Emma Kallenbach English 21 A Story About Storytelling In the novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel, the sinking of a ship begins Pi’s journey through the Pacific Ocean in a lifeboat. Yann Martel writes through the eyes of Pi as he experiences an epic 227 day journey with a Bengal tiger as his companion. The novel, however, is known for its double-story ending. When Pi is finally safe on land and getting interviewed about his adventure, he reveals an alternative story about what happened, one that involves humans. The human story is an incredibly harrowing tale of how Pi survived under terrible conditions. In Pi’s case, the embellishing of the human story to turn it into the animal story is a coping mechanism. This novel shows that as long as the …show more content…
He imagines that an atheist’s last words would be, “’White, white! L-L-Love! My God!’” (pg 64). On the other hand, he thinks that an agnostic’s last words would be, “’Possibly a f-f-failing oxygenation to the b-b-brain’” (pg 64). Atheists have enough faith to create an alternative, more positive, end to their lives whereas agnostics have a lack of imagination and “miss the better story.” If an agnostic has no faith, then they have nothing to believe which leads to a lonely life without meaning or purpose. He also describes agnostics as beholding to “dry, yeastless, factuality” which makes it clear to the reader that atheists’ point of view is more appealing than agnostics’ point of view. As for atheists, they choose to believe that there isn’t a God. This gives their lives a sense of purpose because atheists are able to grasp on to that belief. The overall essence of this passage is to say that people choose what they want to …show more content…
Pi first told the story with the animals to the officials and then told a story that involved humans to the officials. The story with humans is an incredibly tragic story. Pi had to witness the act of cannibalism and even his mother being killed. If the human story is true, Pi would even have to face the fact that he is a killer. No human being could stay sane after experiencing that. Pi asks the officials, “So tell me, since it makes no factual difference to you and you can’t prove the question either way, which story do you prefer? Which is the better story, the story with animals or the story without animals?”(pg 317). The facts of a story can be altered for many different purposes. In Pi’s case, the altering of details was a coping mechanism. The better story can also be projected into people’s lives. People’s life with God is a much better story than without
Contrast. Tone. Metaphors. These literary elements are all used in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s in relation to a larger theme in the novel – confidence. In the book, a man named McMurphy is put into a mental ward run by Nurse Ratched, who has complete power and control over the men. They all fear her and submit to her due to fear, suppressing their confidence and manhood. When McMurphy came, he was like a spark that ignites a roaring fire in the men; they gain back the confidence that they lost and become free. In one passage, McMurphy takes the men on a fishing trip where he helps them stray away from the Nurse’s power and learn to believe in themselves. Throughout the passage, the use of contrast, positive tone, and metaphors of
Hosseini’s purpose of writing the Kite Runner was to teach the readers the different ethnic groups in Afghanistan. The main character, Amir, is a Pashtun and Pashtuns are Sunni Muslims, then there are Hazara’s that the Pashtuns do not get along with. Hazara’s are not welcomed by the Pashtuns because they are different social classes.
In the novel The Life of Pi by Yann Martel, the author expresses a potent message, being that God pardons us if we have to sin in order to survive desperate circumstances. Pi Patel obtains a very conservative definition of the word “sin.” While living in India Pi was a child who possessed strong morals, believing that a sin is an evil act like killing a living thing and eating it. However, while on the lifeboat Pi cannot survive on his vegetarian diet and must therefore resort to killing and eating meat to sustain himself. Since starting to kill food, Pi woefully states, “Lord to think that I’m a strict vegetarian. To think that when I was a child I shuddered when I snapped open a banana because it sounded to me like the breaking of an animals neck. I descended to a level of savagery that I never imagined possible,” it is then obvious that Pi is disappointed in his new
In this book, Lord of the Flies Golding reflects on his time and the events that were taking place, his personal life experiences that are cultural, religious and social aspects of his time. The book begins with a conversation between Ralph and piggy giving a glimpse of the situation they are in. It is in the middle of a nuclear war when a group of boys are being evacuated to a destination that has not been mentioned. Their plane crashes and is dragged out to sea. They boys, between ages 6 and 12, find themselves on an island where there is no sign of human existence. The situations back home are so tense that no one knows the whereabouts of
Section One: One thing that I would like to comment is about redemption and the one thing that a lot of Americans didn't and still don't know about which is the Afghan culture shown in this section of the book. When I think of Afghanistan I think of war like the Soviet invasion and the war in Afghanistan currently happening with the involvement of the U.S and also like this place where extremist groups like the Taliban, Al-Qaeda and ISIS take root and spread fear. The book states that “women dressed in long, colorful shawls, beads, and silver bracelets around their wrists and ankles” (Hosseini 23). The book also stated that “people spoke of women’s rights and modern technology. People went to work Saturday through Thursday and gathered for picnics on Fridays in parks, on the banks of Ghargha Lake,
When one commits a sin, there are typically many external consequences that follow. Some people also find themselves having internal conflicts due to feeling regretful for engaging in their wrongdoing. In Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, Amir commits a sin that results in him severing a brotherhood between him and his half brother and friend, Hassan. Due to the fact that Amir and Hassan had a very strong relationship growing up, it should have been implied that the boys would show each other undying loyalty. However, Amir neglects to defend Hassan on the day that he was raped. This decision to be a bystander instead of a hero leaves Amir with a heavy load of guilt that will not disappear. Luckily for him, he is given the opportunity to redeem
Betrayal in “The Story of an Hour” leads to Mrs. Mallard being better off alone, as her own person. Mrs. Mallard commits a treacherous act by thinking of the good in her husband's passing. “And yet she loved him- sometimes. Often she had not...’Free! Body and Soul free!’” (“The Story of an Hour” 13). Chopin is using irony to make a paradox in this quote. She loves her husband on the outside but deep down she knows she will be more fulfilled with her life alone without him. In the passing of her husband, she is looking forward to her new life ahead.
