Spoilers Saturday: Life of Pi

Here we are, on this glorious Saturday, gathered to read my critical thinking and whatnot. So sit down, and grab a Capri-sun. Don't worry, I'll wait until you get the damn straw in (I hate those things).

I know this is based on a book, and was pretty well translated, but I may go back and read it after seeing this. Both the story itself and the cinematography rocked my world, and opened my mind in a somewhat dark way.

You can find the book here on Amazon.

You can the film here on IMDB.

• An aspiring Canadian author interviews the Indian storyteller Pi Patel to hear the firsthand account of his adventures. Pi recounts his upbringing in French-occupied India, where his father owned a zoo. When Pi's family business fails, they embark on a sea voyage to Canada to begin a new life. One night aboard their Japanese cargo ship in the middle of the ocean, a deadly storm hits and sinks nearly all that Pi holds dear. He survives in a lifeboat with several of their zoo animals, including a fearsome Bengal tiger. In a struggle to survive, Pi and the tiger forge an unexpected connection that gives him daily motivation to live.
  - Written by Andrew Klay

 While the contributor to IMDB sums up the basic action of the movie, he doesn't even come close to capturing the spiritual journey within the story.

Pi Patel sets the stage for his lengthy introspection with the origin if his moralities, and his relationship with God. As a child, he encountered God in many religions and found the beauty and spiritual cleanliness in all of them. He tried his best to find a way to be on of all of these paths to God, calling himself a Muslim Hindu Catholic at one point. Pi the child craved nothing more than to reach God and live His plan for him.

He goes on like this for many years, compassionate to the world in his spirit. He wants to believe everyone and everything has a soul, innately good and kind, and his father does everything he can to keep his feet on the ground with logic, trying to brace Pi against the callous, animal ways of the world.

Pi sees his first dose of unwarranted cruelty on the cargo ship to Canada, in which the cook and crew resent Pi's family and treat them as inconvenient cargo.A storm hits, and Pi is drawn to it, wanting to face God in his stormy power. In his testing Him, the ship sinks, along with his family and sense of safety.

Pi is on his own, in a paltry lifeboat, soon joined by a maimed zebra, a mourning chimp, a vicious hyena, and an ambiguous tiger.

He encounters another jarring instance of cruelty when the hyena gorges on the live zebra, prioritizing it's own hunger over the zebra's survival. Pi cannot stand the cold disregard of life, the compassionless use of the zebra's body, but is still too kind to hurt the hyena, to stop it from the relentless murder in his eyes. 

Soon the hyena turns its ravenous violence towards the chimpanzee. She is able to fight back, as Pi again sits back, helplessly paralyzed by the violence. The hyena overpowers her too, but is cut short by the late-appearing tiger, Richard Parker, who powerfully delivers the hyena's comeuppance.

Pi rejoices this "victory," beginning to question the equality and value of lives. Days pass, and hunger begins to take its toll on both Pi and Richard Parker. Pi has never taken a life, even in putting food on the table, and is hesitant to do so, weighing their two lives against his ethics.

Richard Parker begins to resort to his nature, ungraciously considering Pi an easy meal despite protecting him from the tumultuous ocean and death.

Pi finally kills his first fish, hoping to belay Richard Parker's hunger. Overpowered with guilt, and relief, Pi thanks his God for providing, hoping the ends will justify his barbaric means, and that he won't lose sight of his morals.

Pi carries on, day and night, building a routine and motivation to survive. He cannot let Richard Parker die, not after what he's done to save him. The killing of these living creatures must have a meaning.

After a time of repetitious days, and fudging his ethics more and more to live, they land on an unusually lush island, brimming with life and the promise of an end.

At last, they can really live, instead of fighting to survive. Everything they need is on this surreal island in its complete safety and comfort. Pi knows he will stay there forever, alone but living easily, relaxed in who he is,

until one night he realizes the true nature of this island.

It kills and consumes, and will feed on Pi's complacency. He sees who and what he has become, how far has has slipped in his compromises, and he is horrified.

Pi cannot continue in this place, this state of being. He has to change, and move on from this ever consuming place. He decides to gather resources, and Richard Parker, and they embark again, moving forward in search of fellow man and kindred hearts.

At the edge of giving up all hope of reaching humanity, they finally reach the coast of Mexico. Pi drags the ship and Richard Parker to shore with his final strength, desperate not to be swept away so easily from the redemption in front of them.

They make it to shore, soon found by a local family. Pi is exhausted, but jubilant, looking to Richard Parker for what surely would be mutual celebration upon reaching this final place of civilization. But this tiger is still a tiger, despite their journeys, and despite his human name of Richard Parker. And because of this, Richard Parker lopes away, carrying on as merely a tiger, with animal needs, and no place for humanity.

Pi is broken, unable to accept that after this journey of his soul battling itself, that any creature could come out of it the same as it went in. Surely Richard Parker must have been affected? Didn't he feel the bond of survival, of mutual need that kept them alive? He didn't care at all. He wasn't human. He wasn't moved as Pi was.

It is now that Pi accepts the facets of humanity, of the world, of God in our hearts. He has knowledge of life, of living, of carnal needs, and the torment of the soul. He has fallen at the hands of the human condition, and had to face his own immorality, and no one will ever truly know the truths of his path except a tiger who couldn't care less.