Why is it significant that Mr. Kumar, Pi's Islam teacher, blends in with his surroundings? Remember when Pi first meets him and doesn't see him sitting right there in front of him? And then when Mr. Kumar was coming to the zoo for a visit, Pi panicked about missing him as he walked right by him. (I'm asking you to analyze symbolism here)
To start, we should first look at how Pi sees Islam, especially compared to the other religions he practices, Hinduism and Catholicism. When Pi first experiences Islam while exploring the Muslim quarter of pondicherry, and finds the mosque, his first impression of it was “There was nothing evidently religious . . . but it was pleasant and quiet.” and further emphasized how clean and open it was. Pi is first confused by the lack of decoration and art of the mosque, but impressed by the openness and cleanliness of the space. Pi’s first impression is that the religion is exceedingly simple compared to the grand art of Catholicism and the big temples of Hinduism, the mosque instead being painted a plain white with green edges, covered in simple reed or straw mats. Like Mr. Kumar, the mosque doesn't stand out.
ReplyDeleteBeyond the appearance of the mosque, Islam to Pi is exceedingly different then Hinduism and Catholicism. Towards the beginning of the book in chapter 16 Pi describes his first experience with Hinduism, describing in an exceedingly long sentence the many sensory details he experienced when he first entered a temple, the sound of bells and the smell of incense, saying it made him feel like he was in a “Cosmic womb.” To Pi Hinduism is all about the divine, what a person can't see but can sense and feel, and helps him know his place in the universe. Contrasting this is Catholicism, which shocks Pi with the emotions and feelings behind it, as well as the humanity of Jesus and other important religious figures. To Pi Catholicism is about the beauty of human emotions and suffering.
Yet when Pi first experiences Islam, he doesn’t immediately see it as extremely different from Hinduism or Catholicism, rather as almost a blend of the two, saying on page 62 “I felt like the centre of a small circle coinciding with the centre of a much larger one. Atman met Allah.” Pi through Islam feels a strong connection with God, and feels as if the discovery of his new faith brought together the human world and the divine, Catholicisms emphasis on the beauty of humanity with Hinduisms focus on divine universe. This is evidenced by how, before he says this, Pi talks about how before nature had seemed like a conglomerate of different objects, all clashing and out of sync, but now, after he became Muslim, they all “Spoke one language of unity.” Pi begins to see, because of Islamic teachings from Mr. Kumar, the world around him as one whole blend of the divine with the physical world.
So why is it significant that Mr. Kumar blends in with his surroundings?
I believe it is because it represents Pi’s new interpretation of the world around him as one interconnected web of divinity and humanity, nature and religion. Mr. Kumar to Pi is a physical representation of this interconnected web, he like the mosque is plain and simple, yet impressive on the inside with his wealth of knowledge. Furthermore, Mr. Kumar is the person who taught Pi about Islam, and a person who Pi sees as understanding at how Islam is peaceful and unifying to Pi. As such Pi sees him as a simple plain man who blends in with the crowd, as to him he is a part of this unity between all living and divine objects he sees. I think Pi not being able to recognize him in a crowd is representative of how he taught Pi to see this new language of unity, this new blend of the divine and the physical world.
Nathan hutchinson