Life of Pi Essay

Seeing Isn't Believing

In the novel Life of Pi, Pi shows that believing is something that comes from inside; sometimes it can take a while to find enough comfort and courage to truly believe in something besides the facts. Some people have a difficult time putting all their trust in something that they are not totally sure of, or something that they can't "see". To believe, you don't have to see--just take a leap of faith and trust that someone, or something, will help you along your journey.

While on the ocean, Pi ran into another blind man on a lifeboat--who seemed to be the light at the end of his tunnel. This man turned out to be a greedy, corrupt person who wanted to take advantage of Pi. In reality, the chances of finding someone in the middle of the ocean is very rare. Pi realized this when he heard the man's voice and thought that he had lost his mind. "I concluded that I had gone mad. Sad but true. Misery loves company, and madness calls it forth." (pg. 242) Even Pi knew of these chances--but because belief is a crucial theme in this novel, Yann Martel placed this other man in the ocean to show what can happen to people who truly believe.

While there are rare chances proven by facts, some people just don't believe things because they have never experienced them--like the two men that Pi talked to in the hospital. "'Tigers exist, lifeboats exist, oceans exist. Because the three have never come together in your narrow, limited experience, you refuse to believe that they might. Yet the plain fact is that the Tsimtsum brought them together and then sank." (pg. 299) Many people in our world are like these Japanese insurance agents--they don't trust that things could happen. These men live in their own worlds with their own conventions and refuse to explore new possibilities. Although many people in our world are like these men, some also fear becoming one, and the only way not to is to trust your instincts, follow your heart, and just believe.

Everyone believes that their own religion is the "right" or "true" one to follow, when in fact, there isn't just one. Muslims think it's Muslim, Hindi people think it's Hindu, and Christians think it's Christian. Pi wasn't raised with a religious background, and when he was old enough he decided to take a chance with these three religions. He believed in all of them and wanted to accept each one with its full potential . Even though many people must see things to believe them, religion is almost a given. Take the Christian religion for example. We follow God, the one and only, according to us. He helps us through dark times, finds us when we are lost, and saves us from evil. Believing is vital to religion; most of the leaders are not visible to the eyes, but to the hearts of those who believe.

When trying to discover the truth, or what we believe is the truth, we get caught up in the facts and can completely lose our beliefs. TV shows claim that they will find the "real thing" by looking at pure facts that they can find about the subject. While, in reality, sometimes believing is worth much more than seeing. If we start believing what's on TV, we can lose our conventions, which shape our lives greatly. Some people would argue that losing all conventions could deeply help our world; this is true in a few ways. When Pi lost his conventions, he showed how this dramatic change can influence your life in a positive way. Though, the negative side is if everyone on this planet left their old lives to find new ones, our world would become an insane, lost place. Everyone would become the same: same looks, same feelings, same actions.

Pi realized that believing is not about seeing when he was placed in a situation where he was forced to believe things that he couldn't "see". With our world becoming more and more corrupt every moment, nobody can find room in their hearts to trust or believe in something that's not conspicuous. Believing is an action that you have to truly complete with all your mind, all your soul, and all your heart.