Life of Pi- Religion?

As mention in the post "who's Pi?", Pi is a religious man. He has his Bachelors degree in religious studies. Pi was born with a Hindu background. He went to a temple for the first time when he was little with his aunt. Hinduism has kind of always been a part of Pi, even though I'm not sure how seriously he took it since he was quite young. At the age of 14, he opens his eyes to Catholicism/Christianity. He speaks to a priest, constantly questions why this "Son of God" would sacrifice himself for other people's sins, then realizes that the more he questions and doubts this religion, the more he wants to learn about it. At the end, he goes to the priest and tells him that he wants to become Christian. At the age of 16, he sees religious practices of Muslim through Mr. Kumar, a baker he randomly runs into. He sees these practices as beautiful, down to earth, holy and meaningful. Problem occurs when Pi and his family are out and runs in to all three "wise men". Soon, when the priest, imam, and pandit find out that Pi follows three different religions, they start arguing about their beliefs and feel quite betrayed by Pi. When Pi is put on the spot, he quotes Gandhi- "All religions are true" and states that "[he] just wants to love God". This closes the case for that day, but his parents constantly questions Pi's seriousness towards his beliefs in several religions, and believe that Pi's just going through a phase.

Personally, even though I do believe that Pi has every right to believe in whatever he wants to, I don't necessarily support the idea of following more that one religion. I am more familiar with Christianity than any other religions that Pi follows, and I know for a fact that in the Bible it says not to follow any other gods before Him. That wouldn't matter if he chose to just follow Hinduism or Muslim, but it seems to me like he's not taking any of his religions seriously. If you compared religion to relationship, it would be like him, having three different girlfriends because he loves different aspects of all three of them. Religion takes commitment, and it seems like that's not very committing to any of the religions he's following.

But that's just my idea, Pi has his reasons. 

Life of Pi- the most dangerous animal

Which animal, do you think, is the most dangerous animal at a zoo? 

A Tiger? Lion? Bear? or maybe even an ostrich?.. 

Wrong. The most dangerous type of "animals" at a zoo, at any zoo, is humans. I bet you weren't expecting that. In the book, Pi tells us about how sinical and thoughtless humans can be. There have been many cases where humans have killed animals at zoos unintentionally and intentionally. Is this true? I don't know, but that's how the books claims to be. When I was little, I remember going to a zoo, and getting in trouble for feeding a lamb by one of the employees. It clearly said in bold letters "do not feed the animals", so it was obviously my fault.  Next time I went to a zoo, I knew better. I knew better not to get caught and be more stealthy. I was not a sinical child, I just didn't understand why I wasn't allowed to feed them. It made me feel happy and achieved as the animals gratefully ate the food I was giving them. They were so cute, peacefully eating any food they're given with no complaints. I'm not sure why, but I got a joy out of providing food for the animals that were being caged in everyday of their lives. I never realized, that feeding them could actually harm them in any way. If a person gives them food, like me, that they cannot digest for some reason, they can suffer for weeks. Constant barfing and not being able to eat any other food for a certain period of time, they become extremely weak, also effecting their immune system. You can now probably see why this could become a problem. You know what's worse? Some people tend to think that animals can digest anything. Feeding them coins, paper, etc.. There has even been a case where someone fed an aniaml a nail. Yes, a nail that we use to hang something up on the wall. This animal ended up suffering for a long time and dying. Because of that one little thing some thoughtless persond fed, it thinking it's funny. Well, think about it. How would you feel if somebody tried to feed you a nail? How would your body react if you shoved a nail down your throat? 

We, humans, have far more intelligence and common sense than any other creature on this planet. Let's use our intelligence and common sense, I insist. 

Relating to Pi (in an odd way)

  

  As I have already mentioned in my previous post (Who's Pi?), Pi's real name is Piscine. Piscine Molitor Patel, his uncles favorite swimming pool in France. Because this is an odd name, people have had difficulties spelling and pronouncing his name properly. Some thought his name was spelled P.Singh, and thought he was a Sikh (also wondered why he wasn't wearing a turban). Then, it happened when he was twelve- the name calling.

   He had just arrived at the schoolyard one morning, and a boy his age suddenly had a flash of evil light up his dull mind. He pointed at Pi, and shouted, "It's Pissing Patel!". Of course, everyone laughed at this joke, seeing how they were twelve (to be honest, people my age would  laugh at this too), and this was the beginning. Kids would constantly crack up jokes about his name like "You're facing the wall. Are you Pissing?"or "Where's Pissing? I've got to go." You can probably imagine how mortifying and annoying it would be to hear those jokes every single day, about something that's not your fault or that you can't help.

