The officials disbelieve the animal story, but they agree that it is the more compelling and memorable of the two. He tells his interviewers two versions of his survival story (one with animals and one without) and then asks which one they prefer. All external obstacles are stripped away, leaving only an endless circle of sea and sky, and one day he rejoices over a powerful lightning storm as a “miracle.” After his rescue Pi returns to the concept of faith again.

When he is stranded at sea, Pi’s faith is tested by his extreme struggles, but he also experiences the sublime in the grandiosity of his surroundings. It is only agnostics that Pi dislikes, as they choose doubt as a way of life and never choose a “better story.” In fact, it seems that faith and belief is more important to Pi than religious truth, as he also admires atheists for taking a stand in believing that the universe is a certain way. Instead of dwelling on divisive dogma, Pi focuses on the stories of his different faiths and their different pathways to God, and he reads a story of universal love in all three religions.

He practices all of these religions at once despite the protests of his three religious leaders, who each assert that their religion contains the whole and exclusive truth. Pi is raised in a secular, culturally Hindu family, but as a boy he becomes more devoutly Hindu and then also converts to Christianity and Islam. Francis Adirubasamy first presents Pi’s tale to the fictional author as “a story to make you believe in God,” immediately introducing religion as a crucial theme.

Life of pi lifeboat