Life of Pi Existentialist Examination

Is behavior of Pi hold outentialist? There are dickens views of existentialist philosophy, that of the more popular atheistic view, and that of the theistic view (Sartre Lecture). In the go for Life of Pi, by Yann Martel the main theme of the book is religion, with the main slip being of treble religions Hinduism, Christian Catholicism, and Islam. (Martel). Life of Pi is both Existentialist and non-existentialist, in both the atheistic and theistic views because of specific religious beliefs, desertion of religion, hopelessness, and the ultimate use of hu valet beingsitykind instinct for survival.I would first like to mystify by giving brief explanations of both sides of existentialism, because both do establish to this book, even though the main theme is religion. The main base of existentialism is that of populace in the lead essence (Sartre Lecture). By this, they mean that we define ourselves as what we are by our own actions and free will. We exist before our e ssence, or our determined character, because we determine it for ourselves by our own doings. In the book Life of Pi, by Yann Martel the main theme of the book is religion.The theistic view of existentialism roll in the hay basic every last(predicate)y be summed up by this quote When we view of God as the creator, we are thinking of him, most of the time, as a supernal artisan (Sartre Lecture). By this, they mean that theists view theology as the all business officeful creator. He created man with a specific idea in mind, and he knew what we would do and create. God creates he knows precisely what he is creating (Sartre, Lecture. ) He knows the past, present, and future, and will not go forth us to be defined by our military man nature.Human nature was simply a side effect, to allow us to understand possibly why and how we are, entirely we tusht let it define ourselves as humans. Our intellect and creations define us as who we are, not our natural instinct. Therefore, we ca nnot blame something on instinct and human nature, because deity did not create us to do that. He created us to innovate. And as intellectuals, it is our job to realize what we are here for, and to fulfill god and ourselves as human and not to let petty biological needs frustrate our knowledge.It is our job to differentiate ourselves from cardinal another, because we all view the same human nature and basic needs, and if we did not use our minds to create an scene for ourselves, we would all be the same. On the other hand, the atheistic view, Atheistic existentialism, declares with greater uniformity that if God does not exist at that place is at least one being whose existence comes before its essence, a being which exists before it can be defined by any conception of it. That being is man or the human reality (Sartre Lecture).This is locution that on that brain is no human nature, because there was no god to conceive humans, or the idea of human nature. Man vigorous(p) simply is, and there is no meaning to flavour or existence unless they give meaning to it. They shape who they are and who they require to be, or if they are anything at all, and there is no god to bemuse decided what humans will be because he does not exist himself. Man will only(prenominal) attain existence when he is what he purposes to be. Not, however, what he may wish to be (Sartre Lecture).Man does not have existence unless he creates it for himself, therefore counteraction the theistic view, and saying that essence is before existence. Your essence allows you to exist. Within Life of Pi, there are many things that presage to it being possibly theistically existentialist. For spokesperson, one of the three religions he sees in is Hinduism, which the tantrum of reincarnation and karma are greatly important in. Reincarnation is the belief that your legal opinion is passed down through many physical forms, and karma determines what physical form your mind will keep back on in the next life.This follows with existentialism because it is the thought that you are not tied down by your physical attri hardlyes, but you are defined by what you do in life and what image you create for yourself, and gods ultimately decide what physical form you will take on. Therefore, you cannot be defined by what physical form you have or human instinctual needs. It is your job to see beyond that. Another thing that Pi does that coincides with theistic existentialism is that of when he is abandoned on the boat, he until now continues to pray five times a day (Martel).Yes, other actions that he committed on the boat proved otherwise to be non-existential, but he remained hopeful by praying on the boat for quite a while, feeling that he was not yet abandoned by god and did not completely succumb to his human needs and solely stress on survival. Moving on to ways that the book is non-existentialist, I look at that the book was far more non-existentialist from the t heistic view. One of the ways was how Pi was the denomination of Catholicism (Martel), which is a denomination of Christianity that does not debate in free will.They believe that free will is a denial of grace, or the denial that God created humans in the image of himself, which is pretty overmuch the exact opposite of existentialism itself. Existentialists believe that god gave man the power of free will because he knows what they will do with their free will, and there is no denial of the image of god. Another way that Life of Pi is not existentialist is when he is on the boat, and commits acts of human instinctual survival. He goes against his beliefs to survive.An example of that is when he goes against his vegetarianism and love of animals to drink the turtles blood (Martel). This is abandoning your beliefs and self image to survive, and just giving into human instinct, which brings me to another topic of atheistic existentialism anguish, abandonment, and despair (Sartre Lect ure). Anguish is basically describing that, when a man decides for himself, he is not only deciding something for himself, but that of all mankind because he is representing them all as a whole because all of our decisions define us (Sartre Lecture). Abandonment is saying that we cannot depend on god to give us moral guidance. We have to have our own moral, and not look to god and holy books to decide what we do in life (Sartre Lecture). Despair basically means that there should be no despair, because there is no limit as to what we can do. If there is no god, there is no all-powerful being, and then there is no one to decide our limits for us. Therefore, we cannot be in despair, for the possibilities are aeonian (Sartre Lecture). They all seem to counteract the belief in god, so in the atheistic sense, Life of Pi isnt existentialist at all.He became a bit absorbed with himself, and not mankind while he was on the boat. He did not care about the animal he killed, and went with huma n instinct, thus only caring about himself. He depended on his multiple gods for guidance, and in any case expected them to help him while keeping up with supplication five times a day (Martel). In conclusion, I believe that Life of Pi is non-existentialist as a whole. Too many things station to it being non-existentialist in the theist sense, and pretty much all things point to it being non-existentialist in the atheist view.Reincarnation and Karma seem to coincide with that of existentialism, as well of his perseverance with faith. But that same perseverance counteracts that of the atheistic view, with anguish, abandonment, and despair. He also showed true human instinct by going against his instincts to survive. I believe that the non-existentialist aspects definitely outweigh the existentialist ones. Works Cited Martel, Yann. Life of Pi. Orlando Harcourt, Inc. , 2001. Print. Sartre, Jean Paul. Philip Mairet, trans. existential philosophy is a Humanism. Lecture given in 1946 . Web. 11 December 2012.