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
Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, is a fictional novel written in 2001 that explores the primacy of survival by employing symbolism, foreshadowing and motifs. This story follows the life of the protagonist, Piscine Molitor “Pi” Patel, as he embarks on his journey as a castaway. After boarding the Tsimtsum which carries Pi and his family along with a menagerie of animals, an abysmal storm capsizes the ship leaving Pi as the only survivor, though he is not alone. The great Bengal tiger, Richard Parker, also survives the shipwreck and during the 227 days that Pi and Richard Parker are stranded at sea together, the two must learn to coexist and trust one another for survival. Through Pi and Richard Parker’s struggles to remain alive, Martel explores the primal idea of survival by employing literary techniques.
...h up their session, Pi asks them, “‘So tell me, since it makes no factual difference to you and you can’t prove the question either way, which story do you prefer?’” The factual or provable existence of God is not necessarily relevant to whether someone should believe in Him. This requirement of proof for belief is typical of the agnostic, whose sole belief is that he or she cannot believe either way because there is no proof either way. However, life is a story, and in real life, there must be a story to tell. When it comes to Life of Pi, there is hardly any difference between life and story, so how could the novel not mimic life, being the story of a life itself? A life perhaps embellished to become better, just as readers must embellish their own lives in favor of the better story.
He lives in a zoo, and is surrounded and influenced by animals daily. His knowledge of animals grows as he does, and he learns and sees new things year after year at the zoo. One peculiar, yet crucial thing that Pi learns while living in the zoo, is the concept of zoomorphism. Zoomorphism, “is where an animal takes a human being or another animal, to be one of its kind”(84). He explains that within the zoo that he spent his childhood, there were many cases of zoomorphism, from the strange friendly relationship between the goats and the rhinoceroses, to the even stranger friendly predator-prey relationship between a viper and a mouse. Pi then says that the only explanation for zoomorphism is that the “measure of madness moves life in strange but saving ways”(85). The rhinoceros and goats get along because the rhinoceros, “[is] in need of companionship”(85), and without the goats, the rhinoceros would become depressed and die. This explanation of zoomorphism is major foreshadowing and background on why Richard Parker and Pi can live together on the lifeboat. Like the rhinoceros, both Pi and Richard Parker would have died without the company of another being. The “madness” that is the relationship between Richard Parker and Pi, scares Pi and causes him stress. However, this stress and fear keeps Pi alive, and ultimately saves his life. Therefore, the story with the animals is true, because
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,
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. 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.
In “The Story of an Hour,” Kate Chopin exposed the obligations and feelings of a stifled, young woman. The main character, Louise Mallard, thought she might get her freedom back, but the unexpected ending allowed the reader to understand what women experienced during this time, making the reader more connected to the characters. Additionally, readers were moved by the pathos of death, along with the imagery that was utilized by Chopin to make it easier for people to relate with. Her main purpose was to entertain but she also desired to inform the reader about women being repressed. Although this short story seemed quite straightforward, Chopin managed to pull the reader’s emotions in various directions with each new paragraph, using pathos
Imagine being stranded in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in a lifeboat, not alone but with some carnivorous animals, as company. The chances of survival do not seem so high, but when one has the will to survive, they can do anything to attain it. Pi Patel and his family are on their way to Canada from Pondicherry, India, when their cargo ship the Tsimtsum sinks. Pi is not the only survivor of the ship, along with him is a hyena, an injured zebra, an orangutan and a 450-pound orange Bengal tiger. Pi travels across the Pacific Ocean in only a lifeboat, with food dwindling quickly, he needs to find land and most of all survive the voyage. In Life of Pi; Yann Martel develops the idea that having the will to survive is a crucial key to survival; this is demonstrated through symbolism of the colour orange, having religion on the protagonist’s side and the thirst and hunger experienced by the protagonist.