"Meeting" The Other:astudy Of Yann Martel’s Life Of Pi

To date, Yann Martel has published several books, but none of them have receivedmore public attention than his Booker-winning novel Life of Pi. The2002Booker Prizeplaces Martel on a par with V.S. Naipaul, Iris Murdoch, Salman Rushdie, J.M. Coetzee,Kingsley Amis, Keri Hulme, Michael Ondaatje, and Margaret Atwood.In China, not many critical theses have been done on the analysis of the novel. Mostof them, moreover, focus on the dissection of the narrative only, while neglecting itsprofound philosophical implications. Given Martel’s obsession with the Jewish philosopherMartin Buber and his “everything is a meeting” in the much celebrated I and Thou, thewriter of the thesis uses the “meeting” theory and examines why and how it has beenapplied in the writing of Life of Pi.In Introduction, The author introduces the literary career of Yann Martel, Life of Pi aswell as the related research both at home and abroad, which is followed by an introductionto Martin Buber’s “I and Thou” and Martel’s borrowing of “meeting” theory.In Chapter One, The author concentrates on the animal other in the novel, and bringout the human-animal relationship. Pi feels a moral responsibility towards animals andtakes care of them as much as he can; he has to borrow their ways of life as a negotiatingprocess. But it does not amount to an indiscriminate appropriation, despite his outwardbehavior; he still maintains his full consciousness.Based on the “meeting” theory, Chapter Two examines how it has been applied to thereligious tolerance in the novel where Pi allows the religious other into his very bosom andthunders astonishing invective against religious conflicts—Hinduism against Islam,Christianity against Islam.In Chapter Three, The author maintains that Martel sets an example of genuinedialogue between different cultures. As a key to the co-existence of different civilizations,dialogue can be achieved through the understanding of each other’s alterity, respecting andcatering to each other’s difference, and only in this way are various cultures able to co-exist.In Conclusion, The author points out that Life of Pi brings into full play Buber’sphilosophy of “meeting”--crossing the boundary between subject and the “other” andgiving priority to interdependence.