Elements which make "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel a good book.

Essay by iamdacoolHigh School, 10th grade February 2006

download word file, 2 pages 4.0

Downloaded 41 times

"Life of Pi" is a great book, which has many interesting elements. Some of these elements include religion, animals and satire. The author, Yann Martel, allows the readers to soak into the rich insight regarding these elements, which is suitable to all kinds of readers.

The first element portrayed in this book is religion. One aspect of religion exposed in this book, is through Pi. Pi sees religion as a light, which can guide and help you succeed in life. This is evident through Pi's comments, "Religion will save us," (29) and "Religion is light, " (30). Another aspect of religion revealed in this novel, is through Mr. Kummar. He considers religion to be negative and non-existent. This view is illustrated through his statements, "Religion is darkness," (29), "... a little scientific knowledge will expose religion as a superstitious bosh, (30), and "God does not exist," (30).

These different views of religion help make the story more interesting for both atheists and readers that believe in religion. Also, exposure to more than one region helps make the book more educational and universal to readers. Much can be learned and many common stereotypes are revealed as falsehoods.

The second element which makes "Life of Pi" a good book is animals. In this novel, animals continuously interact with the human characters and are persistently present throughout the plot. Animals make this book more appealing because of their likeness to humans. For example, animals are shown to have similar reactions to fear. This shown through Pi's observation, "... animals don't escape to somewhere but from something," (45). Humans act the same way; they don't escape or leave from a place unless some thing in their territory or dwelling is overpowering them. Another example of a similarity between humans...