Life of Pi and Bildungsroman

Life of Pi is not necessarily a bildungsroman, but more along the lines of the “journey novel” or travel genre. Although as in any good bildungsroman deep thoughts are considered and analyzed (for example, religion, faith, trust, cooperation, nature vs. knowledge, morals vs. traditions in the types of foods eaten or abstained from, etc.) and the protagonist Pi gains experience concerning survival on the ocean with a Bengal tiger, it can be argued that Life of Pi is not a bildungsroman because Pi really does not come to some great realization or paradigm shift; he merely examines, re-examines and goes deeper with thoughts that have already occurred to him. Because these are old thoughts and not new ones, Pi is not really “growing” or “coming of age” as much as is commonly done in bildungsroman literature. The closest experience to "coming of age" would probably be his realization that the only way to survive on the sea is to help Richard Parker to survive as well, and the loss and continued attachment that Pi feels after Richard Parker slinks off into the Mexican jungle without any sort of “goodbye” or acknowledgement of their relationship.