, 2002) that the Patel family was anything but orthodox. Piscine’s father, Santosh Patel, is said to “…see himself as part of the New India –rich, modern and as secular as ice cream… spiritual worry was alien to him; it was financial worry that rocked his being” (Martel, 2002: 82-83). Piscine’s mother, Gita Patel, is a modern woman who loves to read books. Gita Patel is born Hindu but she attends Baptist school, that makes her “mum, bored, and neutral” about religion (Martel, 2002: 83). However, Gita Patel is a long life vegetarian (Martel, 2002: 388). It is not explained whether she is a vegetarian due to religious considerations or not. Piscine is also a strict vegetarian, probably due to the influence of Gita Patel. Ravi Patel, Piscine’s older brother, is described as a boy with “normal interests… All he can think about is cricket, movies, and music” (Martel, 2002: 96). Piscine is born three years after Ravi. It is estimated that Piscine was born in 1961, because in page 114 (Martel, 2002) it is said that in the year 1977 Piscine is sixteen years old.
Piscine develops different interests from his brother. He is more into reading and learning, observing animals, and doing spiritual activities.
Piscine’s fondness to books is descended from his mother. During childhood, Piscine pleases his mother by reading many books; some are Hindu comic books and illustrated children Bible (Martel, 2002: 83). When he is 15, he has read books from his mother’s collection including Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, and R. K. Narayan (Martel, 2002: 92).
Piscine’s fondness to animals and his observing nature are descended from his father’s. In page 16, it is said that Santosh Patel runs a zoo in Pondicherry due to “an abiding interest in animals” (Martel, 2002). For Piscine, the zoo is “…a paradise on earth” (Martel, 2002: 17). His childhood is filled with the fondest memories of growing up in a zoo. The following quotation states how Piscine enjoys being in his father’s zoo and observing the animals in it.
In zoos, as in nature, the best times to visit are sunrise and sunset. That is when most animals come to life. They stir and leave their shelter and tiptoe to the water’s edge. They show their raiments. They sing their songs. They turn to each other and perform their rites. The reward for the watching eye and the listening ear is great. I spent more hours than I can count a quiet witness to the highly mannered, manifold expressions of life that grace our planet. It is something so bright, loud, weird and delicate as to stupefy the senses (Martel, 2002: 19).
During his childhood he obtains excessive knowledge about animals by observing, that in the age 16 he knows how to face and tame a fierce tiger. This knowledge is very important for his survival. Besides learning animals as biological beings, Pi also loves animals as the concrete form of God’s almightiness. Killing animals is personally restricted for him, and moreover he is a life-long vegetarian. Even when Pi is a child, he always shudders when he snaps open a banana because it sounds to him like the breaking of an animal’s neck (Martel, 2002: 249). Pi has to abandon his vegan diet during his time in the ocean, but he returns to vegetarianism once he is back to civilization.
Besides his interests in books and animals, Piscine also has exquisite fondness for religions and spirituality. Born Hindu, he is introduced to the rites and rituals in his early age by his auntie, Rohini, who is of a more traditional mind. Auntie Rohini brought Piscine when he is a newborn baby to a temple in Madurai. Piscine’s interest to spirituality has grown since then. In page 59 Piscine says “A germ of religious exaltation, no bigger than a mustard seed, was sown in me and left to germinate. It has never stopped growing since that day” (Martel, 2002). In page 34, Piscine also says that since he could remember, religion has been very close to his heart (Martel, 2002).
Later, his fondness for reading and observing will help him to understand the religions better. This habit helps him to determine his attitude and create a philosophy of the religions that will help him to find a peace of mind in his life.
In India, Piscine attends Christian schools because his family considers Christian schools as the best choice for education (Martel, 2002: 95). The family wants their children to get the best education possible. This perspective facilitates Piscine well because he is a person who is eager to learn and study. It can be estimated that Piscine is considered as a bright student, because his friends often want him to help them with the homework (Martel, 2002: 103).
Piscine enjoys his middle school times, but he has a major trouble with his nickname. In middle school, St. Joseph’s School, a friend with childish cruelty calls him Pissing.
My Roman soldier stood in the schoolyard one morning when I was twelve I had just arrived. He saw me and a flash of evil genius lit up his dull mind. He raised his arm, pointed at me and shouted, “It’s Pissing Patel!”
In a second everyone was laughing. It fell away as we filed into the class. I walked in last, wearing my crown of thorns. (Martel, 2002: 25)
After that, all of his friends and even some teachers call him Pissing, instead of Piscine. He feels miserable and humiliated, but this situation does not make him hateful and make him want to revenge. Instead, he waits until he graduates and continues to high school, Petit Séminaire, which is “the best private English-medium secondary school in Pondicherry” (Martel, 2002: 27). Here he attempts to change his own nickname into Pi Patel.
I got up from my desk and hurried to the blackboard. Before the teacher could say a word, I picked up a piece of chalk and said as I wrote: My name is Piscine Molitor Patel, known to all as – I double underlined the first two letters of my given name – Pi Patel. For good measure I added π = 3.14 and I drew a large circle, which I then sliced in two with a diameter, to evoke that basic lesson of geometry (Martel, 2002: 28).
Creatively creating his own nickname is a problem solving for young Piscine. He encourages himself to convert from Piscine into Pi, in order to avoid being called Pissing. Although in his high school he studies with his fellow classmates in middle school who called him the undesirable nickname, his plan works and people call him Pi, instead of Pissing.
