Part of the mystical quality surrounding Life of Pi is Pi’s ability to claim one part of a dichotomy for the other. Reality becomes a part of myth, for instance, rather than its opposite. Many of these conflations deal directly with agency and communion. Pi’s treatment of religion exemplifies this tension. Religion, for most, is communal. It brings people together and connects them to something bigger than themselves. Agency is usually set up in opposition to these sorts of concepts. Pi, however, thwarts this binary. For him, religion is a tool and is, in that way, a very agentic sort of thing.

While religion is very important to Pi in the first part of the novel, it is forced to the background while he is on the lifeboat so that themes of survival and struggle can take its place. Chapter 74, however, deals with religion in the foreground. For this reason, it is illustrative of Pi’s raw feelings on religion. “I practised religious rituals that I adapted to the circumstances,” Pi says (208). The word “adapted” is a strong one, implying that Pi has ownership of the rituals. Pi inverts the typical understanding of religion. Religion, typically understood, is bigger than man and so therefore connects man to things beyond himself. For Pi, though, religion is man-made and perhaps smaller than man but is just as important. Pi would probably argue that it is more important in this adaptable way. Once religion has been taken down from its pedestal, it becomes even more meaningful to people because it meets them where they are. They are able to adapt it for their own lives and situations. Thus, through an agentic act (adaptation), Pi makes a communal thing (religion) even more communal.

The first turning point on the raft is much like Pi’s turning point in the first part of the novel. Just as he goes from a passive observer in the classrooms that bastardized his name to an active participant who demands a rebaptism, so does he move from a silent occupant of the raft to the hero of it. When the hyena kills the orangutan, Pi decides it is time to kill the hyena. This decision is notable for the confidence with which Pi executes it. There is no inner dialogue about the merits or possible outcomes of such a decision. It is treated as a fact of nature. Pi’s attack of the hyena is inextricably linked to the hyena’s attack of the orangutan: “It [the fatally wounded orangutan] was a sight horrible to the eyes and killing to the spirit. Just before throwing myself upon the hyena…” (132). This is the only discussion of the attack we get because it never actually happens. Instead, Pi is stopped by the realization that Richard Parker is still on the boat. Richard Parker, then, becomes tied to Pi’s agency. Pi’s first real act of survival on the lifeboat is halted by Richard Parker.

This pattern is repeated throughout the second part of the novel. When Pi realizes that he has a powerful will to leave, for instance, Richard Parker is there: “Richard Parker started growling that very instant, as if he had been waiting for me to become a worthy opponent” (148).  As Richard Parker prepares to kill the hyena, Pi prepares a mini-raft so that he can get off the lifeboat and presumably to safety. These two actions are linked together. The narration switches back and forth from Pi’s tasks to Richard Parker’s posturing. Just as Pi is about to finish the raft (he “only had to hitch the other end of the rope to the raft”), Richard Parker attacks the hyena (150). Thus, Pi and Richard Parker work at parallel tasks that ultimately ensure Pi’s survival.

Agency is central to Life of Pi, and Pi begins using strong forms of agency early in the novel. In Chapter 5, Pi goes into a lengthy discussion of his full name (Piscine) and how it was often mispronounced. Out of shame and a fear of ridicule, Pi comes up with an ingenious solution: he will control the destiny of his name. Instead of waiting for his name to be mispronounced, Pi takes a more proactive approach. The process he goes through to rename himself is illuminating as a study of Pi’s agency.

The first solution Pi mentions is to simply be known as “Ravi’s brother.” This solution is ultimately thrown out because “following in someone’s shadow wasn’t my escape” (22). By naming himself in relation to someone else, Pi recognizes that he loses part of what it means to be an individual.

The plan he comes up with–to creatively show teachers he wants to be called Pi–requires a lot of action. His fear of humiliation drives him, on the first day of class, to go to the board and write on it without being told to. This event, however, does not only represent an extremely agentic first day of school. It also represents the beginning of Pi taking control of his story. With the success of his plan, Pi has successfully renamed the main character of his story.