Taken from: http://www.pbs.org/ newshour/conversation/ july-dec02/ martel_11-11.html

And the main thing that struck me is the idea of a religious boy– because we have to say that Pi is a practicing Hindu, Muslim, and Christian– the idea of a religious boy in a lifeboat with a wild animal struck me as a perfect metaphor for the human condition. Humans aspire to really high things, right, like religion, justice, democracy. At the same time, we’re rooted in our human, animal condition. And so, all of those brought together in a lifeboat struck me as being… as a perfect metaphor. …my novel is about the line between fiction and fact. It is about how we interpret reality, right? Reality isn’t just out there; it’s how we interpret it. And to me, that’s what religion is about, isn’t it? It’s an interpretation of reality.

Taken from: http://www.enotes.com/ life-pi/introduction

All throughout Life of Pi, characters are seeking the meaning of life. The primary seeker for this profound truth is, of course, Pi himself. As the first chapter notes, as an adult Pi studies both science (zoology specifically) and religion at colleges. These interests are both the natural extension of how Pi passed his time while he was a boy: he was the son of a zookeeper but also a devotee of several religions, seeking direct knowledge of God from an early age. Both practices seek to understand the mysteries of human existence.

Tamara Fernando is a freelance writer based in Seattle, Washington. In this essay she argues that Life of Pi can be read on one level as a Christian parable. The suffering and ultimate spiritual resurrection that Pi experiences parallel the suffering and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and at the end of the novel, similar to Jesus, Pi offers his own parables about the meaning of faith.

Taken from: http://www.book-club.co.nz/ books/13lifeofpi.htm

Life of Pi asks many questions of life, survival, belief, faith and the importance of imaginative story telling.

Taken from: http://www.bookrags.com/ studyguide-life-of-pi/ themes.html

The bulk of the story of Pi and Richard Parker deals with the theme of humankind’s relationship with the animal kingdom. In Pi’s story the moral is that when humankind respects and understands the ways of the animal kingdom, the two can live together in relative harmony.

Good luck!