Read LOP 14-18. Then, take some time to think carefully about the following two questions. When you are ready, write your responses here:
1) What type of person does Pi seem to be so far? How would you describe him?
2) Pi seems equally drawn to three major religions: Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity. His explanations of WHY he is drawn to each religion go against many of our preconceptions and biases regarding these three faiths. Choose one of his explanations that interests/appeals to you and explain what you find striking in it and why. (Note: I am not asking you which religion you're interested in. I'm asking you which of his explanations of his *own, personal attraction* to a particular faith interest you and why.)
P.S. Don't forget, I am moving the in-class essay to next Wed. On Mon, I will return your Paper 1 and talk about the research process.
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1) So far, Pi seems like a very smart, religious, thoughtful person. He seems very mature, even when at a young age. He spent lots of time with the animals at the zoo and even sees them as having personalities like us humans. Even though it doesn’t seem like he has many friends, he is content. Pi is a very orderly a peaceful person. He is very philosophical and open to new ideas and new religions.
ReplyDelete2) Pi was drawn to Christianity because of the “tremendous cosmic might of loving kindness” (63). Christianity gave Pi a sense of peace, love, and comfort. Pi’s own personal attraction to Christianity (love, joy, and peace) is interesting because it wasn’t his first impression of Christianity. At first, he thought of Christianity as being about an angry god who took pleasure in human sacrifice. Pi was bothered with Christianity, but he wasn’t willing to give it up. Finally, he realized that Jesus was sacrificed because of a greater love, and Pi wanted to be apart of that love. Pi’s account of Christianity shows that we shouldn’t judge religions by reputations or by assumptions, but we should be open to them and learn more about them because they might be exactly what we are looking for in life.
1. Pi is very unique compared to most kids at his age in this part of the story. He seems intelligent and thoughtful, taking interest on his own in rather mature topics. He's eager to experience new things and he seems to genuinely open himself up. Pi seems very content with his life, his family, his interests and hobbies. He doesn't focus on negative aspects, materialistic wants, or childish ideals. He is sort of unlike anyone I can think of in all those ways, for a young teen boy in this story.
ReplyDelete2. It becomes very obvious how significant religion is to Pi and this story. I find his initial impression of Christianity so interesting. He is definitely perplexed by what the priest tells him. God sacrificed his son's life to atone for the humans' sins; How could a mortal be God? The gods in Hinduism were all-powerful and could do amazing feats no human could. "That is God as God should be. With shine and power and might. Such as can rescue and save and put down evil." How can Jesus even compare? He compares Hinduism and Christianity quite a bit. But in the end, he accepts them both equally and leaves his doubts and questions behind. He was persistent and eager to understand another point of view and in the end, met Christ in good faith and happily became a Christian as well.
Pi seems to be very mature for his age. He is also intrigued by animals and it is almost as if he relates to them as he would a human being. He doesnt have very many friends but he is okay with that and seems to be happy.
ReplyDeletePi is very interested in religion. He was looking into Christianity and Hinduism. Although he may have been skeptical at first especially with Christianity, he learned to accept them both and realized why Christ was sacrificed for love.
1) Pi seems to be a intelligent, religious, obedient, mature, and kind of mysterious so far. At a very young age, he spends a good amount of time studying animals of his dad's zoo and the 3 religions: Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity. I feel like he is very mysterious because he likes 3 religions which most people would find very rare. As for being obedient, he seems to never obey his parents. For example, the time his father taught him about the animals being wild, he just agrees.
ReplyDelete2) I like his explanation of why he likes Hinduism. He does a very good job explaining its peacefulness on page 59-60. For example, "...because of garlands of flowers and pieces of broken coconut, because of the clanging of bells to announce one's arrival to God.." Also, I like that he believes Hinduism is a religion of faith. To me, Faith comes each in one of us going. Faith makes Pi want to worship and pray to his Gods. However, I don't understand why Pi can believe in many Gods with Hinduism yet believe in one God with Christianity...
1. From what i gathered from the reading i would have to say that Pi is a very interesting character because of the fact that he finds joy in learning new things and is very open. He takes in big interest in animals and knows a lot of different types.
ReplyDelete2. I found interesting the way he was perplexed by the fact that Christianity has but one god as opposed to Hinduism that has many.
1. Pi seems like an enlightened man because of his religious background. It seems like he was searching for the meaning of life and learned about the major religions judging by how his home looks like and how detailed he describes certain religions.
