Life of Pi 1

    Well, this book is certainly very strange. I haven't quite gotten the feel for it yet, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be looking for, but it's interesting. I find Pi's intrigue for animals very charming, and I find the use of Pi as a god-figure very beautiful. The "very bad thing" that happened to him aligns with the crucifixion of Christ and Pi's love of creatures aligns with Christ's love for all the things that He created. The comparison of the zoo to the wild is the comparison of Heaven to Earth, as Heaven is described in the Bible as a place of immense beauty and luxury where on Earth the soul is subject to any force nature imposes and evil is prominent around every corner.
  Pi is self conscious about his name, and he seems to have a passive nature so he uses his persistence to aquire what he wants- which is to be called "Pi" instead of "Piscine". By reciting "Pi" aloud as his preferred name on a regular basis, his classmates begin to follow his footsteps.
   I paid particular attention to the concept of religion being a method humans have developed to make their lives more meaningful, because that's so true. Having a religion fulfills our sense of self worth and place in the world.And Pi is very receptive to other people's religions, as long as they have some type of faith. He can't fathom a complete lack of spiritual belief. He is a firm believer of God, but doesn't limit himself to any one religion as he seeks out all different facets of God and his mysteries in the guidebooks of different religions.
 The talk about animals in the beginning is deeply significant to the story. Animals can be domesticated and trained but their true instincts never completely disappear. Those things are embedded deep into their entire makeup and were intended by their Creator to be used. Humans are the same way; the second the ambulance or police become unavailable, a human's true colors will show as well. People are primitive creatures who have been socialized throughout millions of years and will also become territorial, lethal beings when desperate or provoked.
   I noticed a very peculiar argument in this story. Pi explains his broad beliefs to his family by saying he "just wants to love God", and that he feels people who carry out acts of brutality and evil in the name of God don't understand religion. However, Islam is FULL of violence. Yes, the book of Islam may seemingly declare love and everything is all about love and love is all you need and so on and so forth, whatever. But if that is the case, then why is the Middle East attacking us with bombs and airplanes? Is that an act of love? Yes, they killed thousands of people on 9/11 because they love us. I'm sorry, I'm ranting, but the concept just made me question if maybe Pi doesn't really understand what Islam is? Maybe I don't completely understand everything about Islam, but I know that the folks in the Middle East wake up at the crack of dawn every morning and pray to Allah, which is supposedly "the same god", but I'm sorry I just don't think my God is telling them to come and blow us up. Out of love.
  Back to the book. I apologize. When Pi talks about 'zoomorphism', I couldn't help but compare his description of it as being kind of a 'religion for animals' because 'they also need stories to get through life'. Humans use religion as a means of finding peace in dealing with day to day struggles and pressures. Pi is saying here that animals do the same things by 'zoomorphism'.