Belief

Young Pi grew up in a typical Indian (Oriental) family. Although his father was known as the "New Indian", his rejection and break with Indian culture showed a deeper connection. His older brother has completely become his father's appendage, or a victim of patriarchy. As the only umbrella under the powerful father's authority, the mother did her best to protect Pai from his father's harm, and also gave Pai some space for personal development, allowing him to find answers from various religions. But in the scene where the tiger eats the sheep at the beginning of the film, the father almost quenched the only hope for humanity left in Pi's heart.
The feeling of powerlessness in the face of their own destiny made the family suffocating, and the immigrants could only escape temporarily. Pi relatively preserves his own nature, and doing his part is his only hope, and he also carefully hides his hatred for his father. Conflict with his father seems inevitable if Pi wants to be free from the cycle of fate, but it's too hard for anyone. A shipwreck ended these. But it also allows the family's story to repeat itself.
Real-life stories are simple to describe. After the disaster, the four remained on the lifeboat. Faced with the predicament of survival, the cook killed the wounded sailor, then his mother, who in turn killed the cook, and floated himself at sea for more than 200 days until he was rescued. But the story is so cruel that if Pie accepts it intellectually or emotionally, it might be better to kill him, so schizophrenia seems to be his only way to survive, and his consciousness creates another imaginary Magical world.
There are only some animals in this subjective world. He watched helplessly as the maned dog killed the wounded zebra, and then killed the rebellious female orangutan; just like a powerful patriarch devoured a castrated brother, and devoured a mother who had tried to protect itself. When he was about to be devoured, the strong desire to survive made Pi's anger finally erupt. His animalistic side emerged from the corner in the image of a tiger and instantly killed the maned dog! The other side of himself has become a god-like faction, often receiving divine revelation, surviving disasters again and again, and raising his animal side, the tiger. His divinity and animal nature seem to form two independent subjects, and the interaction between the subjects ensures that he will not die alone for more than 200 days.
The battle between the two main bodies continued, and the ropes holding the boat and the raft looked so fragile. During a storm, Pi's divine side finally had a direct dialogue with God. This is also the first time he has faced the loss of life and tortured the meaning of life! At this time, the tiger was already scared to hide in the corner. His ego is nourished by two parts at the same time, finding strength in animal nature and faith in divinity.
After this storm, he came to the floating island, as if he had touched the core deep inside him, which could be called the collective subconscious, traditional culture, primitive religion, etc. Even if most people reach the depths of the subconscious, they will stay here, being nourished by this island during the day and engulfed by this island at night. His family remains in this core. Pie also seems to have reason enough to stay. He had never been ready to say goodbye to his native family and traditional culture, just as he had no memory of saying goodbye to his girlfriend when he left India. But this time he tied the token his girlfriend gave him to the island, completing his mourning with the ceremony. Mourning his parents and elder brothers, mourning the family and culture that raised him... not fighting and breaking, just finishing mourning and saying goodbye. Even if the future is unpredictable, Pi resolutely sails back to the sea again.
After a long voyage and several times of grief and despair, Pi and the tiger can "coexist peacefully", but without the nourishment of the island, what awaits them is starvation and death. When they finally got to the American continent, Pi thought Tiger would regret or at least say goodbye to him, but Tiger seemed to walk straight into the jungle without even looking at him. The symptoms of schizophrenia are meant to counteract the unacceptable parts of reality, and if Pie can fully understand his own experience and have nothing to fight against, there is no need for the symptoms to exist. Pie put down the burden from the family and contacted the magic spell, integrated the beast (from anger at the original family) and the divine (from the belief in his heart) in his heart, and was able to face his own life vividly Experience, become a person again. And mourning is a big part of that. "My parents, my brother, Richard Parker, all left me in the end. At the end of the day I believe life is about letting go, but sadly, I didn't get to say goodbye to them."

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