ReplyDelete2. I agreed with Pi when he says, "many people seem to lose God along life's way" (59) There are many religions out there but it seems Pi formulated his own beliefs through the teachings of Hinduism and Christianity. He accepts both even though some beliefs contradicts each other.
Pi is a rather 'odd' child. odd in the sense that he is very impressionable in the various religions that are told to him and yet also stands his ground when confronted by the very people that convinced him of the deity's existences. I wonder if Oprah got her ideas from him.
ReplyDeleteI thought that the reason why Pi believed in Christianity was peculiar. He believed in it mainly because of how revolutionary it was. A deity willing to die for foolish mortals was unheard of and is basically the only religion that this happens in. Then he learned the reason for this was love. I think he was attracted to this because no human could be revolutionary enough to think up something as amazing/crazy as that.
Pi seems like a very interesting smart young boy. He isn't your average boy you see everyday.Hes very outgoing and spends most his time with wild animals at the zoo. Pi is very open to different religions and gets very curious to learn more about different ones.
ReplyDeleteI found the way he expressed his religion Hinduism to be very catching and ineresting.He described it in detail and gave it a sudden beauty. He tells us how he feels at home when hes at a hindu temple and explains how Hinduism is a religion of faith. I also was amazed with how much interest he gained for Christianity. He took the time out to sit and learn more about Christ himself. Pi was shocked that God would sacrifice his own son's life for other people's sins. The Father explains how Jesus Christ was sacrificed for Love. Pi was strongly amazed and wanted to become a part of Christianity.
Although I found it really interesting how much dedication and love he had for Hinduism but was willing to become Christian just like that. Pi sometimes in my opinion seems confused and curious about life and religion. Hes just amazed of how all three religions (Islam,Hinduism,and Christianity)have different meanings and wants to experience them all.
1) Pi seems to be a very curious kid. He is interested in so many different relions and culures and he seems to know a bit about each of that cultures or religions history. I would describe Pi as an young boy lost and curious trying to find his way and make everything fit into his culture or make it fit into the way he was raised and taught.
ReplyDelete2) The explanation that Pi makes about the image of God's son Jesus and how he is portrayed as a weak and fragile god on the cross compared to the hindism gods which are all portrayed as strong, divine and absolute entwined as primism idealized gods; appeals to me the most because his curiousity got the best of him when he could not put it together why Jesus is portrayed as such a weak "human" at that, when a god and God's son in particular is supposed to hold a frame of absolute divine power. In Pi's view all gods showed a absolute Godlike presence, for all is to worship them under idealization, but who could idealize such a god as equal to its worshippers? Pi worked hard to see all sides to these reliogions. He was open-minded and confused most of the way but he followed through, thought deeply and figured out the important pieces for the most part.
Pi is different from everyone else. His intellegence go beyond kids at his age. He looks at things more in debt. He applys alot of religion and knows alot about religion and culture.
ReplyDeleteFor christianity, Pi brings about how God's son pays the price for human sins. He gives a situation (Pi's father feeding him to the lion) that makes of the religion. Pi sees this story in a different way than I did and shows a side of the story I've never thought of seing it.
1) So far Pi seems like a person who is very open to other peoples views on life. Pi himself seems to be a very religious, smart, and good thoughtful person. He is obviously very interested in animals as he spends so much of his time observing the zoo.
ReplyDelete2) Pi being so loving and kind is what brought him to christianity. Pi wasn't always for the religion of christianity. Pi actually was against the religion at first and did not look at it as a good one. He studied the religion more and became to realize that it is not as what he thought. That there is actually many good things that come about the religion of christianity.
1. So far Pi is a religious individual who has a set moral belief in enlightenment and a higher being.
ReplyDelete2. It's interesting that he says he practices all these religions because from the start he says,"A germ of religious exaltation, no bigger than a mustard seed, was sown in me and left to germinate. It has never stopped growing since that day" (47). This shows that his whole life he perceived life with not the usual type of insights younger children would have on life.
1) Pi seems to be open and educated about religons. He is smarter than people of his age. He is also very interested in zoo animals.
ReplyDelete2) I am interested in the fact that Pi is interested in more than one religion. It is very rare that I hear people who are interested in more than one. This means he is well roundelay educated in the three religions as opposed to be born into a religion and sticking with it. I think that's great that he is open to learning about different cultures.
1. Pi gets influenced alot by the people around him and most of those influences have caused him to become more interested in things mainly involve religion and the way life is
ReplyDelete2. When Pi explains why he likes Hinduism,he says that at first it was because he was born into it and also because it has many responses to his questions about life, like how there are several Gods with different meanings.