Life Of Pi: The Boy Who Could Not Be Tamed

Tame \ 'tam\. Domesticated: not dangerous or frightened by people. Made docile and submissive.

It’s a word used to describe animals, reckless fellows, dangerous psychopaths, or legends
who’s greatness cannot be contained.

The legend I’m here to talk about is Piscine Patel, known as Pi, and the story “Life Of Pi”.
The beginning of this story details Pi’s childhood growing up into a family of zookeepers in India.

Pi was a brilliant student, and somebody who studied 3 different major religions by the time he was 16,
I mean you could have stopped the book right there and I still would have been amazed by this
beast, but on top of that, this kid survived an entire voyage across the Pacific ocean. He made the
Titanic survivors look like scrubs.

The first segment of the movie is the beginning of Pi’s life which sets the stage for understanding the
groundworks of his mind and everyone he met. Family, potential lovers, and of course the animals,
my favorite quote from this movie is when Pi’s father confronts him and all Pi’s response “Animals
have souls, I have seen it in their eyes.”

Keep in mind that Pi’s family is Hindu. Hinduism has a belief that animals are sacred, that’s why no
Hindu will eat beef, some of the gods even have animal-like characteristics.

Early on, Pi discovers the lessons of life taught by the tales of the Hindu Gods, then finds greater
meaning for the purpose of God through both Christianity and Islam.

What makes this so amazing is how invested Pi becomes in learning. It’s much different than people
who are taught their beliefs early on just from what other people tell them rather than from
self-discovery which was the true purpose of these religions in the first place.

But the act of learning through reflection is staggering, for a moment you are set apart from the world
as you discover the things which others cannot see, uncover the mysteries that others cannot fathom,
Pi approach to religion through curiosity is what keeps him faithful even when he loses everything.

And that’s the real tragedy of this story.

In the film, you watch his growth right up until the moment he loses everything he ever had. At that
point he embarks on the real journey of self-discovery and reflection.

Like any sort of journey, you can usually dock it down into subplots or segments. The beginning starts
off with high-octane drama that speeds up the story in the blink of an eye. The ship’s boiler explodes,
Pi is forced to escape, and is left on a single lifeboat with a few extra crewmates. And whichever story
you believe, the tiger story or the second story, a lot of people die right away due to “conflict of
interests” to explain it easier.

All these events happen so quickly and are the storm before the calm. For the next however many
chapters or segments of the movie, we’re spent at sea. The endless sea. The vast sea. The journeyman’s
sea. The sprawling sea. The sea is without fault. The sea was Paul’s trial. The sea was Blackbeard’s
glory. The sea was Darwin’s fascination. And now, the sea is Pi Patel’s cross.

He comes in a timid boy, perhaps frightened of the adult Bengal tiger he shares the journey with, or
scared of himself and the possible sin he’s committed. But he comes out awakened, in himself an
inner hope that turns into a raging fire to survive. He doesn’t give up. He doesn’t let the sea tame him,
he doesn’t let the tiger tame him, he doesn’t let a meerkat island tame him, he is the boy who could not
be tamed.

At every point of reflection, at every passing wave, the sea poetically tells the story in Pi’s place for
the emotions he battled having to fight for survival. He couldn’t so much as share a fish with that tiger.
He couldn’t catch anything. He couldn’t handle the storm. By the end, the tiger shared its meat, the sea
fed him enough, and he weathered every storm. No matter how you view it, Pi Patel was an underdog,
regardless of which story was true, he conquered his own demons, his own struggle, and his own sin.
He may have been lost, but he found himself in the midst of his own struggle. That’s how he made it
to Mexico. That’s how Richard Parker, his great and terrible companion, became his eternal friend.