Top 2 Life of Pi quotes
"I know zoos are no longer in people’s good graces. Religion faces the same problem. Certain illusions about freedom plague them both."
Adult Pi, Part 1, Chapter 4
The adult Pi makes this remark as he attempts to defend Zoos against the commonly held criticism that they restrict an animal's freedom and thereby cause anguish. Pi explains that animals are able to experience a greater degree of freedom in the zoo because they are given a protected territory with food and water. The animals prefer to have set boundaries for their territories, and he takes the same argument to religion as he likens people's conception of a restrictive zoo to a restrictive religion.
"I can well imagine an atheist’s last words: “White, white! L-L-Love! My God!”—and the deathbed leap of faith. Whereas the agnostic, if he stays true to his reasonable self, if he stays beholden to dry, yeastless factuality, might try to explain the warm light bathing him by saying, “Possibly a f-f-failing oxygenation of the b-b-brain,” and, to the very end, lack imagination and miss the better story."
Adult Pi, Part 1, Chapter 22
Life of Pi is a deeply religious book as it explores the realms of faith and the animal kingdom in tandem. At the very outset of the book, Pi talks about choosing the 'better story' and highlights his dislike of agnostics even above atheists. He argues that an atheist may in his final moments of life consider the existence of almighty power, but the agnostic who chooses to live a life of doubt will certainly not be able to realize the presence of God even as his soul began to leave this realm for the next.