Changing his own nickname is not the only big events in the high school time of Piscine (now known as Pi). In these times, he encounters two religions that are new to him, Christianity and Islam. Finding that the religions make him happy, he adds the two religions into himself, instead of converting from Hinduism into one of the religions. His practicing three religions all together is considered strange by his family, but the ones who feel disturbed and insulted by Pi’s actions are the chiefs of the religious groups: The Pandit, Imam, and Priest, as is elaborated in chapter 23 (Martel, 2002). The three wise men are involved in a fierce argument in a day when they meet the Patel family. Each one wants to prove that his religion is the only one that is true. When they ask Pi then, which religion he will choose, Pi says “Bapu Gandhi said, ‘All religions are true.’ I just want to love God,” (Martel, 2002: 87). Here we can see that Pi’s only intention to practice the three religions is to love God, the core of every religious rites and rituals.
Facing this hateful interfaith dialogue, Pi questions himself why people are so sensitive if it is related with God and religion. He thinks
There are always those who take it upon themselves to defend God, as if Ultimate Reality, as if the sustaining frame of existence, were something weak and helpless…These people fail to realize that it is on the inside that God must be defended, not on the outside. They should direct their anger at themselves. For evil in the open is but evil from within that has been let out… The main battlefield for good is not the open ground of the public arena but the small clearing of each heart (Martel, 2002: 89).
He opposes religious people who think that it is necessary to fight on the behalf of God. It is no need fighting with each other to defend God, because Pi thinks “To me, religion is about our dignity, not our depravity” (Martel, 2002: 90).
His experience with religions leads him to have dialogues with people of different religions. His first encounter with Christianity led him to have a conversation with a priest named Father Martin, as what is elaborated in chapter 17, about how he meets Christianity. He is at first afraid of the priest, but he encourages himself to see the priest. He is even brave enough to ask questions and even, argue with the priest. In chapter 18, Pi meets a humble Muslim baker, Mr. Satish Kumar, who then teaches him how to be a good Muslim, how to pray in Arabic, and how to read Arabic Qur’an. Here, Pi also needs courage to have a dialogue with a person he just know about a sensitive topic such as religions.
Besides courage, it can be concluded that Pi has the humbleness, open-mindedness, and intelligence to learn from other people. The teenage Pi has the ability to lower himself and open his mind before a person whom he considers as one who can teach him good things, and then uses his wit to understand the new knowledge. However, Pi does not intending to show his intelligence off when he is involved in an argument with this kind of person, instead he argues and asks questions in order to learn more and more. Before being a Christian, Pi has conversation with Father Martin about Christianity. Below is a quotation from page 72:
I had tea with Father Martin three days in a row. Each time, as teacup rattled against saucer, as spoon tinkled against edge of cup, I asked questions (Martel: 2002).
Pi states his arguments and asks a lot of questions about Jesus Christ to Father Martin, as follows:
…Humiliation? Death? I couldn’t imagine Lord Krishna consenting to be stripped naked, whipped, mocked, dragged through the streets and, to top ot off, crucified –and at the hands of mere humans, to boot. I’d never heard of a Hindu god dying (Martel, 2002: 68).
That is God as God should be. With shine and power and might. Such as can rescue and save and put down evil. This Son, on the other hand, who goes hungry, who suffers from thirst, who gets tired, who is sad, who is anxious, who is heckled and harassed, who has to put up with followers who don’t get it and opponents who don’t respect Him –what kind of God is that? (Martel, 2002: 68).
Father Martin assures Pi about the love and humanity of Jesus Christ, and with his open mind and humbleness, Pi happily accept Christianity as an addition to his spiritual life. Pi thinks that Jesus’ humanity is very compelling, unlike any of Hindu gods that he has known for his lifetime (Martel, 2002: 73).
From Mr. Kumar, Pi learns that Islam sees God in nature. One can see a trace of divine being in every element in nature. This is what Pi loves from Islam, because he himself really loves nature and loves to be outside, surrounded by the beauty of nature. After being a Muslim, Pi likes to pray outside, as what we can see in the following quotation
I prayed outside because I liked it. Most often I unrolled my prayer rug in a corner of the yard behind the house. It was a secluded spot in the shade of a coral tree, next to the wall was covered with bougainvillea (Martel, 2002: 97).
His love to nature is confirmed with his love for God, as what he learns from Mr. Kumar. Therefore, it can be concluded that Pi likes to absorb good qualities from other people in order to enrich his own. He is full of curiosity and he feed his curiosity by bravely ask to people who might have the answer. Pi learns from Father Martin and Mr. Kumar good things in their religions and then applies these things in his own spiritual life. More about Pi’s religions will be elaborated in the next subchapter.
Just like what has been explained earlier, Pi really loves to learn and study, it is not weird if he is grateful for good teachers he gets in his school time. In page 31 he says “It was my luck to have a few good teachers in my youth, men and women who came into my dark head and lit a match” (Martel, 2002). His favorite teacher in Petit Séminaire, who is also important in Pi’s spiritual development, is his Biology teacher, Mr. Satish Kumar. Martel intentionally gave the two characters, the Biology teacher and the Muslim baker, the same name.
The biology teacher is an atheist. Pi’s conversation with him is very impressive to Pi because it is the first time Pi meets a person who thinks religion is darkness (Martel, 2002: 34). Pi later thinks that atheists are his brothers and sisters of a different faith (Martel, 2002: 35). Pi adores his atheist Biology teacher and adores his devotion to science.
