Gustave Flaubert one said, “There is no truth, there is only perception” (qtd. In Goodreads). In the novel “Life of Pi” Yann Martel exemplifies Flaubert’s belief; that perception is very much subjective and one must decide on their own truth. Throughout Pi’s story, Martel blends both realism and fiction together making the reader decide what they think is real. This is exemplified at the end of the novel when Pi brings up two different stories, making the reader dedice what they think is the “better story”. Through an examination of the novels characters, setting, point of view and literally devices, it becomes apparent that perception in the novel is very much subjective and there really is no truth.
In the novel “Life of Pi” the protagonist
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Throughout the novel, Pi is presented as being a believer in three different religions; he is Hindu, Christian, and Muslim all at the same time. Pi’s beliefs in his different religions allow him to have many different perspectives towards life, just like at the end of the novel when Pi tells his two different stories about his time at sea. Pi’s beliefs in God not only allow him to overcome many different obstacles in life, but also allow for him to survive his hardships at sea by praying to God in his times of need. “Thank You, Lord Vishnu, thank you!” (Martel 204). This quote shows how both God and religion helped Pi survive day to day. During Pi’s hardships in the ocean, Pi goes throughout many shifts and changes in order to survive. For instance, Pi goes from being a vegan to carnivore during his time at sea. “A lifetime of peaceful vegetarianism stood between me and the willful beheading fish” (202). Pi learns to against what he believes in and changes his views on life when faced with life or death situations. Also, each of the animals in the novel are personified and each have a human …show more content…
In the 1970’s there a lot of political tensions in India, and it started to turn into a totalitarian civilization. The government in India forced Pi and his family out the country, causing them venture to Canada. During Pi’s long days at sea the reader can see the claustrophobic atmosphere on the lifeboat between Pi and Richard parker “I started thinking seriously about how I was going to deal with Richard Parker. I could not always be running away from him” (224). The setting of being in the middle of the Pacific Ocean leaves Pi to fend for himself and goes through many changes during this time. For instance, Pi goes from being vegan to becoming a carnivore in order to survive. Also, at the end of the novel when Pi washes up on shore in Mexico, Pi tells the reader about both the human and animal version setting of his story. Martel shows how there are always two sides to every story, and that perception is subjective. When Pi reveals his two different stories this allows the reader to choose what they believe. Pi implies to the reader the he believes the story with the animals because God also prefers that story. This is shown at the end of the novel when Pi’s says “And so it goes with God” (). The use of setting throughout the story show how Pi’s time in the Pacific Ocean plays a
Pi’s journey starts out in a town in India known as Pondicherry. Here he finds a great interest in both Zoology( the study of animals), and religion. Pi also as well shows much knowledge in Zoology as shown in this quote from the book. “I got every possible student award from the department of Zoology.” (Pg.6) Pi, relating to religion(his other great interest), believes in multiple religions of which include Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity. Pi also finds great enjoyment in going to the Zoo, a zoo in which his own father owns. Pi’s great home life before his journey doesn’t last too long however. Soon the Tamil
With the lifeboat symbolising faith and Richard Parker as Pi’s primal instinct, Martel depicts Pi’s prolonged fight for survival as assuming the behaviour of a tiger allows him to endure the voyage. By foreshadowing Pi’s tense relationship with a tiger and the tragic sinking of the ship, the audience speculates that Pi will persevere, despite his unfortunate circumstances. Lastly, the recurring motif of food, water and territory requires both castaways to respect and depend on each other for their survival. Through the literary techniques of symbolism, foreshadowing and motifs, Martel enables the audience to explore the central theme of survival as they too experience being a castaway in the Pacific Ocean through Pi’s life
In the book the Life of Pi by Yann Martel, religion plays an important role in Pi’s life. When on the lifeboat, Pi used his faith as a way to motivate himself to live. Without his religious beliefs, there is no way to guarantee he would have made it off the lifeboat.
“God is hard to believe, ask any believer” (297). In the book, Life of Pi, By Yann Martel, Pi says this to the two Japanese men who are talking with him about his adventure. They don’t believe that Pi survived on a lifeboat with a Bengal Tiger for 227 days, but the men do not know where Pi came from. Pi, his family, and the remains of the zoo were moving from India to Canada when their ship sank, leaving Pi and a tiger, Richard Parker, the only survivors. Pi grew up in a zoo and lived a very religious life, and because of his knowledge of both, Pi was able to survive his journey, even with a Tiger, and kept a hope that they both will survive.
Pi maintains his religious beliefs while on the life boat through his daily prayers. He takes time aside each day to say the prayers that he always would say. In one instance, he turns where he believes Mecca is located, and prays his traditional prayers towards Mecca. Pi also often states that he will include specific animals in his prayers, such as the zebra aboard his lifeboat, and the first fish that he ever killed. With Pi keeping his ritual prayers going, it helped him to survive.
An id and ego split is also shown between Pi and Richard Parker. Richard Parker is 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.
On its surface, Martel’s Life of Pi proceeds as a far-fetched yet not completely unbelievable tale about a young Indian boy named Pi who survives after two hundred twenty-seven days on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. It is an uplifting and entertaining story, with a few themes about companionship and survival sprinkled throughout. The ending, however, reveals a second story – a more realistic and dark account replacing the animals from the beginning with crude human counterparts. Suddenly, Life of Pi becomes more than an inspiring tale and transforms into a point to be made about rationality, faith, and how storytelling correlates the two. The point of the book is not for the reader to decide which story he or she thinks is true, but rather what story he or she thinks is the better story. In real life, this applies in a very similar way to common belief systems and religion. Whether or not God is real or a religion is true is not exactly the point, but rather whether someone chooses to believe so because it adds meaning and fulfillment to his or her life. Life of Pi is relevant to life in its demonstration of storytelling as a means of experiencing life through “the better story.”
