RELIGIOUS COMPLEXITY OF THE PATEL FAMILY IN MARTEL’S LIFE OF PI

This research discusses social phenomena in the novel Life of Pi which tells the story of a teenager named Pi who is very obsessed with religion. He even practiced three religions at once, namely Hinduism, Christianity and Islam. He lives in a family whose spirituality is different from other families in general. The family has religious complexity, where each family member has a different spiritual journey. His father didn't care about religion at all and only cared about business, while his mother believed in Hinduism, and his older brother didn't think about anything except entertainment such as music, films and cricket. The Structuralism approach has become a scientific method used by researchers in analyzing the novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel. This approach emphasizes the intrinsic elements of the novel Life of Pi such as characterization, plot, setting, and theme. Then the research data is processed qualitatively and the research results are displayed descriptively. The results of this research show that the Patel family in the novel Life of Pi is a family that has religious complexity. This is caused by differences in the understanding of each family member in the family. The author believes that this phenomenon is the impact of several factors such as modernization and the impact of the environment they live in. The modernization factor makes the family apply the understanding of the modern family, which is more open to the understanding of each family member and respects each other's opinions. Meanwhile, environmental factors is able to open the views of each family member by seeing the cultural diversity around them.