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reflection about sigmund freud philosiphy
reflection about sigmund freud philosiphy
sigmund freuds psychodynamic theory
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Society is known to put everyone and everything into roles that, if or when the role assigned is changed, all hell breaks loose. Through Freud’s theory, he explains the behaviors that are associated with the id, the ego, and the superego. Being that Pi was someone who had been relatively well-off prior to embarking on his trip to Canada and then thrown into a new scenario that involves him becoming a starving survivor of a boat wreck stuck in a boat with a tiger that is threatening to eat him, it can be seen that Freud’s theory is displayed. When observing the events that take place throughout Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, it is observable that he creates an impressive relationship between Freud’s theory of the id, ego, and superego and Pi’s mental facade while using a paradox within the specific animals, as well as his strive for survival. According to Sigmund Freud, the id is made up of two different types of biological instincts that are classified as Eros and Thanatos. Eros is life instinct that assists people in survival by directing activities that sustain life. Some examples of these activities would be breathing, eating and sex. These life instincts are known to give people energy that is called libido. Thanatos is the opposite of Eros; it is death instinct. The death instinct is seen as the destructive forces that exist in every person. This is a form of energy that is shown as aggression and violence towards others. Sigmund Freud thought that Thanatos were not as strong as Eros due to the fact that people were able to survive as opposed to destroying themselves (McLeod). Both of these are displayed throughout Yann Martel’s Life of Pi and assist in creating the story. Eros is shown when the hyena eats the zebra’s broken le... ... middle of paper ... ...eating the zebra alive in Chapter 45. Another example of Thanatos is shown when the hyena bites a hole into the zebra and Pi feels a sense of hatred towards the hyena for hurting the zebra and he even considers attacking it. An id and ego split is also shown between Pi and Richard Parker by showing Richard Parker to be an imaginary tiger that is created by Pi in order to keep him alive and focused on staying alive. Pi eventually abandons his superego and partakes in eating meat, even though he was a strict vegetarian prior to being lost at sea. Over the duration of Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, the story relates to Freud’s theories in several ways that are made blatantly obvious; these relations are what makes this story come together to keep the reader involved and interested. Works Cited Martel, Yann. Life of Pi: A Novel. New York: Harcourt, 2001. Print.
The mind is divided into three parts, the id, the ego, and the superego. The part of the mind which is visible for all to see is the superego and the ego. Both the ego and the superego are rational parts of the mind. The id is said to be the only part of the mind that we are born with. Martel used the iceberg theory to depict the real survival struggle Pi had to go through. “Tears flowing down my cheeks, I egged myself on until I heard a cracking sound and I no longer felt any life fighting in my hands. I pulled back the folds of the blanket. The flying fish was dead. It was split open and bloody on one side of its head, at the level of the gills.” (231) In this moment it is Pi’s superego, his conscience fighting his id. His superego is wanting so badly not to kill an innocent animal, but his id is saying you need to do this to survive. This is the point where Pi’s superego is being used less and less until it is not used whatsoever. Pi’s ego is reality, it is rational thinking and his true personality. “I had to stop hoping so much that a ship would rescue me. I should not count on outside help. Survival had to start with me. In my experience, a castaway’s worst mistake is to hope too much and do too little. Survival starts by paying attention to what is close at hand and immediate. To look out with idle hope is tantamount to dreaming one’s life away.” (212) The last part of
Richard Parker is the character everyone will remember from Life of Pi, if only for the fact that he’s a tiger. He is terrifying, beautiful and apathetic; he’s also possibly half-eaten by sharks at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean without ever having stepped foot in a lifeboat, depending on what story the reader prefers. This poses an interesting question to the reader of the novel; if Richard Parker is only present in one of the stories, the tale with a lifeboat packed with animals, what does he represent in the story devoid of zoo animals entirely? An examination of Richard Parker’s comparison to other characters and actions will reveal that he symbolizes an animalistic side of the titular character. For the purposes of this essay, “animalistic side” means the side of Pi that behaves more like an animal than like a human, and is also willing to do whatever it takes to survive.
