All Comments, Queries, Criticisms and Cundundrums Welcome!!!

When I started to read Life of Pi, many people asked me if I had read it before, because they had all read it years ago- when they were in grades 6, 7 and 8. I had not ever read it before. I am in grade 12. At first, I felt a little embarassed- as if I had not chosen a cornerstone of Canlit but a cute story about a boy on a boat with a tiger. But just as soon as I was embarassed, I was justified; I do not know how anyone could read Life of Pi at the age of 12, 13 or 14 and fully appreciate the fact that while it is on paper a story about a boy on a boat with a tiger, Yann Martel does not wish his reader to read solely what is on the page: he challenges his reader at every turn to comprehend the profound symbolism of the boy on a boat with a tiger...and all that goes with it.

My apologia is going to talk about this symbolism- indeed this allegory and it's connotations in society; perhaps more importantly it's connotations for the individual and then that individual as a part of society. I hope that through this initial exploration (which will involve religion, credibility, life philosophies, logic and the like) I will be able to weave it into support for this novel as a Canadian novel. An actual draft has yet to physically exist. Can drafts physically exist on a blog? Is physicality determined by all the senses or by touch only? Can the Japanese investigators believe that the algae island physically exists based on verbal description from Pi? Should they? Is plausibility similarily determined by all the senses? Anyway, enough rambling.

Questions pertaining specifically to the purpose of the apologia: why is symbolism so important in portraying the individual in society? Likewise, why is allegory so necessary when addressing religion and faith? Taken literally, why is so unlikely, so incredible a story so effective in conveying ideas to 'normal' people with relatively 'normal' lives?