1977 is the end of Pi’s time in India. Due to political considerations, Indira Gandhi reign has threat the zoo business, Santosh Patel decides to move the family to Winnipeg, Canada. Along with some of the zoo animals, they leave Madras on June 21st, 1977, on the Panamanian registered Japanese cargo ship, Tsimtsum (Martel, 2002: 114). However, the ship sinks and Pi is left alone in a lifeboat as the only living survivor; his family has died in the wreck. His only companion is an adult Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. The situation following the wreck is pictured as follows:
I was alone and orphaned, in the middle of the Pacific, hanging on to an oar, an adult tiger in front of me, sharks beneath me, a storm raging about me (Martel, 2002: 133).
During the wreck, Pi is very desperate and afraid. He cries during the incident, but he still can think and give comment to the catastrophe as follows:
“…Every single thing I value in life has been destroyed. And I’m allowed no explanation? I am to suffer hell without any account from heaven? In that case, what is the purpose of reason, Richard Parker? Is it no more than to shine at practicalities –the getting of food, clothing, and shelter? Why such a vast net if there’s so little fish to catch?” (Martel, 2002: 122)
After the wreck, Pi is struck by a big shock. But after the shock disappears, he then realizes his desperate situation. Pi has been confined that he will die, and he is very terrified with the fact. His desperate thought is elaborated as follows:
Oncoming death is terrible enough, but worse still is oncoming death with time to spare, time in which all the happiness that was yours and all the happiness that might have been yours becomes clear to you. You see with utter lucidity all that you are losing. The sight brings on an oppressive sadness that no car about to hit you or water about to drown you can match The feeling is truly unbearable. The words Father, Mother, Ravi, India, Winnipeg struck me with searing poignancy (Martel, 2002: 184).
This kind of desperation has to be endured for more than seven months. Pi and the tiger are stranded in the lifeboat in the middle of Pacific Ocean for 227 days (Martel, 2002: 239). Every day is a struggle for food and clean water. Pi has to put up with the emergency food supply which is not vegetarian. Before observing the lifeboat to get to the emergency kit, Pi has spent three days without eating, drinking, and sleeping, due to the shock and the fear for the beasts abroad (besides Richard Parker, there are also a hyena, an orangutan, and a zebra on board. All are killed and become Richard Parker’s food). In chapter 51 Pi’s gratitude when he finds the emergency kit for the first time is elaborated. He is very grateful for the man-made things. He thinks the things made by man are there to save his life. In this particular situation, Pi, who is very religious and praise for God’s creation, becomes extremely happy of the man-made goods.
Oh, the delight of the manufactured good, the man-made device, the created thing! That moment of material revelation brought an intensity of pleasure –a heady mix of hope, surprise, disbelief, thrill, gratitude, all crushed into one –unequalled in my life by any Christmas, birthday, wedding, Diwali, or other gift-giving occation (Martel, 2002: 178).
However, the supply is gone scarce after some days. Pi has to fish and obtain drinking water from rain and distillated sea water. Fishing and killing a fish is not easy for him in the first time because he has never kills anything before. His first fish to kill is a flying fish that he kills to be the fishing bait.
Tears flowing down my cheeks, I egged myself on until I heard a cracking sound and I no longer felt any life fighting in my hands…. I wept heartily over this poor little deceased soul. It was the first sentient being I have killed. I was now a killer. I was now as guilty as Cain. I was sixteen years old, a harmless boy, bookish and religious, and now I had blood on my hands. It’s a terrible burden to carry. All sentient life is sacred. I never forget to include this fish in my prayers (Martel, 2002: 231).
After that first fish, killing animals for food is easier for him. Every time Pi gets a fish he feels very grateful. He always thanks to Matsya Vishnu, Vishnu’s avatar in the form of fish, to Jesus, who has a symbol in the form of fish, and Allah. Pi then grows to be a better hunter. He even develops an instinct of what to do when fishing (Martel, 2002: 246). He become more skilled in hunting and gathering food, and he also has lost revulsion in touching fish as what is elaborated in the following quotation:
I quickly lost my revulsion at touching sea life. None of this prissy fish blanket business anymore. A fish jumping out of water was confronted by a famished boy with hands-on, no-hold-barred approach to capturing it….If only I had had as many arms as the goddess Durga –two to hold the gads, four to grasp the fish and two to wield the hatchets. But I had to make do with two. I stuck my fingers into eyes, jammed hands into gills, crushed soft stomachs with knees, but tails with my teeth –I did whatever was necessary to hold a fish down until I could reach for the hatchet and chop its head off (Martel, 2002: 246).
He is also willing to eat anything organic. Pi eats little animals and plants that gather underneath his raft, pop one after another to his mouth like candy (Martel, 2002: 249-250). He also catches, butchers, and eats turtle meat (Martel, 2002: 268). He can put everything in his mouth as long as it is not salty. Pi’s body has developed rejection system for salt which he still experiences after he grows up (Martel, 2002: 268). The extremeness of his hunger even moves him to try to eat Richard Parker’s feces (Martel, 2002: 269).
Pi also has to endure the lack of proper clothing during his days in the ocean. His clothes are broken and then finally gone, victim of the sun and the salt. Pi has to be stark naked in the hottest day and in the coldest time. His only apparel is a whistle that dangles from his neck by a string (Martel, 2002: 242-243).
