The Life of Pi

I recently finished the 2002 Man Booker prize winner The Life of Pi written by Yann Martel. I must say it took a while for me to get into the book, but after walking away from it I am still thinking about it. This is a mark of a well written book to me.

Our hero is one Pi Patel who is a student of Hindu, Islam, and Christianity. However, his voyage begins aboard the Tsimtsum, which is an alternate spelling of tzimtzum a Jewish Kabbalah belief. Thus we have elements of a fourth religion of Judaism. In very simplistic terms tzimtzum is where God, the Ein Sof, removes His power from the universe to create diversity within the creation.  It is tzimtzum that creates illumination. Interestingly, Rabbi Chaim Vittal provides a metaphor for understanding tzimtzum which starts with imagining a circle full of the power of God. A circle having no beginning and no end.


Pi's name references our attempt to scientifically measure that which has not beginning and no end. The number π has no definite ending. (Google search Pi and you can find it to the millionth place and also the tasty pizza place in St. Louis). Thus, the character Pi is much like us searching for meaning, and Martel seems to set up a balance between science and faith. It is through Pi's knowledge of zoology that he tames the tiger, or is it through his faith that he tames his mind to allow him to survive the journey.

I found the interview with the Japanese Ministry of Transport slightly heavy handed, but there are wonderful kernels to be found. In Chapter 99 Pi says "You're the experts. Apply your science." to which they respond "We don't understand." Following Pi says "You can't prove which story is true and which is not . You must take my word for it." Then Chapter 100 is a dry account of how the ship sank. Chapter 22 holds the key to understanding. There is the atheist and the agnostic's last words. One being a "deathbed leap of faith" and the other being a "dry, yeastless factuality ... [that in] the very end, lack imagination and miss[es] the better story." Martel is saying that science removed from faith is flat and provides no real explanation, only additional lack of understanding.  Religion regardless of its name provides yeast to give meaning. Of course we have to take a leap of faith as to what belief system we accept.

An additional question: the symbolism of the algae island of Chapter 92. Reading it the first time I was struck by the commonality of the Garden of Eden. Here is a island that provides Pi with endless resources of food, water, and solid ground (floating but solid). At the center of the island is a tree with fruit, a fruit that holds the answer to what the island is . . . a carnivorous island! Yes, a man eating island that apparently at night becomes acidic to the point of burning all life. I think the island is another metaphor for religion. The island becomes carnivorous carnivorous in the absence of light, which in Kabbalah is the presence of God. Thus in the absence of God religion becomes destructive. Remember the Iman, Priest, and the Pandit in Book One? The last line of Chapter 93 is "I should turn to God." Martel could have ended the book right there, but he went on and made the metaphor more apparent with Book Three.

The last question is what about 227? I can find that in the Hebrew gemetria that the number 227 leads to a meaning of to be strong. But 227 is the 49th prime. The number 49 is 7 squared, and we know that 7 is the compete number. Also, 49 means to go slowly in the Hebrew gemetria. Anyone have another explanation for 227?

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