Survival is a human instinct that we all push to achieve and it can also be viewed as a personal defense mechanism and manner at which a story is told is also a means of survival. Pi survived 227 days lost at sea and was rescued on the shores of Mexico later on, taken to a nearby hospital for treatment. During his recovery, two men from the Japanese Ministry of Transport visit him in hospital and question him in an effort to understand what transpired at the ocean as Pi was the sole survivor of the Tsimtsum. “Now, Mr. Patel, we were wondering if you could tell us what happened to you, with as much detail as possible,” and Pi willingly accepts to tell his story, “Yes, I’d be happy to” (Life of Pi Chapter 96). The chapter that follows, Chapter …show more content…
The zoo animals mentioned in the first story include an orangutan, a hyena, a zebra, and an orange Bengal tiger named Richard Parker as Pi narrates his second story to the officers, he matches each animal to a human character as follows, respectively, Pi’s mother, the cook, the Chinese crewman, and Pi’s alter ego. Ideally, from the two tales, we can see a man torn in between preservation of his morality versus the need to survive. He initially tells a tale that seems much more appropriate and ‘morally right’ as compared to the second narration which depicts him as a murderer, a cannibal, and a person who goes against his faith demands. Pi had no choice but to reveal what actually happened, a reality that he had avoided and lied about in order to survive. The story about the humanlike animals most likely was just an illusion, Pi used, in order to survive the reality that he had to abandon his morality; what he believed in, for
Storytelling is a way of expressing one’s imagination through fanciful adventures and serve a variety of purposes. One important reason is to capture a special moment and endure it but mostly because it unites us and of course entertains us. In Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, and Tim Burton’s The Big Fish, storytelling is seen as more important than the truth. Throughout the novel Life of Pi, and the film The Big Fish, it can be argued that the truth is intertwined with the lies in each story to form a new kind of truth. An example of this would be when Pi retells his story to the two Japanese men in a way in which he makes the animals human and introduces a different version of the truth. Both the film and movie also share a unique way of story telling because what they both share is a common moral “quest” which involves the main character, who is usually the hero, must overcome challenges in order to achieve a goal or reward at the end.
He talked about school and how he came to have the nickname Pi. The majority of these stories take place in his father's zoo in the city of Pondicherry, India. He tells multiple stories about the different animals within the zoo and speaks about their many different behaviors and tendencies. He talks about how man doesn't always understand the animals. Pi also tells stories about how he comes to worship three different major religions of the world, Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity.
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
I feel like you look at all animals like some of us look at dogs. I could not even think about eating a dog or even a cat. People look at dogs like basically humans. They feed it human food, look after it like a child, some even have their own beds. If I looked at every animal like a dog or cat, I would have a lot more respect for animals. I would disagree with zoos because they can’t roam free as they please. This scene shows how low Pi had to stoop in his mind to stay alive. Eating meat alone for Pi was hard for him but he actually had to kill an animal, snapping their neck to be exact. If he could barely peel a banana because it sounded like the breaking of an animal’s neck, I could not imagine having to kill an animal to eat it. This scene took a lot out of Pi, maybe he realized that he might actually die and this is the end if he is stooping this low to eat food. This was one huge reality check for Pi, calling himself a savage just implies that. Maybe this was the scene where he sat back and maybe thought to himself; “maybe this is really happening, maybe I am lost at sea with a wild beast.” There really isn’t a choice for Pi at this point on out, he has to fight for his
Pi starts a story without animals in which a French Cook, a sailor with a broken leg and his mother are with him on the lifeboat. The cook cuts off the sailor’s leg and eats him, scaring Pi. Later Pi’s mother and the cook have an argument which leads the cook to kills Pi’s mother, throwing her head to Pi. After, Pi kills the cook. Mr. Okamoto notices the similarities in the stories the two men don’t know what to believe. They continue to question for details about the actual sinking of the ship. Pi requests that they choose which story they like best. The two men enjoy the first story, to which causes Pi to begin to cry.
