Connecting with The Divine: Exploring My Relationship with God

In both texts, there is a strong connection to God

The literary works of "Life of Pi" and "The Tyger" have a strong religious element and both narrators seek spiritual answers to the main questions of evilness and violence in the world we live in

Point:

At a very young age, Pi wanted to develop a spiritual relationship with God and had always used his faith in his religions to get him through the hardships of life

Proof:

II was giving up. I would have given up – if a voice hadn't made itself heard in my heart. The voice said, "I will not die. I refuse it. I will make it through this nightmare. I will beat the odds, as great as they are. I have survived so far, miraculously. Now I will turn miracle into routine. The amazing will be seen every day. I will put in all the hard work necessary. Yes, so long as God is with me, I will not die. Amen." (Martel, 163)

In this quote by Pi, we see the strong connection he has with God and how his faith in Him helps him through his journey on the lifeboat. If it was not for his belief in God, he would not of have survived since with this, he put in the hard work and effort it took to overcome the situation he was facing. Pi knew God would help him survive and he always kept his faith.

Point:

The speaker in The Tyger asks God many questions in which he wants to figure out, such as why he would create a ferocious and evil animal like the tyger. He constantly refers to God all through the poem starting off in the first stanza.

Proof:

“What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry? “(Blake, The Tyger)

From this expert of the poem, we can see the first connection and reference to God with the word immortal. It then continues all throughout the poem with the speaker asking rhetorical questions that are pertaining to the creation of God and what made him do such things.

As a result, there is a direct relationship in both texts that relate to God. Both the narrator and Pi look to God for the spiritual answers that they want to know. Point 2 - The speaker asks how God could let this evilness and violence coincide with the good that he brought to the world for humanity. Blake uses the tyger as a metaphor to represent this in the world around us and questions the battle between the good and the evil.

In both texts, there is the presence of a tiger but author feels about and describes the tiger differently.

In the Life of Pi, Martel accompanies Pi on his journey with Richard Parker, a Bengal tiger. As readers, you view Richard Parker as a creature to fear but Martel states that Richard Parker is the reason Pi remained alive. Richard Parker gave Pi some hope and a distraction.

“Richard Parker has stayed with me. I've never forgotten him. Dare I say I miss him? I do. I miss him. I still see him in my dreams. They are nightmares mostly, but nightmares tinged with love. Such is the strangeness of the human heart” (Martel,14). Martel clearly states that Pi is scared of Richard Parker. But while he’s on the lifeboat Pi attempts to tame Richard Parker and is successful, but understands that he is still only an animal. Pi truly believes that there is more than evil instinct inside the tiger’s being.

In comparison, the creature in Blake’s poem whose fur burns bright orange, is seen as a mysterious animal who is capable of good or very evil acts, just like Richard Parker.

“what dread grasp, Dare its deadly terrors clasp!” (Blake, lines 15-16)

Blake is saying that the tiger, due to its evil ways, must have been created by an equally evil being. The description of the animal here gives us the sense of a negativity toward the creature. This brings the reader to assume that the tiger’s origin is not that of God. We later learn that God did in fact make the evil creature, and that he gave him the choice to do either good or evil.

In both texts, there is an element of suffering

Ponit:

Pi Patel endures a horrific boat sinking that took the life of all his family members. He was the only survivor of the incident and he has to go through the emotional and psychological pain of knowing that the odds of his family surviving were diminishing over the days that passed. If you take a look at the first sentence in the novel, you will see that the word "suffering" starts off the novel to give the reader an indication of what Pi’s story is about.

Proof:

“They were dead; I could no longer deny it. What a thing to acknowledge in your heart! To lose a brother is to lose someone with whom you can share the experience of growing old, who is supposed to bring you a sister-in-law and nieces and nephews, creatures to people the tree of your life and give it new branches. To lose your father is to lose the one whose guidance and help you seek, who supports you like a tree trunk supports its branches. To lose your mother, well, that is like losing the sun above you. [...]. I lay down on the tarpaulin and spent the whole night weeping and grieving, my face buried in my arms. The hyena spent a good part of the night eating.” (Martel 141)

In this passage, spoken by Pi, he finally acknowledges the sad truth about his families death. This is a clear indication of suffering as Pi is in deep bereavement and he notes what it is like loosing each of his family members and weeps all night.

Point:

The stars are throwing down spears which are really Angels who are mad at the creation of the tyger who is so evil, destructive and violent that they in turn become vicious and throw spears down at Earth. They then weep at what the creator has made in the heavens and are suffering

When the stars threw down their spears,

And watered heaven with their tears, (Blake, The Tyger)

In this section of the poem, William Blake personifies the stars in the sky as they throw down their spears which is a symbolization for the Angels in the heavens who were not happy with the creation of evil. They water heaven with their tears as a representation for the suffering people have to undergo with this creation.

In conclusion we can see how Pi Patel had faced severe suffering in his life with the loss of everything he valued deeply in his heart which relates to the questions Blake proposes in "The Tyger" of the grief people tolerate from the evilness in the world. In both texts there is no explanation for why things like this happen to innocent people but it goes to show there are some harsh realities in life that we have to overcome and learn important lessons from.