The definition of story is “an account of imaginary or real people and events told for entertainment,” and both of these novels take this term to heart. Using their stories to hide their pain and emotions, it is easier to come up with a majestic tale then to tell the cold hard truth. In Life of Pi the author says, “That’s what fiction is about, isn't it, the selective transforming of reality? The twisting of it to bring out its essence,” (vi) and that is something both Edward Bloom and Pi Patel doesn’t. Despite Life of Pi and Big Fish’s obvious differences, they have one thing in common they both revolve around the topic of story telling. The novels are about struggling to come to terms with reality and being stuck
Within the text, Life of Pi, the narrator, Pi had always been drawn towards the tiger, Richard Parker, throughout his entire childhood, even during hardships, where Pi’s life was in danger. This can be evident when Pi talks about the importance of the tiger, “ Richard Parker has stayed with me. I’ve never forgotten him. Dare say I miss him? I do. I miss him. I still see him in my dreams. They are nightmares mostly, but nightmares tinged with love. Such is the strangeness of the human heart.” (pg. 14). This shows that Pi considers Richard Parker to be part of his family, side from all the loss and grief he has experienced throughout his journey, even though he is a tiger. Unlike, Life of Pi, the poem illustrates tigers through dark and negative light and pursue these creatures as evil figures that are the result of the higher power. This idea can be pictured through the focal point of the poem, through the use of sensationalism.” What dread grasp. Dare its deadly terrors clasp?”. Through the use of this persuasive technique, the poet, continuously raises questions to the higher power, as to why he could possibly create such horror. Both tigers are powerful creations that are an animal at the end of the day and is savage when it comes to
Stranded for 227 days at sea in a lifeboat, with no one else except an adult Bengal tiger. This is exactly what the main character Pi, in "The Life of Pi" went through. "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel is a story about a boy named Piscine Molitor Patel, an Indian boy who survives more than seven months floating on a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean, with no one else but a 450-pound tiger (Cooper). Yann Martel was born on June 25, 1963, in Salamanca, Spain. His parents, Emile Martel and Nicole Perron, were both born in Canada. He spent his childhood in several different countries, including France, Mexico, the United States, Canada, and Costa Rica. As an adult, he lived in many other places but one of them was India, which may be where he got inspiration for writing “Life of Pi”. Yann Martel uses the literary elements similes and foreshadowing, to express the theme that believing in religion can give you the faith to want to survive.
As Pi was going around his dad’s zoo his dad tell him something. He teaches him how animals are not your friends, especially tigers. This applies for humans as well because they can weal and friendly on the outside but they can actually be very mean as a person. His father shows examples on why animals are not our friends by looking the animals that are locked in their cages. Each one of the animals having their own traits on how bad they can be. After he shows the bad examples he than shows the smaller animals that cannot hurt you like a gunny pig because they are much smaller and more friendly. Pi has learned that we, people can be similar to the bad animals that his dad had gave examples from. He also gets from it that he should be like the gunny pig because they are nice and never set a false image to
“Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual's conscious life, the blacker and denser it is. At all counts, it forms an unconscious snag, thwarting our most well-meant intentions” (Carl Jung). The archetype of the shadow self is the darker, animalistic self that a person represses and is forced into the unconscious by the ego. In Life of Pi by Yann Martel, the protagonist, Piscine Molitor is stranded in the middle of the Pacific with a Bengal tiger. It is on this journey that Pi encounters his shadow self. Unfortunately, in an effort to survive, Pi goes against most of his beliefs; and resorts a level of savagery by giving in to his shadow self, Richard Parker. Thence, Pi’s plight is quite challenging for his fruitarian, gentle, kind hearted persona; therefore, Pi would not have survived if he repudiated his shadow self, projected as Richard Parker.
Religion is and always has been a sensitive topic. Some choose to acknowledge that there is a God and some choose to deny this fact to the death. For those who deny the presence of a higher being, “Life of Pi” will most likely change your thought process concerning this issue. Yann Martel’s, “Life of Pi”, is a compelling story that shows the importance of obtaining religion and faith. Piscine (Pi) Patel is both the protagonist and the narrator of Martell’s religious eye-opener who undergoes a chain effect of unbelievable catastrophes. Each of these catastrophic events leaving him religiously stronger because he knows that in order to endure what he has endured, there has got to be a God somewhere.
