JG_LOPWeek2ECQs

=Week 2 ECQ's=

Dominant Theme: Belief in God
 * ECQ #1**

"They're separate religions! They have nothing in common” (Martel 91).

Everyone always views religions as “separate” entities. Many presume that they are all so vastly different and “separate”. Many of those people do not take the time to look at the essence of those religions. While many of their practices are different, most of their beliefs are the same. To say that all religions are “separate” may be true in a physical sense, but in a spiritual one they are almost one and the same. Religions are stuck in their ways, always trying to enforce their “separation” that they fail to see the similarities that bind them all. Almost all religions share the belief in god and faith in peace and love. The “separation” is just brought about by how each religion expresses their beliefs. If people of "separate" faiths could only try to see that every one believes in the same god, people just argue about what He looks like.

Dominant Theme: Love is powerful
 * ECQ #2 **

Quote 2: “'Bapu Gandhi said 'All religions are true.' I just want to love God.' I blurted out, and looked down, red in the face” (Martel 87).

Here, Pi demonstrates that the love for a higher power unites all religions. He uses the the quote from Gandhi to confirm that what he says is “true.” This “truth” is essentially love: love for God and love for others. He used this “truth” to control the bickering priest, imam, and pandit, and his skeptical parents. This statement implies that truth is not absolute, the religious leaders can choose to believe in whichever deity they prefer, and that //becomes// “truth.” Also, by using the word “God,” Pi is referring not only to Allah, Christ, and Vishnu, but also all everything else in the world. Pi believes that God created all the Earth, and he has an inseparable love with the animals in his father's zoo. Also, Pi has become close friends with those who celebrate the religions of Christianity, Islam, Hindu, and Atheism. He unites them all as creatures of “God” and has equal love for everything on earth.