Comparing and Contrasting Sacrificial Scenes in the Poem "Sacrifice" and Chapter Eight of the Novel "Life of Pi"

The poem, Sacrifice, and chapter 8 of the novel, Life of Pi, both speak about a sacrificial scene. Both the texts have used a few features in common to create this horror and shock in the reader’s mind. They have both described the whole scene as completely disgusting and frightening. There are many similarities in the way the two texts have used the literary features. And, there are just as many differences.

The two texts use similar imageries of sense to show how scary the scene is. When Pi feels his ‘mother’s hand on’ his ‘beating heart’ and when the goat says ‘four calloused hands imprison my jerking legs’, they both show touch imagery. The similarity is that both are anxious and can feel hands trying to calm them down. In Pi’s case, it’s his mother’s soft, warm hand but the goat, unfortunately, gets four rough, hard hands. Both texts also use strong sight imagery to put a terrible impact on the reader’s mind. They give the reader a horrifying visual of blood when Pi says, ‘if I daubed it on later with a big brush’ and the poet sees ‘the blood geyser from the jugular’.

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