Pi also does not have any knowledge in seafaring technique. The survival manual in the survival kit is designed for sailor who accomplished the technique. Pi does not know which way to go and does not know in which part of Pacific Ocean he is on, therefore, he decided to be drifted by the wind and sea current (Martel, 2002: 244). Here we can see his attitude in letting himself being drifted away just like a devotee being surrender for the fate God has planned for him.
Moreover, there is a major trouble for Pi, in addition to those that are regular for a castaway such as food, drink, and clothing; the tiger. Richard Parker is an adult, fierce, Royal Bengal tiger weighing 450 pounds. At first, Pi determines to get rid of the tiger (Martel, 2002: 198-200). But then, realizing that none of his plans going to work, and probably it will just worsen the situation by making the tiger angry, Pi has a plan to tame the tiger. Pi uses his knowledge on animal psychology and beast taming in circus to deal with Richard Parker. Pi calls this activity as The Pi Patel Indo-Canadian Trans-Pacific Floating Circus (Martel, 2002: 208).
Although he is at first afraid of the tiger, Pi then realizes that actually, deep inside, he is happy to have the beast as a friend. He thinks
I will tell you a secret: a part of me was glad about Richard Parker. A part of me did not want Richard Parker to die at all, because if he died I would be left alone with despair, a foe even more formidable than a tiger. If I still had the will to live, it was thanks to Richard Parker. He kept me from thinking too much about my family and my tragic circumstances. He pushed me to go on living. I hated him for it, yet at the same time I was grateful. I am grateful. It’s the plain truth: without Richard Parker, I wouldn’t be alive today to tell you my story (Martel, 2002: 207).
Pi then managed to befriend Richard Parker. With his wit and creativity, Pi becomes the source of food and water for the tiger, and he lets the tiger knows it so Richard Parker understands who is the boss and will not attack Pi. Pi’s attempt to train the tiger like in a circus ring is sometimes really dangerous, but Pi survives (Martel, 2002: 260-261, 282).
The quotation below is the verbal evident that Pi has developed the fondness for the tiger. Pi has managed to turn the tiger, which at first becomes a major trouble, into a companion and even a life saver who helps him to survive the suffering in the ocean, and help him to be determined to come to a land safely.
“I love you!” The words burst out pure and unfettered, infinite. The feeling flooded my chest. “Truly I do. I love you, Richard Parker. If I didn’t have you now, I don’t know what I would do. I don’t think I would make it. No, I wouldn’t. I would die of hopelessness. Don’t give up, Richard Parker, don’t give up. I’ll get you to land, I promise, I promise!” (Martel, 2002: 298).
We can see that in taming an animal, moreover in a special situation as Pi’s, one needs knowledge, intelligence, courage, and love. These qualities are reflected by Pi and his successful training for the tiger.
Training the tiger is an escape for Pi from a bigger trouble than thirst, hunger, and beast: lonesome, boredom, fear, desperation, and sadness. The death of his family is the greatest sadness for Pi. When he realizes that the family has gone, he weeps while thinking
When the sun slipped below the horizon, it was not only the day that died and the poor zebra, but my family as well…They were dead; I could no longer deny it. What a thing to acknowledge in your heart! To lose a brother is to lose someone with whom you can share the experience of growing old, who is supposed to bring you a sister-in-law and nieces and nephews, creatures to people the tree of your life and give it new branches. To lose your father is to lose the one guidance and help you seek, who supports you like a tree trunk supports its branches. To lose your mother, well, that is like losing the sun above you. It is like losing –I’m sorry, I would rather not go on (Martel, 2002: 160).
Boredom and loneliness also torture Pi. For a person who is always learning and having activities like him, idling all day is not only boring, but also irritating. He needs activities to help him escape from the sufferings. As a bookworm, Pi’s greatest wish, besides salvation, is to have a book to read. We can see it from the quotation below
My greatest wish –other than salvation –was to have a book. A long book with a never ending story. One I could read again and again, with new eyes and a fresh understanding each time. Alas there was no scripture in the lifeboat….At the very least, if I had had a good novel! But there was only the survival manual, which I must have red ten thousand times over the course of my ordeal (Martel, 2002: 262).
Boredom and loneliness are bad enough, but not as fierce as fear. Fear, according to Pi, is the worst enemy for life. He thinks that fear is life’s only opponent. Fear can defeat life in the most unpredictable way and can lead to desperation. We can see his paradigm about fear in the quotation below
I must say a word about fear. It is life’s only opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know. It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy. It goes for your weakest spot, which it finds with unerring ease. It begins in your mind, always (Martel, 2002: 203).
Besides fear, desperation is also dangerous for a castaway like Pi. Pi has overcome desperation which always comes again and again. One of the biggest desperation comes after a ship comes to them, but the crew does not see them. The ship is then gone and leaves Pi feeling “…longing, hurt, anguish, loneliness.” (Martel, 2002: 298). The disappointment of the canceled salvation hurts him deeply, but still he tries his best to survive.
In the last page of the diary he keeps during the ordeal, he writes
It’s no use. Today I die.
I will die today.
I die.
