There are interesting little tidbits of thought that Martel drops through his story that seem to have some special importance, that relate to man’s questioning of life, yet are put in a stark, interesting way. Here, Pi has just listened to one of his favorite teachers explain his own loss of belief in God after a childhood bout with polio:
It wasn’t for fear of angering Mr. Kumar. I was more afraid that in a few words thrown out he might destroy something that I loved. What if his words had the effect of polio on me? What a terrible disease that must be if it could kill God in a man. (p. 35)
Martel has an interesting way of seeing things, of displaying them to the reader. Loss of faith is a major trauma; questioning faith is one for Pi. He still holds religion dear and he’s just seen how easily it can be lost.
His father, the zookeeper has another lesson to teach Pi and his older brother, Ravi; the danger of considering the animals in the zoo, from the smallest birds to the big cats, as not dangerous because of the adjustments they have made to their secure lives.
In both cases we look at an animal and see a mirror. The obsession with putting ourselves at the centre of everything is the bane not only of theologians but also of zoologists. (p. 39)
He brings in the idea of stuffed animal toys that try to change the truth into what man prefers to believe, sort of like the Bambi version of nature that is more acceptable to us, though far from reality. The danger, of course, is in replacing reality with our preferred version of fact, since the reality lurks beneath our mask of it.
Very interesting method so far, of Martel’s comparisons of the zoo with religion. He is evidently leading us on and into a more complex meaning of human nature.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology