Religion is a topic that has always been prevalent in literature. The most popular book of all time, and the first ever printed, is the Bible, which includes many stories of faith. In Life of Pi, Pi is an Indian boy whose faith is his life. He is lost at sea after his family's ship bound for Canada sinks. He is alone on a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean, except for a Bengal tiger. The story of his survival is a story of perseverance through faith in the face of overwhelming adversity. Authors have always used religious allusions and metaphors to suggest the overall allegorical meaning of their story, and in Life of Pi, Yann Martel does just that. Martel symbolizes the ocean and the island to represent life with and without religion, and uses Pi's experiences to create contrasts between them. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Yann Martel uses Pi's journey as an allegory for the spiritual journey in search of faith, and his encounter with the island represents the doubt that must be overcome. Before Pi arrives on the island, he is alone with Richard Parker in the Pacific Ocean and has only faith to motivate him. After being on the island for a while, he believes he has all the essentials for a happy life. “What reason could I have to leave the island? Are my physical needs not being met here? Wasn't there more fresh water than I could drink in my entire life? More seaweed than I could eat? And when I craved variety, more meerkats and fish than I could ever want? If the island were floating and moving, couldn't it move in the right direction? Couldn't it turn out to be a vegetable ship that brought me to land? In the meantime, didn't I have these delicious meerkats to keep me company?” (Hammer 279). This quote is used to illustrate how the island exceptionally meets all the requirements for healthy living. While Pi is on the island he makes no mention of God, but once he decides to leave the island in search of humanity, he returns to his faith. At the beginning of the book, Pi says that doubt is necessary for everyone, and for your faith to be strong, at some point you have to question it. Pi seeks companionship from the meerkats while on the island, instead of the humans he desires. Afterwards, Pi decides to leave the island again in search of humanity. “When morning came, my sad decision had been made. I preferred to leave and die in search of my kind rather than live a solitary half-life of physical comfort and spiritual death on this murderous island. (Hammer 283). The quote embodies the thesis. Yann Martel uses this to demonstrate the atheistic qualities of the island and show that Pi has realized that life on the island would not be a life worth living. Even if he has everything he needs on the island to keep himself alive (the physical comfort), is it worth living without any human interaction (the spiritual death)? Is it worth living a life without any higher purpose except survival? Yann Martel uses this doubt to compare Pi's solitary life on the island to atheism and life without religion. Yann Martel uses Pi's descent from human to animal while on the island to demonstrate that the only real difference between humans and animals is religion. When Pi first encounters meerkats on the island, he sees Richard Parker running through the crowd of meerkats and killing as many as he can. Pi points out that this is the very definition of an animal, killing unnecessarily. “He killed needlessly. He killed meerkats that he didn't eat. In animals, the need to kill is separate from the need to eat. Going so long without prey and suddenly having it like this.