“Is there life after death?”: In search of ‘After Life’ in Yann Martel’s Life of Pi

Abstract

The most awestruck question since the beginning of recorded history, perhaps is, ‘Is there life after death?’ It’s the eternal search of human soul on earth. Yann Martel’s novel Life of Pi enchants the imagination and wakefulness of the essential impulse of life. In fact, Martel captivates the readers with a stunning story-telling and explores an ‘awareness’ which perhaps cannot be known but felt only. The appalling combat with hostile nature for survival forces Pito castaway at sea. It is the calamitous extent to which creatures go after facing extinction but he comes back. The miracle which Pi experiences, is beyond religious inferences or scientific rationalizations. This paper tries to explore the metaphysical existence of human soul and its bliss through the understanding of NDE.