(Martel, 2002: 303)
Pi has ever been convinced that he is going to die, that he says to Richard Parker
“Goodbye, Richard Parker. I’m sorry for having failed you. I did my best. Farewell. Dear Father, dear Mother, dear Ravi, greetings. Your loving son and brother is coming to meet you. Not an hour has gone by that I haven’t the thought of you. The moment I see you will be the happiest of my life. And now I leave matters in the hands of God, who is love and whom I love.” (Martel, 2002: 306)
But he always survives before the worse comes to him. Pi believes that his family have died, but the fact is always vague to him. One day, the lifeboat come upon the Pacific Debris and Pi takes an empty wine bottle from the heap of trash. He put a message in the bottle as follows
I put a message in the bottle: “A Japanese-owned cargo ship Tsimtsum, flying Panamanian flag, sank July 2nd 1977, in Pacific, four days out of Manila. Am in lifeboat. Pi Patel my name. Have some food, some water, but Bengal tiger a serious problem. Please advise family in Winnipeg, Canada. Any help very much appreciated. Thank you.” I corked the bottle and covered the cork with a piece of plastic. I tied the plastic to the neck of the bottle with nylon string, knotting it tightly. I launched the bottle into the water (Martel, 2002: 300).
This act is a manifestation of desperation and disbelief of a definite fact of the death of the family.
However, the biggest suffering for Pi is when he becomes blind because of malnutrition in chapter 90. He refers to it as the moral torture. He rates the day he goes blind as the day his extreme suffering began (Martel, 2002: 305). His mental wound is not because of the blindness, but because of what follows after it. It is a coincidence that when Pi goes blind his lifeboat runs into another lifeboat with a French man in it. Encountering another human, Pi feels really happy. However the French man is wicked. He enters Pi’s lifeboat and intending to kill Pi to get his flesh as food. Before Pi can do anything, though, Richard Parker attacks and butchers the French man alive. He is killed and his flesh becomes food for Richard Parker. Not long afterwards Pi’s blindness is healed and he can see the brutally butchered body of the man. He says “Something in me died then that has never come back to life.” (Martel, 2002: 321). Pi is so sad for the sadistic death of a human friend, although the French man is intending to kill him as food. However, still Pi uses the man’s flesh as fishing bait, and, even, driven by the extreme hunger, eats the dried flesh as meal (Martel, 2002: 322).
Pi’s survival shows that he can defeat these mental and bodily wounds. In order to defeat the mental burdens, Pi keeps himself busy. Pi says, being busy is one key to his survival (Martel, 2002: 239). In page 178 he says, “But there was no time for useless distress. Action was needed.” (Martel, 2002). Here we can conclude that Pi still can use his reason to deal with the situation. He does not panic; instead he makes himself useful to handle the situation.
He builds a raft, as what is shown in page 187. Pi thinks the raft is needed in emergency times in case he needs a shelter outside the lifeboat if Richard Parker becomes dangerous. Pi creatively uses the oars, lifejackets, and lifebuoy from the survival kit to make a little raft. Later he adds a canopy so he can be sheltered from sun exposure (Martel, 2002). After the raft done Pi can still find things to do in the raft and in the lifeboat because always there are things that need fixing (Martel, 2002: 239).
Besides tending things, Pi also does observation. He observes many things in the sea: Richard Parker, the sea, the sky, the marine life below the raft, the biology of the algae, and so on. His observation is impressive, because he has the chance to observe the vast ocean in a lifeboat. He says
If you want to see wildlife, it is on foot, and quietly, that you must explore a forest. It is the same with the sea. You must stroll through the Pacific at a walking pace, so to speak, to see the wealth and abundance that it holds (Martel, 2002: 222).
He does his observation usually from mid-morning until afternoon, as what is reported in the below quotation
…Rest and restful activities(writing in diary, examining of scabs and sores, upkeeping of equipment, puttering about locker, observation and study of Richard Parker, picking at of turtle bones, etc)… (Martel, 2002: 240).
He keeps a diary to record his observations. Writing also helps him to pass the time. It can be concluded from these activities that Pi is observant and diligent. Observing and writing in this kind of situation can only be done by intellectuals. He even observes the case when Richard Parker fights with a shark and reports it as an interest for zoologist (Martel, 2002: 277).
Even, in chapter 92 he finds a floating island made by a large bed of algae and considers it as “botanical discovery” (Martel, 2002: 322). Firstly he does not believe his eyes when he sees green. He thinks that it is only chimera (Martel, 2002: 323). However, he becomes empiric and wants to prove that the island is real. He says, “To judge –and be disappointed –or not to judge, that was the question. I decided to judge” (Martel, 2002: 324). Here we can see that Pi is very empiric, he relies on tangible things to decide the reality. Pi has this quality side by side with his ability to believe in the miracle of religion.
After convincing himself that the island is true, Pi says
To take in green, after so much blue, was like music to my eyes. Green is a lovely colour. It is the colour of Islam It is my favourite colour… It came to my olfactory sense, full and fresh, overwhelming: the smell of vegetation. I gasped. After months of nothing but salt-water-bleached smells, this reek of vegetable organic matter was intoxicating. It was then that I believed, and the only thing that sank was my mind; my thought process became disjointed (Martel, 2002: 323-325)
Pi finds shelter, green food, and clean water in this island. However, he decides to leave the island when he finds out that the island is actually a kind of carnivorous floating vegetation: it is a quiet and peaceful island during the day, but at night it is alive and eats flesh of fish. It also can eat mammals like Pi and Richard Parker, by excreting digesting acids in the surface of the island. Deciding to leave a shelter and go into another episode of sufferings in the ocean is very difficult for Pi. However he says “…I preferred to set off and perish in search of my own kind than to live a lonely half-life of physical comfort and spiritual death in this murderous island.” (Martel, 2002: 357). Pi takes Richard Parker with him instead of leaving the tiger in the island. From this action we can see the Pi’s paradigm, that he would rather leave a treacherous comfort and take with him a true and sincere companion.