   Well, Pi was a smart kid. When he went to secondary school, he knew what to do. On the first day of school, all new classes started, and students took turns saying their names out loud. Pi had been anticipating this moment. When it was his turn, he got up with out hesitation, ran to the blackboard and wrote, 

My name is Piscine Molitor Patel, known to all as 

Pi Patel. 

  And with that, he ended the constant teasing of his name. Why is the title of this post "Relating to Pi" when I'm only writing about how Pi came up with his own new nickname? If you know my name, you would realize why I can relate to this. The name Eunsol is a pretty average, normal name in Korea, also the hardest word to pronounce in Canada. I moved here in grade 5, not realizing that my name would become a problem. No, I never really got teased for my name, but the biggest problem with me meeting new people is the introducing my name part. I already know I would have to say it over and over again, only to repeat it for them again when I see them later. That's my biggest regret, not making an English name for myself when I moved here. So in that sense, I am pretty jealous and impressed with Pi for coming up with such idea, and not just accepting the teasing as what he has to put up with for the rest of his life. Good job Pi.

Life of Pi - A little ranting won't harm

   Let me just warn you beforehand, that this is going to be the most pointless blog post that I have ever written. This is basically going to be a short rant about the book that I'm reading, "Life of Pi" from MY personal point of view. Do not assume that I'm speaking for anybody else, because I'm really not. 

   First of all, this is the post I was supposed to write this Tuesday, February 12th. 
Well, since I had 5 projects all due in that same week (I never seem to be able to get over that), I haven't been able to make much progress of reading further on. Yes, I know, that is my fault. Some may say that I need to manage my time better, some may say "there's never not enough time to read a book", and I agree. Don't get me wrong, I can be a huge book worm too. Once I get really into a book, I will not eat, go to the washroom, or even get out of my bed until I finish it. I have done it many times when I got myself some good books. But Life of Pi..? This book is getting a tad difficult to get myself absorbed into. Even if I have time to read it, I can't find myself looking for the book to read it because I truly want to, but because I have to, in order to keep up with all the overwhelming media parts of the project that I have to contribute to. I still don't fully understand what's going on in the book. I am the editor of this week, and I have no idea what to write about, because I haven't been able to find enough interest to continue on with the book. Now with the root of our group, Sabrina, gone, I'm not sure if I can keep up with this journey as well I should. 

Life of Pi- who's Pi?

So far, I have finished reading up until chapter 3. I know, I should start really start reading faster. But it's so hard getting into the story when the beginning of the book is, what can I say- a bit boring.. In the first three chapters, there hasn't been any event, or anything exciting yet. Martel focused mainly on explaining the character "Pi", mainly through Pi telling stories about himself. 

Pi seems to be a very intelligent person, maybe even a genius. In the first paragraph, Pi starts explaining about his education. He attended University of Toronto only after one year of high school. He took a double major Bachelor's degree, which were religious studies and zoology. In zoology, he focused his studies on sloths. He was tops at St. Michael's College four years in a row, and got every possible student award from the Department of Zoology. We can clearly tell that Pi is an extremely smart guy, and a very good student. 

Pi is from India. He misses the heat, the food, and small things in everyday life from India. but he loves Canada too. 

Pi is small, slim, about five foot five. He has hair graying at the temples, but he's not any older than forty. He has pleasing coffee-colored complexion and an expressive face.

The name "Pi" comes from the word "Piscine". Piscine might sound familiar to some people, as "la piscine" means swimming pool in French. His uncle Mamaji was a champion competitive swimmer, and had quite the passion for swimming. His favorite pool in France, the Piscine Molitor is a pool that Mamaji would never forget, and his nephew was named after this pool. Piscine Molitor Patel- Pi. 

"Life of Pi" -what am I getting myself into..

     For my English project on studying Canadian novels , I chose to read the book "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel. This book has recently come out as a movie and has gotten several good reviews. 

That is the main reason why I chose this book. When books are made into movies, that's  usually an indication that the books are bound to have interesting plot lines. 

I have only read the first few pages of the book, so I honestly have no idea what to respect. However, I hope to learn Martel's point of view of life, and what message he has to deliver through this famous book. I am also interested to find out what kind of role the tiger from the front cover plays in this book as well - it's  intriguing to see a wild animal like the tiger and a man standing on a boat together, not being slaughtered.

Based on only the first few pages I was able to read, for now, I want to set my inquiry question on religion. Pi has his majors in zoology as well as religious studies from University of Toronto. Pi is a religious man. I don't really know how religion will take part in life of Pi, or if it will at all, but there must have been some incident, while growing up, that led him to choose to major in religious studies. So I'd like to think that it's relevant to a certain degree. 

Why is religion such a loved and despised subject? Why does it spark up such big debates, arguments, conflicts and even wars? What is religion in our society and to us human beings? 

How did it affect "Life of Pi" ?