Book : Life of Pi - Part 2

Later I read the book, it took me 2 weeks. I read Chapter 92 : Floating Island , on the 2nd last day before finishing it off the day after. Although I love the whole story, this particular chapter attracted me the most. By far, the book is a long version of the movie, the detailed part. I am thankful for reading it after I watched the movie because if I didn't, I may not find what I was searching for. 

This part is only rationally acceptable if you were just as curious as I am about what the Floating Carnivorous Island meant, because my main purpose of digging it deeper is to understand the chapter. The book version differed a bit than the movie, there was a scene of Pi met another survivor on a boat , a blind French man, they became friends after being alone for so long , but Richard Parker ate the man brutally out of hunger. Pi then became devastated , he said " Something in me died then that has never come back to life ". 

The Floating Island : 

I asked myself, if those animals were the representation of the survivors in the shipwreck, then what was the meaning of the island? I then come across David T. 's detailed thoughts and it was all just clear to me. Here is the combination of his findings and many more other reviewer's thoughts. I only focused on the chapter 92 alone.

Summary :- 

Pi - Human

Richard Parker - His inner self 

Floating Island - Religion/s 

The boat - Faith (Belief in God)

Survival Manual Book - Kitab 

Sea & Sun - Harsh Realities 

Trees - Clergy , Rabbis, Imam, Priests, etc. 

The main carnivorous tree with the tooth - Highest Pope , Imam, etc

Meerkats - Followers of the Religion 

To stay on the Island - To give up on finding the meaning of life and just cling to religion. 

To leave the island - To find something to answer those questions and be closer to God.

In the open sea, Pi found an island, the island offered food and shelter, it gave comfort. On the island, along with the trees, there are thousands of meerkats. At night they cling to the trees to save their life from the acidic land, in daylight they come down and continue living. After a while Pi found out that the island is carnivorous, it eats the living that stayed on the island. If he choose to stay and forget civilization, he will eventually be eaten by the island. If he leaves the island, he will need to fight for his life to survive. But he chose to leave.

Message :

That's how it is. When Human faces a spiritual crisis in life, religion seems so comforting, a claim that it makes us closer to God. While practicing everything that the religion teaches us, we somehow forgot to understand the meaning of it. We let some questions unanswered. Although religion can lead us to God, can nourish us spiritually, it doesn't give us the main answer to our spiritual questions. Staying forlorn in a religion can kill us slowly from the inside, we will then left feeling empty. Because we can't understand the reason of everything. 

The main message is to set on a journey and find God, to have faith and to learn to understand in much deeper risky ways instead of just following the path.

Movie : Life of Pi - Part 1

I took a month to actually be ready to write this, since I watched the movie in January, and decided to read the 428 pages novel written in 100 chapters , so I would have a better understanding. The lack of knowledge in translating hidden meaning from a story *if there are hidden meanings, lead me into making extra effort in reading other people's reviews, and thoughts - all over the world. My favorite was from David T. , whom helped me to understand 'The Floating Island' chapter, by far my most favorite part in the story. 

The book is about India, religions, a zoo, a shipwreck, and survival. 

Stories in a story. 

At time when Yann Martel wrote the book, he said he was having a minor existential life crisis. He wrote 2 books before Life of Pi but did not became bestsellers. He started to question about his sole purpose of writing and even considered to get 'real job'. This is normal for people who choose to live a life as a full-time artists or writers. 

Which then after spending 13 months in India, in 3 trips : in second trip was mostly on practical research on the book and the third time to tidy up details of the stories, he published Life of Pi. Read how he wrote the book here.

When I watched the movie, I fell in love with : 

1) The idea of the freedom to talk about various religions so openly. 

When questioned about it, Pi just asked what s wrong in wanting to love God, no matter in which religion ? I loved it because I always felt the same about how the world is separating religions in quite a harsh way when the sole purpose of each religion is to devote oneself to God/s. 

2) The visual effects, the movie was so beautiful, vibrant, and colourful. 

It reached my ultimate standard of a great movie. The way they portrayed India was so beautiful , the scene with the swimmers in the crystal clear French swimming pool was interesting, the scene with the whale and glowing planktons was breath-taking, and not forgetting the floating island. I was wonderstruck. The color scheme and lighting was almost too perfect, and this statements came from the person who just saw the 2D movie once ! Those scenes keep on playing over and over again in my mind. That's how good it was. 

3) The idea of telling stories in a story and letting audience choose their own story. 

After being spoon fed for over 20 years plus when we watch stories, a movie with a little twist is like being given a smart phone when all we used before was a normal mobile phone. It is interesting and addictive, not a must but a bonus. 

4) Symbols & Hidden Meaning. 

Again, I love hidden meaning, but I am not well-equipped with the ability to decipher the codes. It's a long learning process. Having a story like this give me a spark that trigger my mind to explore the unknown. When I watched the movie I knew it talked in codes, it was just too odd. Animals, religion, the floating island? What makes a salable movie is not combining animal and religion and by all odds, floating island in the middle of the open sea. 

There must be something else. 

So that was how it all started.

PS : Part 2 is my rambling thoughts on the meaning of some portions of the story, after a month of digging into various explanation. If I don't share it somewhere, I might explode ! In spiritual way, I found out that having a guide to decipher unknown things are the most blissful cheat-code anyone could ever find. If I choose to only watch the movie and read the book, I might not know a lot of things that I want to find out. Searching for guides are the best decision so far. For that, thank you Allah.