Apologia

"Life of Pi" by Yann Martel is a remarkable book ostensibly about an Indian boy who has been shipwrecked and stuck on a boat alone with a tiger. Furthermore, the novel has "gone on to become an international best-seller and has been translated into several languages" ("Yann Martel"). The story’s author, a proud Canadian, has received worldly praise for his writings, and quite fittingly has won the prestigious Mann Booker Prize for this very novel. Accordingly, Martel’s tale is one that deserves to be read and remembered for years to come. By the same token, "Life of Pi" is and should remain the focal piece of the Canadian canon of literature.

To begin with, Martel’s adulthood has been deeply rooted in Canada and its unique culture and traits. Martel was "Born in Spain after his parents left the oppressive ‘Great Darkness’ era in 1960s Quebec, his cosmopolitan upbringing as the child of a diplomat meant a youth spent in Costa Rica, France, Mexico, Alaska and Canada" ("quirky path"). Since his childhood though he "has continued travelling as an adult, spending time in Iran, Turkey and India" ("New Face"). Despite Martel’s nomadic tendencies he still has managed to spend much of his time in Canada as "the writer-in-residence at the Saskatoon Public Library" ("Yann Martel"), and has greatly applauded the Canadian government in its role in helping him become the great writer he is today: "I would like to express my sincere gratitude to that great institution, the Canada Council for the Arts" ("Yann Martel"). Indeed, Martel’s upbringing seems to represent in itself Canada’s diversity and multiculturalism and is perhaps the very reason for his great strength as a Canadian writer. In short, Yann Martel’s path has helped create the resourceful artist that he is known as not only in Canada but also around the world.

What’s more, Martel’s symbolism is quite evidently what both defines this novel as great and what clearly illustrates Martel’s immense strength in writing. The ability to create a story that is so filled with deeper meaning is in my mind the ultimate ability that an author must posses to become remembered. If Pi’s story of being the lone human survivor of the Tsimtsum is false, and "the Taiwanese sailor is the zebra, his mother is the orang-utan, the cook is . . . the hyena – which means he’s the tiger" ( Martel 346), than this would further illustrate his need to make up his own reality out of something that is irrational. This seems to be the fact, as is symbolised in Pi’s name. Pi, as I am sure we all know, is a Greek letter often used to denote the ratio of the circumference of a circle to the diameter of such a circle. Moreover, the number in itself is irrational as it goes on for infinity; 3.14 and the succeeding digits trail on for all of eternity. This perhaps is a symbol; a number so large the human mind cannot comprehend, one that must be rationalized by presenting it with a letter to represent the number. Such symbolism serves to "establish the character Pi as more than just a realistic protagonist; he also is an allegorical figure with multiple layers of meaning" ("Themes, Motifs & Symbols"). Likewise, Pi must rationalize what has happened to him and his family so that he can move on. So that he can have hope, and so that he can survive.This, I believe, is what Martel was trying to say when he wrote his novel. Such strong symbolism and meaning should not only be part of the Canadian canon of literature, it deserves to be read by anyone looking to study the great many wonders of writing.Perhaps the symbolism goes even further though. Pi's need to punish himself by creating a story where he does exactly this is perhaps a symbol of his remorse for losing his family, and for killing his fellow survivors. Does his regret overwhelm him so much he must subject himself to the worst punishment, self distaste? Perhaps his rationalization is actually his torture. In summation, Martel's symbolism in this novel exceeds all expectations of what a book should be, and thus clearly deserves a spot in Canada's consciousness.

To summarize "Life of Pi" not only epitomizes Canadian literature it also represents what more tales should feature and be about. The book "has been described as a classic fable, with animals of greatly differing characters brought in to play out a discussion of the meaning of life and how we understand the world around us" ("quirky path") and thus deserves the spotlight of Canadian attention. Through symbolism, and an absorption into Canada's diverse culture Martel has proven his spot in Canadian literature.