In life, there are many things to converse with other people about, but some subjects make people uncomfortable or lose interest. In the novel, Life of Pi, Pi-- a boy who was named after a swimming pool-- discovers many different uncomfortable conversations called taboos. With new taboos, Pi will break away from his old conventions and create new ones that will help him survive throughout his journey in life.
Before Pi's journey into the ocean, he discovered his first taboo in a temple in Munnar. That temple was where he discovered not just one religion, but three. Pi's desire was to become a Christian but his father agreed that it was a necessity to have a religion. "Father, I would like to be a Christian, please'… He smiled. 'You already are, Piscine-- in your heart. Whoever meets Christ in good faith is a Christian. Here in Munnar you met Christ'" (57) All pressure is on Pi. Hindu, Muslim, and Christian surrounded him and made Pi's eyes boggle all over and his head pound. Choosing a religion for Pi, is like trying to choose between three different job offers. One decision will change your life and that pressure on deciding, was the same pressure for Pi; he didn't want to disappoint his parents and when Pi made his final decision, he broke away from his convention. His convention used to be only having one religion, but now with taking all three religions, that convention snaps like a stick and becomes a new one.
Religion isn't the only taboo, fear is another aspect in Pi's life. Pi first experienced this fear in the zoo with his father. Pi was about 8 years old, when he was first introduced to the dangerous world of tigers. Pi stared at this bold, hungry, beautiful tiger. The goat was placed into the cage, and Pi was in shock when he saw the hungry tiger jump on top of the goat, and chewed it to pieces. Pi's instant reaction was to hide behind his mother in fear. "I must say a word about fear. It is life's only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life." (161) This quote means, if humans didn't have fear, then we wouldn't be afraid of anything including death. We wouldn't care if we killed ourselves because fear took over life. Pi experienced this fear with the tiger and he did not let fear overcome his life. With this fear, he took one step closer from breaking this convention of relying on other people to protect him.
The number one fear in life is death. When Pi turned 14 years old, he found himself on a lifeboat with four animals. An orangutan, a zebra, a hyena, and finally a Bengal tiger. Things became quiet on the boat, until one day. Pi was fishing for some food and everything around him seemed too calm, then all of the sudden a fish comes jumping up onto the boat. Immediately, Pi grabs the fish and stabs it with the knife like there was no tomorrow. Death represents paradox and without death, life would be meaningless because if humans make a mistake we will have eternity to fix it. That is why Pi's reaction is suddenly surprising because he knows that he does not have eternity to live.
Throughout life, taboos will be in every conversation -- even just a simple conversation or a discussion. Through Pi's life, he experienced taboos everywhere, when he was viewing a tiger attacking a goat or trying to survive in the ocean. These taboos, made Pi feel uncomfortable, it took him out of his comfort zone. When he breaks away from his comfort zone, he breaks away from his old conventions and creates new ones, new ones with experience, new ones with maturity, and new ones that will help him survive through life.
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