Besides observing and finding discoveries, Pi says he has to forget about time to lighten the pressure of boredom and loneliness. He says “And I survived because I made a point of forgetting… Time is an illusion that only makes us pant. I survived because I forgot even the very notion of time” (Martel, 2002: 244).
One technique to pass the time is gentle asphyxiation (Martel, 2002: 298). Pi places a wet rag on his face and breathes through it while falling asleep. This method will make him be visited by “…the most extraordinary dreams, trances, visions, thoughts, sensations, remembrances.” (Martel, 2002: 299). He calls this wet rag as the “dream rag” (Martel, 2002: 298).
The beauty of nature around him also helps him to forget his suffering. The greatness of nature, for example the vastness of the sea and the beauty of underwater ecology make him feels calm. It seems like God comforts Pi using the grandness of His creation. Pi feels relieved from his suffering by admiring the beauty of God’s creation, as what is elaborated in the quotations below
With just one glance I discovered that the sea is a city. Just below me, all around, unsuspected by me, were highways, boulevards, streets and roundabouts bustling with submarine traffic…For the first time in five days I felt a measure of calm A little bit of hope –hard earned, well deserved, reasonable –glowed in me. I fell asleep. (Martel, 2002: 222)
The volume of things was confounding –the volume of air above me, the volume of water around and beneath me. I was half-moved, half terrified. I felt like the sage Markandeya, who fell out of Vishnu’s mouth while Vishnu was sleeping and so beheld the entire universe, everything that there is. Before the sage could die of fright, Vishnu awoke and took him back into his mouth….For the first time I noticed –as I would notice repeatedly during my ordeal, between one throne of agony and the next –that my suffering was taking place in a grand setting. I saw my suffering for what it was, finite and insignificant, and I was still. My suffering did not fit anywhere, I realized. And I could accept this. It was all right. (Martel, 2002: 233)
The landscape Pi sees from the lifeboat is always magnificent for him. However, nearly being stroke by lightning is the most impressive natural phenomenon for Pi. One day, a fork of lightning nearly hits the lifeboat. Instead of trembling of fear, Pi is grateful for the experience and praise God for it, as what can be seen in the following quotation
The effect on me was completely the opposite. It was something to pull me out of my limited mortal ways and thrust me into a state of exalted wonder…“Praise be o Allah, Lord of All Worlds, the Compassionate, the Merciful, Ruler of Judgment Day!” I muttered. To Richard Parker I shouted, “Stop your trembling! This is miracle. This is an outbreak of divinity. This is… This is…” I could not find what it was, this thing so vast and fantastic…. But I was smiling. I remember that close encounter with electrocution and third-degree burns as one of the few times during my ordeal when I felt genuine happiness. (Martel, 2002: 294-295)
Off the lifeboat, Pi also admires the nature around him during his days in the floating island. While sitting on a tree and see a big storm hitting the sea and the island, he admires the grand landscape as what can be seen in the following quotation
It was an awe-inspiring spectacle to sit in a tree and see giant waves charging the island, seemingly preparing to ride up the ridge and unleash bedlam and chaos –only to see each one melt away as if it had come upon quicksand. In this respect, the island was Gandhian: it resisted without resisting (Martel, 2002: 341).
Pi also builds personal philosophies to comfort and encourage himself to keep on struggling to defeat the trial. He says “Things didn’t turn out the way they were supposed to, but what can you do? You must take life the way it comes at you and make the best of it.” (Martel, 2002: 115)
However desperate he is, Pi still has the will to live, to defeat the approaching death, and to survive. Pi realizes that there is something in him that does not want to give up on life. That part of him is unwilling to let go of life and wants to fight to the very end (Martel, 2002: 123). Pi believes in life and miracle, and he believes that God will save him. Below is Pi’s soliloquy that states that he refuses to die.
“I will not die. I refuse it. I will make it through this nightmare. I will beat the odds, as great as they are. I have survived so far, miraculously. Now I will turn miracle into routine. The amazing will be seen every day. I will put in all the hard work necessary. Yes, so long as God is with me, I will not die. Amen.” (Martel, 2002: 186)
In the same page, Pi states humbly that his struggle is a mere ‘life hungry stupidity’ and the ‘inability to let go’. He elaborates his thought about what he feels about the struggle for life when death is approaching as follows:
I speak in all modesty as I say this, but I discovered at that moment that I have a fierce will to live. It’s not something evident, in my experience. Some of us give up on life with only a resigned sigh. Others fight a little, then lose hope. Still others –and I am one of those –never give up. We fight and fight and fight. We fight no matter the cost of battle, the losses we take, the improbability of success. We fight to the very end. It’s not a question of courage. It’s something constitutional, an inability to let go. It may be nothing more than life hungry stupidity (Martel, 2002: 186).
His sufferings in the sea have taught him philosophies about death and life. He believes that death stick closely to him. Death follows him and wait for the right time to take life away from Pi. Realizing this, Pi is not afraid. Instead he takes death as something that comes with life.
