Life of Pi: Suffering, Doubt, Faith, and Life

SPOILER ALERT: YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!!!

How do we grasp our suffering? In what ways do we justify events that have only left trauma and hardship? An early scene in Ang Lee's Life of Pi had Pi ask a priest why would God place his only son on earth to suffer and die for sinners? The priest responds that it's because God loves us all. He then goes on to explain that we cannot understand all of God's perfection. Later, Pi's mother tells him a Hindu tale of the boy Krishna who eats too many fruits against the will of his brothers and when his mother peers into his mouth she sees the whole universe. The short story can be found here. Religion has a way of explaining such infinite concepts.

At the heart of Life of Pi there is the wondrous observation of human understanding of suffering. Moreover, it reveals how we come to terms and interpret suffering. Under a religious context, the film can be read as a parable, or a myth, or even a passion. Whatever it is, the film is told through the same essence as all religion is constructed around, the balance between faith and doubt.

Religion is practiced through faith and its influence is judged by the extent an individual's faith will go to understand a story, or rather, an interpretation of a symbolic story (this a very vague description, I know, but it is sufficient for what this film expresses). It is up to the individual to cast faith or cast doubt upon a certain interpretation of a concept. It is then we take these stories and interpretations and lay them upon the unknowns of our lives and our universe, connecting . This is governed by our emotions, our satisfaction, guilt, and happiness.

Pi's story of survival reaches right down to the roots of religion, making it more than just religious, but fundamentally human. That is why it is important that he explores three religions: Christianity, Islam, and Hindu. Roger Ebert in his review states how Pi seems to be limitless in curiosity, hence his limitless name (in the mathematical sense). This limitless nature is wedded with the search for God's love, which, in a sense, is limitless (both the search and the love according to many religions). Here is a narrative laying out the fundamentals of practicing faith through life. Throughout his journey, Pi's faith was tested and his doubt crept in. There were multiple occasions where Pi's story was said to, "make you believe in God." In a sense, the journey is what one would take to believe in God, to maintain such faith. One must face doubt and temptation in order to reaffirm their faith (just like Christ's temptation in the desert, so scathingly depicted in Martin Scorsese's film).

The film, similarly, is about how an individual perceives their religion or why they choose to follow a religion. I feel it is suffice to say that religion internalizes what we feel from our surroundings into some symbolic concept whether it is rooted in some rationalization or not. Pi's father asks him to think rationally and to use reason, but reason cannot ease the mystery that surrounds suffering, life, and death. Religion uses symbols and morally structured narratives to create some sort of comprehension of human nature, comprehension of a reality that may be difficult to understand otherwise. Through this, we need to look at the ending, which came as an intense surprise to me as it opened a whole new avenue to explore thematically. I feel this is where many people feel one way or the other about not just the ending but the film as a whole. It is understandable, especially when one does not expect such a revelation. Yet, this is exactly how it should end if the story wants to remain consistent thematically. Consider this, if the film was the same fantastical adventure but ended when they reached shore, we will only have a metaphorical adventure with religious connotations. For example sake (I don't actually think this), Richard Parker could represent God and Pi represents the struggle to find him in some comprehensible form. That would be it. But this film is not just about the allegory or metaphor. Remember, this film is about the essence of faith and doubt and why we look towards religion in the first place. This metaphor must be placed in a context of a much larger reality because religion does not occupy the totality of our perception of reality; there must be a motivation to pursue a religion or to explore spirituality. The essence of faith within an individual does not start from nothing but from an outside component that entices the growth of faith (or doubt, for that matter).

Pi's choice to tell the author the other story creates not only has us investigate the truthfulness of both stories but it also opens a window to the psychological complexity of Pi, himself. His willingness to change stories when demanded by the Japanese as well as his allowance for the author to choose the story to believe him is indicative to his letting go of his painful past and highlighting the act of survival and his second chance of life... think. I'm hesitant because there are a number of reasons for the two stories: which is organized in this intriguing review. Nevertheless, this sort of uncertainty connects back to the essence of religion, the balance between faith and doubt. No matter the origin, there is still a choice to take the story we witnessed to be endowed with human truth. We accept its truth through faith not because there are concrete facts and evidence to back it up. The film asks the audience to come to a conclusion of what we think is true.

Yes, there are many things to say about an unreliable narrator and the authenticity of his accounts, but I feel that is inferior to the larger theme of the film. Regardless, we go through our lives looking back the past trying to contemplate a comprehensible meaning to the events that have unfolded. We look upon stories, people, and many other things to help us understand our own existence, suffering, and happiness. Jesus's story is such a story we connect our guilt with as well as unconditional love. Through the ages it has been embellished here and there and many interpretations have been given on specific elements. In a sense, it is just as unreliable as Pi is as a narrator for the film. But we use faith as our vehicle to understanding the mysteries that surround us or as a coping mechanism to let go of the past and to continue into the jungle. In addition, it hinders a certain lack of control of the this chaotic world; Pi, under desperation, uses this to regain control and does so so much to create a story of symbols embellished over a harsher reality.

The film, I feel, is a beautiful and tantamount parable of humanity and spirituality. Maybe I am biased that it delves into contemplation on human nature akin to Ikiru, Red Beard, The Passion of Joan of Arc, The Miracle Worker, Gates of Heaven and Tokyo Story. Even more so, this is a great companion film to the experimental documentaries of Ron Fricke, Baraka and Samsara, which observe the fragile position humanity has in the limitless universe and how we are all connected together by our attempt to understand our desires and struggles through religion and spirituality. So, if you enjoyed this film, those films are in the same humanist vein and are all profound on their own right.

Life of Pi is simply kaleidoscopic and Ang Lee embraces the subject matter with curiosity and wonderment. I wish I could talk about the dazzling cinematography and the use of 3D, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I'll save that for when I get my hands on the film.

PS: Here are other hings to look into if you are interested in the film's subject matter:

• Joseph Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces and The Power of Myth
• Gary Zukav's The Dancing Wu Li Masters which combines quantum physics with mysticism.
• I feel that if we had modern myths about our place in the universe, 2001: A Space Odyssey is one.
• Graham Greene's masterpiece The Power and the Glory is a great humanist work regarding religion and communism.