Life of Pi - David Magee (Screenplay)

Writer: So the stories ... both the Zebra and the Sailor broke their leg.  And the Hyena killed the Zebra and the Orangutan.  So ... the Hyena is the Cook.  The Sailor is the Zebra.  Your Mother is the Orangutan, and you're the Tiger.

Pi Patel: Can I ask you something?

Writer: Of course.

Pi Patel: I've told you two stories about what happened out in the Ocean.  Neither explains what caused the sinking of the Ship.  And no one can prove which story is true and which is not.  In both stories, the Ship sinks, my Family dies, and I suffer.

Writer: True

Pi Patel: So which story do you prefer.

Writer: The one with the Tiger.  That's the better story.

Pi Patel: Thank you ... and so it goes with God.

 

The writer is anticipating to hear a story that "makes him believe in God".  The religious undertone is apparent throughout the film.  Pi is fascinated with Religion from an early age, and is introduced to it via Hinduism and its millions of Gods.  Later he is introduced to Jesus Christ and Christianity.  Followed then by the Muslim Religion of Islam and Allah.  He even mentions to the writer, that he teaches a course on Judaism at the University.  He owns this openness by stating: "why not? - faith is a house with many rooms."  My Take-away from this movie, is not that the tiger, Richard Parker, really was really God, or that Pi himself was God, or that God necessarily created the scenarios necessary for Pi to get through being cast away at Sea. - But that the story (either) is God.  The story (that you believe in) is God.  In the same way that Religion, belief, faith, spirituality and what you choose to follow in life - is God.  God is Art.  A subjective concept.  The vessel in which you choose to believe and follow is relevant in that it's what works for you, but essentially is only relevant in that respect.  The end goal, God, is the same.  The core truth, God, is a common one.  Much like the facts of the matter are un-alterable with either of the two stories (i.e. The shipwreck, his Family dying and his suffering).  Similarly, God is an un-alterable truth.  Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, etc ... are all versions of the same truth.  Created, accepted and past along, respectively, by those that connect with them.  It's a preference thing.  'I do what works for me, you do what works for you.'  Either way ... "it goes with God."

~ Sunday 09.08.13 @ 7:04pm

 

Tony OrtizComment