Meaning of Life in the Life of Pi Movie

One may believe that the Life of Pi is just a movie about a boy’s story of losing his family, being lost on a boat for a significant amount of time and surviving. In actuality, this is a story of following a boy’s internal conflict to defeat his inner demons and reach dharma. We see that this transformation does not happen quickly, but rather it is a slow and confusing evolution to understand his meaning of life. It appears that being stuck on the life raff was a terrible accident that almost cost Pi his life.

In fact, Pi’s talks with God, finding the carnivorous island, and making amends with Richard Parker all indicate that the incident was vital for Pi to find his purpose and overcome his religious doubt.

At first glance, it would seem that Pi turns away from his religious beliefs while stuck on the life raff. After losing his family, Pi is left all alone to float across the Pacific Ocean. There are times when Pi believes he will never escape the inevitable circumstances he has been placed in and that the God he has believed in will not help him either. The first time we see Pi talk to his God is when he catches a fish in the ocean. He kills the fish and immediately starts to cry out, “Thank you, Lord Vishnu, thank you for coming in the form of a fish and saving our lives” (Lee). In the Hindu religion, it is believed that Vishnu came in various avatars in which he “came down to earth and saved it from a series of disasters” (Neave et al. 26). In that scene, he is turning to Vishnu and thanking him even though he is in a terrible predicament.

Later, during a horrific storm, Pi sees a small window of sunlight beaming through the storm clouds. He takes this as his chance to talk to God directly and says, “I surrender to you. What more do you want?” (Lee). The lighting in the scene is extremely dark and has a long shot camera view so you can see both Pi’s reaction and the seriousness of the storm. It shows the depth of the scene so the audience can understand the emotion behind Pi’s conversation with God. At this point, Pi is secure in his relationship with God because he gives everything to him and stops trying to take control of his own life. He then finishes the scene weakly by saying, “God, thank you for giving me my life. I am ready now.” (Lee). This further proves that Pi is fully invested in God. Even at his worst and close to death, Pi thanks Him and loves Him. But, as we come to find out, God is not ready to take Pi just yet. Pi still has things he needs to learn. With that, God sends his life boat to an island, one that is not meant to be a forever home for Pi.

An additional way we begin to see Pi finding his purpose in life is when his life boat crashes onto the carnivorous island. Here, we first see Pi weakly crawl onto the island and realize that the plants are edible. The viewer is getting a medium close-up shot, so we are able to see the satisfaction in Pi’s face that he is able to eat. He then goes on to explore the island and finds fresh water, shade, and a place to sleep. Everything Pi needs to survive is on this island so he begins to believe that this could be his new forever home. When he begins to lay down and go to sleep, he is awoken and sees the entire island glowing. Pi looks below and sees that the water he drank earlier is now toxic and killing all the fish. He finds a glowing lotus flower and opens it, finding a tooth. In the beginning of the movie, we hear Pi’s love interest, Anandhi, ask him, “Why would a lotus flower hide in a forest?” (Lee). In Hindu culture, a lotus flower represents faith and purity. When Pi finds it, it shows him that he cannot stay on the island and that his journey is far from over. It also demonstrates that the island was pivotal for Pi to come across so that he could find the lotus in the forest. He begins to understand that Vishnu gave him the island to eat, drink, and sleep but it was only a temporary stop on his journey to reaching dharma.

When Pi decides to leave the carnivorous island, we see that Richard Parker and Pi have made amends and are able to coexist for the rest of their journey. In the beginning when it was only Richard Parker and Pi on the boat, we see that Richard Parker tries to attack Pi every chance he gets. This causes Pi to build a raff off the boat and live in fear of Richard Parker in the beginning. We come to learn that Richard Parker metaphorically represents Pi’s inner demons and his dark side. There is a scene where Pi tries to display his dominance over Richard Parker by urinating on the life boat but Richard Parker in turn urinates on him. This shows how Pi is not yet strong enough in his faith to overcome his demons from the past. During a storm, Richard Parker falls off the boat and is unable to climb back on. Instead of letting him drown, Pi builds a ladder for him to climb back on. Pi understands that it is necessary for him to not bury his dark side, but to embrace it and overcome it.

After the terrible storm, Pi and Richard Parker are close to death and very weak. Pi lays Richard Parker’s head on his lap and embraces him. The camera gives us a medium shot with a bright background to represent Pi’s calmness with himself at this point, even as he’s close to death. It’s the point that Pi realizes his purpose and reaches dharma. He has embraced his inner demons and realizes they are vital to live a positive life. Richard Parker represents all of Pi’s past mistakes and at the end, we see Pi begin to love his darker past and forgive himself. In the beginning, Pi lost everything he ever knew to complete his life. But as the story progresses, we see him transform to an even stronger, happier, fulfilled human being before our very eyes. Being stranded on the life boat brought Pi to accept himself and find his meaning of life to be able to reach dharma and be one with himself.

We see that Pi becomes one with himself when he lands on the coast and watches Richard Parker leave his side, without even turning back to say goodbye. This is representing the peacefulness inside Pi as there is no longer a dark side to him, there is only one fulfilled Pi. 

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