Monday, February 8, 2010

Pi's Taboos

A taboo is a conversation that makes people uncomfortable. In the novel, The Life of Pi, Pi-- a boy who was named after a swimming pool-- discovers a major taboo: religion. Pi traveled to Munnar with his father because his dad desired him to have a religion. Hindu is the religion his father was, and now wants Pi to become Hindu. "'Father, I would like to be a Christian, please'... He smiled. 'You already are, Piscine-- in you heart. Whoever meets Christ in good faith is a Christian. Here in Munnar you met Christ.'" (57) At that moment, Pi was feeling uncomfortable and this decision of Pi, was unacceptable to his father. A final decision was made," ... if you go to the temple on Thursday, mosque on Friday, synagogue on Saturday and church on Sunday, you only need to convert to three ore religions to be on a holiday for the rest of your life." (70) Pi now has to deal with all three religions, and struggles sticking with it.

Another taboo that Pi faces is fear, and Piscne's father needed him to experience fear. "I'm going to show you how dangerous tigers are." (34)At that moment, a goat enters into the tiger cage. Pi watches in concern for the goat as the tiger rips it apart. "I could feel Mother's hand pressed aginast my pounding heart." (35) This symbolizes the fear that Pi was experiencing and Pi couldn't watch any second more of this torture. The fear that he faced was a major taboo. That situation was very uncomfortable for him, and will experience it through out his life time.

1 comment:

  1. This is a really good response. You used dash dash construction very well. I like how you separted it into two paragraphs; that way it does not get too long are difficult to read. Maybe next time you could include less quotes, because it was a little bit confusing.

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