Anthropomorphism in Life of Pi

One of the themes in Life of Pi was anthropomorphism.  This has been both accepted and unaccepted throughout the course of the novel, reflected through Pi's eyes, and the eyes of the narrator.  Pi sometimes falls victim to anthropomorphism, thinking better of an animal's behaviour than would be expected, but the narrator gives off a feeling of strict discouragement of the concept.  A conflict shows itself to the reader when the narrator himself has a passage in which a group of circus tigers are anthropomorphized.  It gives you an unclear message.  When we think of our pets in our own homes, we just assume that they have mutual feelings for us, that they will miss us when we are gone, and rejoice when we return.  Even though we would all like to believe this to be the truth, in reality, we know that the animals don't care for us, but care only for their own needs and wants.  In the end, at some point in our lives, we have all let slip our imaginations at the ideas of humanized animals, talking, or thinking in the ways a human does, while still knowing deep down, that it can't be true.  Yann Martel expresses this conflict by showing both sides through his ideas and thoughts, as well as Pi's.