Theory with Most Insight on "Life of Pi"

In Life of Pi, I believe that the reader response theory helped me gain the most insight on the book because I did not notice the comparisons between the symbols of religion with what happens to Pi throughout his life. Throughout the book, he refers to God frequently and makes prayers frequently as well but I had not realized that everything he was doing was somehow connected to God or a part of a religion. It made me understand more of how we see the world in general versus how we should try to see the world.

From the reader’s response theory, I can interpret the information given and relate to my personal life. For example, my parents believe that it is only okay to have 1 religion or none but why is it that other religions cannot be accepted. Throughout the story, Pi uses different incidents to relate to different religions for example, “She came floating on an island of bananas in a halo of light, as lovely the Virgin Mary” (Martel 63) and “To take in green, after so much blue, was like music to my eyes. Green is a lovely colour. It is the colour of Islam” (Martel 141). This tells me that religions have been taken from nature and what we have seen is what makes the religions and gods which makes it logical to believe in religions.

The archetypal theory allowed me to discover new information and allowed me to connect this text with my personal experience with the world. Pi says, “I have heard nearly as much nonsense about zoos as I have about God and religion. Well-meaning but misinformed people think animals in the wild are "happy" because they are "free”” (Martel 10). Pi shows the zoo as religion/god because many people mistake that animals are not happy in zoos because they are not free but even if they were in the wild they would still be restricted in the wild. This is like how religions are mistaken because people think that god is not real and the religious practices make no sense but really religions have practices that are taken from essential life skills. For example, the orange colour on boats are like the Hindu colour orange which portrays protection which is what the lifeboat is meant for.

These archetypal theories found in the book tell readers to look at the world in a different perspective rather than looking at it in the same perspective. It is trying to tell people to believe in things that are not really expected to happen because just because it did not happen it does not mean it will not happen.