When you’ve suffered a great deal in life, each traditional pain is both unbearable and trifling. My life is like a memento mori painting from European art: there is always a grinning skull at my side to remind me of the folly of human ambition. I mock this skull. I look at it and I say “You’ve got the wrong fellow. You may not believe in life, but I don’t believe in death. Move on!”…The reason death sticks so closely to life isn’t biological necessity –it’s envy. Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can (Martel, 2002: 6).
Pi accepts death as the complementation of life, but he refuses to die when he still can fight to avoid it. For Pi, life is so beautiful and he does not want death to take it away from him. Pi believes in life and miracle. His positive attitude and philosophy helps him to endure the physical and mental sufferings.
Pi’s spirituality also helps him to survive. His believe is God helps him to keep believing that he will survive one day. While being a castaway, he still practices his three religions every day. In page 240-241, where he elaborates his routine in the lifeboat, he says that he prays five times a day. It shows that Pi keeps up being a good Muslim by still practicing shalah in the precise time. His religious practice on the Ocean is adapted to the circumstance, as shown in the following quotation
…solitary Masses without priest or consecrated Communion hosts, darshans without murtis, and pujas with turtle meat for Prasad, acts of devotion to Allah not knowing where Mecca was and getting my Arabic wrong (Martel, 2002: 263).
Besides relying to God for salvation, he also is also independent in working for his survival. Pi is at first relying on the hope for the passing ship for survival. But then he lost hope that any ship will pass and rescue him. He then is determined to come to a land for his survival. His attitude of the survival by the passing ship can be seen from the quotations below
I had to stop hoping so much that a ship would rescue me. I should not count on outside help. Survival had to start with me. In my experience, a castaway’s worst mistake is to hope too much and to do too little. Survival starts by paying attention to what is close at hand and immediate. To look out with idle hope is tantamount to dreaming one’s life away (Martel, 2002: 212).
At first, looking out for a ship was something I did all the time, compulsively. But after a few weeks, five or six, I stopped doing it nearly entirely. (Martel, 2002: 242)
What chance was there that a ship crossing the whole great big Pacific would cut into such a tiny circle? Not only that: that it would cut into such a tiny circle and see me –what chance was there of that? No, humanity and its unreliable ways could not be counted upon. It was land I had to reach, hard, firm, certain land (Martel, 2002: 252)
His belief comes true when he lands in the coast of Tomatlán, Mexico in February 14th 1978. His first expression when he is rescued by the people in the coast is weeping. He cries because, besides feeling extremely happy of having survived his ordeal and being helped by human, he feels sad and hurt because Richard Parker leaves him so unceremoniously (Martel, 2002: 360). The tiger jumps from the lifeboat to the coast and goes straight to the jungle nearby. Pi wishes he can say goodbye to the tiger first in a way that can make the tiger remember him for his life before the tiger leaves him forever. He also wants to say his gratitude because the tiger has helped Pi to survive in the tiger’s unique own way. The quotation below shows what Pi wants to say to the tiger
I wish so much that I’d had one last look at him in the lifeboat, that I provoked him a little, so that I was on his mind. I wish I had said to him then –yes, I know, to a tiger, but still –I wish I had said, “Richard Parker, it’s over. We have survived. Can you believe it? I owe you more gratitude than I can express. I couldn’t have done it without you. Thank you for saving my life. And now go where you must. You have known the confined boredom of a zoo most of your life; now you will know the free confinement of a jungle. I wish you all the best with it. Watch out for Man. He is not you friend. But I hope you will remember me as a friend. I will never forget you, that is certain. You will always be with me, in my heart. What is that hiss? Ah our boat has touched sand. So farewell, Richard Parker, farewell. God be with you” (Martel, 20002: 361).
What disturbs Pi most of this unsaid goodbye is the unharmonious of the order. Pi says he is a person who really believes in order. He wants something to end when it is the time to end. Even, he wants a novel about his story to be written in exactly a hundred chapters. He says
I am a person who believes in form, in the harmony of order. Where we can, we must give things a meaningful shape. For example –I wonder –could you tell my jumbled story in exactly one hundred chapters, not one more, not one less? I’ll tell you, that’s one thing I hate about my nickname, the way that number runs on forever. It’s important in life to conclude things properly. Only then can you let go. Otherwise you are left with words you should have said but never did, and you heart is heavy with remorse. That bungled goodbye hurts me to this day (Martel, 2002: 360-361).
Probably we can relate this to his refusal to die. He does not want to end his life not properly. He still wants to do things in his life and put meanings in it. Therefore he does not want to bear the remorse if his life journey should end before he finishes it.
Fifteen days after his landing in Mexico, two staffs of the Japanese shipping company which issues the sinking ship come to him to inquire Pi about the wreck. They remember Pi as ‘very thin, very tough, very bright.’ He admits that Pi’s story is ‘an astounding story of courage and endurance in the face of extraordinarily difficult and tragic circumstances.’ (Martel, 2002: 400-401).
During the interview, Pi has shown the intention to collect food as if he does not want to starve again. Pi asks food from the staffs to eat and to be kept beneath his bed sheet (Martel, 2002: 368).
The interview with Pi is said to be difficult and memorable because of Pi’s extraordinary answers regarding his story. Pi considers his journey as ‘a terrible trip’ (Martel, 2009: 367). The staffs said that he is very impressionistic and ‘a tough nut to crack’. They do not believe Pi’s story, they think it is scientifically impossible. They do not believe that banana floats (When the ship wrecks, the orangutan arrives to the lifeboat on a ton of floating banana). Pi tells the staff to prove to themselves that bananas indeed float by giving them two bananas and tell them to put it in the sink full of water. The bananas float, and therefore Pi has scientifically proves to the staff that the story is true. Empirically proving a hypothesis is one of Pi’s qualities.
