In literature, the extent of the characters circumstances or external forces can compel the character to confront his or hers moral beliefs. Ones who are forced upon to challenge his or hers moral beliefs due to the circumstances or external forces, would need to reconsider whether to continue listening to their beliefs, or to push it aside for the time being. In Yann Martel's Life of Pi , Pi Patel, the narrator, does confront his moral belief in order to survive through the journey of the pacific ocean. At the beginning of this long journey, Pi's first confrontation was to set a side his religious hinduism acts of being a vegetarian. As days pass and supplies slowly deducting, Pi was soon forced to hunt and kill animals; pushing aside his muslim religion in order to survive from starvation. The greatest challenge for Pi during his survival, was whether the existence for his love in god shall still rest in his heart or as Pi would say: be lost "along life's way"(p.51).
English: Canadian Booker prize-winning author Yann...
English: Yann Martel Canadian author, writer of Ma...
Beatrice and VirgilAlthough it was hard for Pi to go on against his moral beliefs, it was the characters confrontations that allowed Pi to have survived from his exceptional circumstances.
The circumstances of being stranded on a life boat, changed Pi's eating habits;from a religious vegetarian, to a savage meat eater. As a young religious boy who loved god and studied the religion of hinduism,christianity and Islam, the acts of being a vegetarian is essential to Pi which allowed him to portray his faith towards being a hindu. Because religion had been with Pi ever since he was a small baby, his love for god, as Pi would say:"[is like] a germ of religious exaltation... [that] was sown in me and left to germinate.."(p.52). Since Pi was unexpectedly thrown...