On the ocean Pi realizes the natural world's forces can't be controlled or explained. Pi describes it as an enemy "surging from below like a riotous crowd." Water represents loss of family and certainty. Water is Pi's name, Piscine Molitor, and he finds comfort in the "humble tidal ripples" where he learns to swim. Pi longs for drinkable water during his ordeal but fears the water in the storm. Pi experiences spiritual death because his faith is no longer tested. If Pi stays he gives up the challenge of survival.
Here tests of faith are too easy: Richard Parker is tamed. The island may represent faith that is too secure. Pi's decision to leave shows his new maturity. Pi thinks it's miraculous but discovers it's a threat. It seems full of promise-edible algae and water. Algae IslandĪlgae island is the novel's greatest illusion. John of the Cross, who believed the soul must experience a dark night of faith to reunite with Christ. It is a temple as Pi spreads fish scales on his body like the Hindu tilaks. Pi survives on the oar for three days and nights, like Jesus's resurrection. Pi's conversion into a Christlike figure is on the lifeboat. The boat also becomes a zoo, a home, and "God's ark." It is both a vehicle and giver of life: the supplies on it save Pi from death. Circles reoccur-Pi feels at the center of a circle when he has religious experiences and later when he's lost at sea. Pi is used to find the ratio of a circle's circumference. Mathematical Pi matches the character Pi's interest in the infinite and unexplainable. Tired of being called "Pissing" Piscine shortens his name to an "elusive, irrational number." Pi is a mathematical constant, 3.14, and its digits repeat endlessly.