However, the staffs still do not believe about the floating island. They say it is botanically impossible and they believe only what they see. Regarding this, Pi says “…What will you do when you’re in the dark?” (Martel, 2002: 371). Pi says the floating island is as botanically impossible as the Japanese bonsai. When the staffs ask why there are no one else come upon the floating island, Pi says “It’s a big ocean crossed by busy ships. I went slowly, observing much.” (Martel, 2002: 371).
But what they do not believe most is the existence of Richard Parker as Pi’s companion. They say the story is not reasonable and hard to believe. At this point Pi bursts in a gentle anger. He says
“ If you stumble at mere believability, what are you living for? Isn’t love hard to believe?... Don’t you bully me with your politeness! Love is hard to believe, ask any lover. Life is hard to believe, ask any scientist. God is hard to believe, ask any believer. What is your problem with hard to believe?...I applied my reason at every moment. Reason is excellent for getting food, clothing, and shelter. Reason is the very best tool kit. Nothing beats reason for keeping tigers away. But be excessively reasonable and you risk throwing out the universe with the bathwater.” (Martel, 2002: 375)
Here Martel put the interview as if to show us the argument between reason and feeling, just like the argument between modernism and postmodernism. Here Pi states that although he relies on his reason to survive, using too much reason can risk us to waste the beauty of God’s existence just because our reason is limited to understand it.
However, the Japanese staffs still sticks in their modern narrow-mind and want another story that is believable and can be used as a report about the sinking of the ship. Pi says
“I know what you want. You want a story that won’t surprise you. That will confirm what you already know. That won’t make you see higher or further or differently. You want a flat story. An immobile story. You want dry, yeastless factuality.” (Martel, 2002: 381)
Here Martel wants to say that modern people only want another story, a dry, yeastless story of factuality that will confirm their reason. Martel then makes his character to makes up another story which is more realistic than the reality. This ‘other story’ is without animals in it. Pi replaces the animals in his real story into human characters, so that the zebra resembles a Taiwanese sailor, the orangutan resembles his mother, Gita Patel, the hyena resembles the French man he meets when he is blind, and Richard Parker resembles Pi. In this story, the French man kills Pi’s mother and the sailor, just like the hyena kills the zebra and the orangutan. Afterwards Pi kills the French man, just like Richard Parker kills the hyena.
The staffs believe in this second story, but they say that the first story, the story with animals is the better story (Martel, 398-399). Regarding this, Pi says “…And do so it goes with God.” (Martel, 2002: 399). Here Pi wants to say that although God is hard to believe, just like his story with Richard Parker and the animals, the story with God in it is the better story.
Pi stays in Mexico to recover his health. Afterwards he decides to continue to Canada. He does not want to go back to India, because there is nothing there for Pi but sad memories (Martel, 2002: 399). Pi relies on the goodness of people in Mexico and Canada, so that “…from the beach in Mexico to the home of my foster mother to the classrooms of the University of Toronto, there was only one long, easy corridor I had to walk down.” (Martel, 2002: 362).
In Canada Pi finishes high school in St. Michael College where he is tops for four years in a row, proving that he is indeed admitted as an intelligent student that he is always be the best student even in the Canadian education standard (Martel, 2002: 6). Afterwards, he continues to University of Toronto where he takes to majors: zoology and religious studies. Pi says his atheist Biology teacher and the humble Muslim baker he knows in India has inspired him to take the two majors (Martel, 2002: 78). He gets all the awards offered by the departments, which again confirms his intelligence. He loves his fellow scientist who is atheists and religious studies students who are agnostics. Pi still continues his strange religious practice. Someday in the middle of Canadian snow, he even gets a Marian Apparition, a phenomenon only gotten by true Catholics (Martel, 2002: 79).
Pi gets a job that he does not want to talk about except that “…tie is a noose…” (Martel, 2002: 7). He marries an Indo-Canadian pharmacist named Meena in a Hindu wedding. They have two children, a son named Nikhil and a daughter named Usha. They live in a house that is decorated like a temple of three different religions (Martel, 2002: 56-58). Although he has been settled down, the pain of his experience in the sea cannot leave him. Pi still see Richard Parker in his dreams (Martel, 2002: 7). Pi also seems like not want to be starving again. He develops the nature to be obsessive with food. He fulfills his cupboards with food. He neatly stores cans and packages of food behind every door and on every shelf… “A reserve of food to last the siege of Leningrad.” In the other hand, Pi has gone back to vegetarianism. His obsession to food also has led him to be an excellent cook (Martel, 2002: 31).
When Pi is forty, he meets a writer who wants to make a novel about his story, and the result is the very novel used as the object of this study. This is only another joke by Martel that he wants to make this story sounds real. Actually, the whole story is just Martel’s fantasy.
After studying the life timeline of the main character, we can see the characteristics of Pi. As what has been elaborated, he is a vegetarian Indian boy who is bookish, observant, and religious. He is humble, intelligent, courageous, and love to learn and study. He believes in life, God, and miracle. His qualities help him to find a peace of mind when he encounters the three religions and helps him to survive his trial while being casted away in the ocean.
omg gissa.. kamu masukin thesis cobalah.. hahahah! sampe bab-babnya. yahut bangetttt >_<
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