Pi miraculous journey was as emotionally draining as physical. Pi animal story gives great insight of his spiritual journey whereas the human story was gruesome, harsh and straight to the point. “I was giving up. I would have given up – if a voice hadn 't made itself heard in my heart. The voice said, "I will not die. I refuse it. I will make it through this nightmare. I will beat the odds, as great as they are. I have survived so
The son of a zookeeper, Pi Patel has an encyclopedic knowledge of animal behavior and a fervent love of stories. When Pi is sixteen, his family emigrates from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship, along with their zoo animals bound for new homes. The ship sinks. Pi finds himself alone in a lifeboat, his only companions a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and Richard Parker, a 450-pound Bengal tiger. Soon the tiger has dispatched all but Pi, whose fear, knowledge, and cunning allow him to coexist with Richard Parker for 227 days while lost at sea. When they finally reach the coast of Mexico, Richard Parker flees to the jungle, never to be seen again. The Japanese authorities that interrogate Pi refuse to believe his story and press him to tell them "the truth." After hours of coercion, Pi tells a second story, a story much less fantastical, much more conventional — but is it more true?
...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.
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,
He chose to bond with the animals, not only to observe them. When Pi went to work with his dad, he didn’t see it as something drab and boring. He went to learn from all of the animals by observing their behavior toward each other. When people who are not around animals very often look at animals they don’t see the way they act as Pi would. In a way these animals are likes Pi’s friends, he talks to them and does not find this behavior strange. From this we learn, ‘Human beings use their linguistic resources to produce new expressions and sentences. They arrange and rearrange phonemes, morphemes, words, and phrases in a way that can express an infinite number of ideas. This is also called the open-endedness of language. Animal communication is a closed system. It cannot produce new signals to communicate novel events or experiences.’ (Owlcation p.7) In other words, although we may communicate in different ways we can still relate on the same intellectual level. For instance, if you go to the zoo and see someone speaking to the animals like they are humans, you can infer that they do not understand each other by the words, but the comprehension of body language, tonal inflection, mannerisms, etc. The person is not crazy for thinking that the animals might understand them. Their brain’s recognize this as communication, even though they do not understand the
His love and understanding of zoology was the reason he survived on the life raft. Even though Pi went against his morals and ate meat, Pi saw it as necessary to survive. His will to survive and to eliminate all personal boundaries allowed him to do what ever deed needed to survive. And finally using his knowledge of animals as a means of maintaining a psychological level of sanity, which kept him motivated and sane throughout his time at sea. With the extreme circumstances that Pi lived through, and the means he used to cope with them, it is obvious that his choices were
Personally, I believe this all was a psychological test against his religion, faith and sanity. Pi realizes when God is needed most and he as well realizes the “animals” aboard the boat are just other people. A Bengal tiger named Richard Parker is Pi himself, an orangutan named Orange Juice is Pi’s mother.
Piscine Molitor Patel, this name carries great significance throughout the novel Life Of Pi. Associations of Pi 's name with water is very clear to the reader. Pi was named after a pool in Paris, Piscine Molitor, Mr. Adirubasamy 's favourite pool, Mr. Adirubasamy also taught Pi how to swim. He then became a skilful swimmer. I believe that the author has incorporated this connection to make Pi 's story of the shipwreck seem more realistic, because Pi is a good swimmer, then he has a skill to aid him in living on an ocean. This is used to enhance the authors credibility and make the fantasized story feel more realistic. Another thing that is interesting about the name Pi, is that it is a very unusual name, we don 't regularly see people with
In Life of Pi, Pi is influenced by the decisions that animals make while onboard the lifeboat and the humanlike characters that they represent in Pi’s factual story. Many readers believe that the story of the animals is just a figment of Pi's imagination and that it was just something to keep him alive. Others believe that the story of the animals really did happen in Pi's time on the Pacific Ocean. No one will ever know what the real story of Pi's journey was, but everyone who has heard about Pi's multiple stories will have their own opinions and interpretations of what really happened.