The most significant level is psychological because it is very important to a person’s emotional and physical survival. In order for someone to survive, he or she must have a positive mind with faith and determination in every action they take, Despite the fact that having high hopes with slim chances of survival is not as easy as it seems. “In its general form such a requirement insists that important relations (survival, identity, psychological connectedness)”. (Brennan 225). Trying to survive, Pi has to struggle with himself mentally: he has to go against his ethics like rectitude and religion pledge. To do that easily Pi finds his animalistic part which he called in his story as Richard Parker. May be because of his religious grounds he would have never done things like killing people eating fish or cannibalizing humans as done with just imagining himself as a Bengal tiger and he admits that “If I still had the will to live, it was thanks to Richard Parker. He kept me from thinking too much about my family and my tragic circumstances. He pushed me to go on living. I hated him for it, yet at the same time I was grateful.” (Martel, 219) This quote shows that he used this imagination to kill his loneliness boredom...
The Life of Pi, written by Yann Martel, is the story of a young man, Piscine, or Pi for short, who experiences unbelievable and unrealistic events, which are so unrealistic ambiguity is aroused amongst the reader. Duality reoccurs over the course of the novel through every aspect of Pi’s world view and is particularly seen in the two contradictory stories, which displays the brutal nature of the world. Martel wonderfully crafts and image of duality and skepticism though each story incorporated in this novel.
Choices play a prominent role in ensuring comfort and happiness in life. People make choices, which ultimately shape their lives. In Yann Martel’s The Life of Pi, the main character, Pi Patel is forced to make choices, which go against his morals, but ultimately keep him alive. This becomes clear when Pi chooses to change his person by eating meat. Pi then chooses to eliminate all personal boundaries, due to his incredible will to survive. Finally, he chooses to view all of the people on the life boat as animals in order to cope with the psychological distress of being lost at sea. When faced with choices, Pi puts all morals behind him to survive.
“All living things contain a measure of madness that moves them in strange, sometimes inexplicable ways. This madness can be saving; it is part and parcel of the ability to adapt. Without it, no species would survive” (Martel 44-45). Inside every human being, there is an extremely primal and animalistic trait that can surface when the will to survive becomes greater than the morals of the person. This trait allows humans to overcome their fear to do things which they wouldn’t normally be able to do in order to survive when they’re in extreme peril and in a do or die situation. Throughout the book, Life of Pi, survival is a dominant and central theme. The will to survive changes people and this includes the main character of the story, Piscine Molitor Patel. Survival will even change the most timid, religious, and law-abiding people. Yann Martel, using Pi as an example, tries to explain that all humans must do three things in order to survive a life threatening event: one must give up their morals, one must find a way to keep sane, and one must be ready to compromise and sacrifice.
A quick glance at Life of Pi and a reader may take away the idea that it is an easy read and a novel full of imagination, but take a Freudian view on the work and it transforms into a representation of the human psyche. Martel’s novel takes the reader on a journey with Pi as he struggles for his own survival. Pi experiences a breakdown of each component that makes up ones personality according to Freud throughout the novel. One by one id, ego and super ego both express a huge factor in Pi’s choices and emotions throughout his story. The readers are also introduced to an alternate ending to choose from. This alternate ending plays a key role in understanding how to view the novel through Freudian lenses. Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis clarifies many troubling issues raised in the novel Life of Pi.
...ction of Richard Parker kept Pi aware, by showing Pi the reality of the current situation, assisted him with making the right decisions, committing certain actions, and is his sub-consciousness, his id that fights for survival. In Martel’s Life of Pi, Pi’s coping mechanism has been proven more useful in his projection Richard Parker rather than his beliefs in his religions, which has done nothing for Pi and was useless at that time. Humans and animals are very alike in certain aspects. When it all comes down to survival, humans and animals are almost alike. The human mind brings back the inner id from the human consciousness while in drastic situations to help them cope with it in order to survive. The human psychology has a very interesting way of creating coping mechanisms.
In the book Life of Pi, written by Yann Martel, the idea of the boundaries between savagery and humanity are tossed around quite a bit. In Pi’s life or death situation, the idea of savagery becomes a little obscured by the desperation to survive. There are several acts within the story that people who are not in Pi’s situation would possibly see as being savage. As I read the text, I see most of Pi’s actions as a need to survive. Pi creates the character of Richard Parker, who is portrayed as a Bengal tiger, to justify his incidents of savagery. It is through the different events in Life of Pi that the idea of savagery can be misconstrued and confused with the necessity to live.