This unimaginable tale, is the course of events upon Pi’s journey in the Pacific ocean after the ship that Pi and his family were aboard crashes, leaving him stranded with a tiger named Richard Parker, an orangutan, a zebra, and a hyena. Pi loses everything he has and starts to question why this is happening to him. This is parallel to the story of Job. Job is left with nothing and is experiencing great suffering and he begins to demand answers from God. Both Pi and Job receive no answers, only being left with their faith and trust. To deal with this great suffering Pi begins to describe odd things which begin to get even more unbelievable and ultimately become utterly unrealistic when he reaches the cannibalistic island. Richard Parker’s companionship serves to help Pi through these events. When the reader first is intoduced to Richard Parker he emerges from the water, making this symbolic of the subconscious. Richard Parker is created to embody Pi’s alter ego. Ironically, each of these other animals that Pi is stranded with comes to symbolize another person. The orangutan represents Pi’s mother, the zebra represents the injured sailor, and the hyena represents the cook. Pi fabricated the people into animals in his mind to cope with the disillusion and trails that came upon him while stranded at the erratic and uncontrollable sea,
Martel’s novel is about the journey of a young man being forced to test his limits in order to survive the unthinkable predicament of being lost at sea alongside an adult Bengal tiger. Life of Pi starts out by introducing an anonymous author on a quest to find his next big story and goes to a man by the name of Piscine Molitor Patel who supposedly has a story worth hearing. Patel begins his story talking about his childhood and the main events that shaped him such as his family’s zoo, the constant curiosity in religion he sought as a young boy and also how he got his nickname Pi. Mr. Patel continues explaining how his father contracts a Japanese ship to transport his family, along with a number of their zoo animals, from India to Canada in order to avoid political upheaval. While traveling the ship began sinking and Pi was the only one to manage to make it onto the life boat and survive the wreck. The disaster left Pi along with a fe...
Yann Martel’s trip to Portugal in 1939 inspired him to write Life of Pi. He never actually took into consideration about believing in God until this trip occurred. Telling his story made Martel believe that it can have a effect on other people's lives. This motivated Martel to write this novel, that opened his mind about believing in God and how believing in God can impact your life in many different ways. Like seeing things around the world differently, or making wise decisions in your life.
In Life of Pi, Yann Martel illustrates the main allegory is, religion is the better story because while religion may seem unlikely its not impossible the story without animals is like life without God, and Pi said “and so it goes with God” when the two Japanese men agreed that the first story was the better story. Life of Pi takes place in the pacific ocean when Pi and his family were moving from India to Canada on a cargo ship with all of their zoo animals aboard the ship. In a sudden turn of events the ship sinks and Pi is stranded in the ocean on a lifeboat with a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan, a tiger, Richard Parker. Pi is later saved when he washes up on the beaches of Mexico.
Standards, beliefs, and values can be lost when challenged. As different situations are presented, different truths are tested and one’s values can be compromised. This relates to the novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel when the main character Pi, is stranded on a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean with a full grown Bengal Tiger, limited supplies, and a slight chance of survival. Pi’s morals were questioned when death and starvation became a factor. Martel used literary techniques including character, imagery, and setting to communicate Pi’s moral dilemma. In addition, the novel leaves open ended questions about the reader's own moral state.
Yann Martel’s novel Life of Pi tells a story set in the late twentieth century of a life changing journey experienced by a courageous adolescent. The book’s primary focus is the conception of stillness, with the plot of the novel capturing the absence of movement. Accompanying the protagonist, Pi Patel, the reader is able to dive into the story and experience the spontaneous expedition which Pi embarks on. Over the course of the novel, the reader is able to gain an outlook on the notion of stillness through the eyes of the author. Through an article titled “What is Stephen Harper Reading?” written by the author, the reader is able to evolve a better understanding of Martel’s views on stillness and serenity. With this perspective in mind, the
Pi is an indian, but except Hinduism, he also believes in Christianity and Islam. It is pretty unusual. However, these three religions save his life when he meets storm on the sea. Religion is a key component in Pi’s survival because it lets him understand that he has to coexist with other creatures, it leads Pi to accept that even if he did not survive he would be redeemed, and it gives Pi the hope for survival.
The projection of Richard Parker helps Pi to be aware of this current situation, which was him being stranded in the ocean on a lifeboat in comparison to his beliefs in his religions. His fear towards Richard Parker was one of the reasons of his survival. Pi says, “Fear and reason fought over answer. Fear said yes. He was a fierce, 450-pound carnivore. Each of his claws was sharp as a knife” (Martel 108). Pi describes Richard Parker as an extremely dangerous, fearful, and vicious predator. This causes Pi keep aware because he is on a boat with a deadly carnivore. He tries to keep awake at night while being on the lifeboat with Richard Parker from the fear of being attacked and eaten by the Bengal tiger. However, since Richard Parker is Pi’s id, it was actually him keeping himself aware and alive. Pi states, “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” (Martel 164). This shows how Richard Parker occupies Pi’s mind and influences his thoughts about the tragic incident that has happened. The will to live for Pi is no longer his family, but Richard Parker, his id. Richard Parker taught Pi how to survive based on his instincts an...