Quote 1
[Pi:] "Religion will save us," I said. Since when I could remember, religions had always been close to my heart.
"Religion?" Mr. Kumar grinned broadly. "I don't believe in religion. Religion is darkness."
Darkness? I was puzzled. I thought, Darkness is the last thing that religion is. Religion is light. Was he testing me? Was he saying, "Religion is darkness," the way he sometimes said in class things like "Mammals lay eggs," to see if someone would correct him? ("Only platypuses, sir.") (1.7.9-11)
For the first time, Pi learns his biology teacher, Mr. Kumar, is an atheist. Certainly Mr. Kumar confuses Pi. Mr. Kumar extols the virtues of science (see Themes: Science 1.7.12 and 1.7.16) and, on some level, convinces Pi. For Pi, however, the light of science doesn't cancel out the light of religion. Both coexist and simply shed more light on his world.
Quote 2
"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." (3.99.224)
The Japanese investigators don't believe Pi's story. However, Pi responds in a surprising way: factuality only confirms what we already know. A story, however, makes us "see higher or further or differently." Notice also the adjectives "dry" and "yeastless" (3.99.224). A good story, according to Pi, expands and rises like bread. Sounds like a valuable commodity given that our narrator barely survived starvation.
[Pi:] "So tell me, since it makes no factual difference to you and you can't prove the question either way, which story do you prefer? Which is the better story, the story with animals or the story without animals?"
Mr. Okamoto: "That's an interesting question..."
Mr. Chiba: "The story with animals."
Mr. Okamoto: "Yes. The story with the animals is the better story."
Pi Patel: "Thank you. And so it goes with God." (3.99.429-33)
Whoa. Mr. Pi Patel moves pretty quick here. Pi has said plenty already about how we interpret reality anyway and how we might as well choose the better story. But Pi – our clever sampler of world religions – takes it a step further. He argues a world with God makes a better story than a world without God. In cases where we have no definite proof, Pi says the best fiction is the best reality. Is Pi pulling a fancy trick? Or does he have a point?
Quote 4
I was giving up. 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. 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." (2.53.5)
Each day Pi survives is a miracle. We watch as Pi's daily routine of survival takes on the quality of spiritual exercises like prayer or fasting. His feasts, especially turtle blood, become sacramental. The everyday – at least if you're on a lifeboat for 227 days – is miraculous.
Quote 5
"Praise be to 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. (2.85.6)
Lightning has just struck the ocean. It is fantastic. One infinite thing – the sky – has come in contact with the seemingly infinite ocean. Earlier, Pi describes (see Themes: Religion 1.16.48) the way the divine in humans seeks the divine in nature. He gets giddy about the connection between the spiritual force within him touching the spiritual force of God, which is expressed in animals, trees, or a handful of earth. We're not sure Richard Parker is as amused.
[Pi:] "The arrogance of you big-city folk! You grant your metropolises all the animals of Eden, buy you deny my hamlet the merest Bengal tiger!"
[Mr. Okamoto:] "Mr. Patel, please calm down."
[Pi:] "If you stumble at mere believability, what are you living for? Isn't love hard to believe?"
[Mr. Okamoto:] "Mr. Patel – "
[Pi:] "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?" (3.99.109-113)
Pi loves to argue with Mr. Okamoto and Mr. Chiba (well, mainly with Mr. Okamoto). Mr. Okamoto and Mr. Chiba doubt Pi's story, which really insults Pi. In response, Pi asserts one of the guiding principles of his life. The most beautiful and important experiences are "hard to believe," but that doesn't mean they're illusions. Love and God are hard to believe. The existence of human beings also seems like a miracle. Whether or not Mr. Okamoto and Mr. Chiba agree with the rest of what Pi says, Pi's own existence – at this point – is a miracle.
[Pi to Mr. Okamoto and Mr. Chiba:] "What you don't realize is that we are a strange and forbidding species to wild animals. We fill them with fear. They avoid as much as possible. It took centuries to still the fear in some pliable animals – domestication it's called – but most cannot get over their fear, and I doubt they ever will. When wild animals fight us, it is out of sheer desperation. They fight when they feel they have no other way out. It's a very last resort. (3.99.105)
Pi considers – not for the first time – the fear he must have inspired in Richard Parker. And the fear human beings must inspire in all animals. And why not? Human beings, in Life of Pi, certainly are "a strange and forbidding species" (3.99.105). Their derangement causes them to needlessly kill each other, kill animals in zoos, eat each other, and demand that Pi settle on a way of worshipping God. Literature itself might be one great attempt to understand our weirdness.
Quote 8
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!" (1.1.11)
A "memento mori" is an object – such as a skull – used to remind us of death. We know, we know: European art can be so gloomy. Here Pi says his own life has become a memento mori painting. Meaning, the events of his life only seem to remind him of death. But Pi doesn't stop there. True to form, Pi mocks his memento mori and says he doesn't "believe in death." Can you blame him? He survived for 227 days on the ocean. Death be not proud and all that.