Life Of Pi

1156 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Symbolism in life of pi essay

Life of Pi: How to Redefine a Name? Piscine Molitor Patel also known as Pi Patel. Pi Patel is represented as an allegorical figure with multiple layers of meaning in the book “Life of Pi.” This novel demonstrates that one’s name to be changed is from the actions of others towards one’s name. Through influence, commitment and courage Piscine Patel shows us how one can persuasively redefine their name, decide what their name means, recreate themselves. First, Pi starts off his journey to redefine himself from the influence of others towards his name. Pi is in depression as the people around him, have changed him, “It is true that those we meet can change us, sometimes so profoundly that we are not the same afterwards, even unto our names” (Martel …show more content…

Pi shows courage by letting everyone know who he is and that nothing will stop him, “MY NAME, I roared to the elements with my last breath, IS PISCINE MOLITOR PATEL. How could an echo create a name? Do you hear me? I am Piscine Molitor Patel, known to all as Pi Patel”(). Yelling who he is, he is telling the entire world that he is Pi Patel. Pi had accomplished his mission to redefine himself into the allegorical figure he is. He is showing courage as he is proud he has redefined his name and has shown everyone who he truly is. While he did change his name, Pi Patel is still connected to his root name, “But no swimming pool in Mamaji’s eyes matched the glory of the Piscine Molitor” (12). Piscine’s name was originally created from the glorious Piscine Molitor swimming pool. Pi still had this name when he redefined his name. Keeping the first two letters of Piscine, he knows the truth of his name and who he truly is. An irrational number, while also being an excellent swimmer. This showed dedication as he redefined his name to keep all the things about him in one name. Piscine showed a great amount of dedication on his journey with Richard Parker, “I survived 227 days. That's how long my trial lasted, over seven months”(). On this journey, Pi spent lots of time redefining his name and shaping into who he was, an allegorical figure with multiple meanings. Piscine showed a great amount of dedication as he spent 227 days to change who he was into his

Show More
Related

  • Use of Literary Devices in Yann Martel’s Life of Pi

    556 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Life Of Pi Vs Big Fish Analysis

    313 Words  | 1 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Life of Pi by Yann Martel

    931 Words  | 2 Pages

    Fear is one of human's emotions that sometimes prevent humans to be successful. The other acceptable definitions for fear is an unpleasant emotion caused by the nearness danger or expectation of pain. The main character in the novel that called Life of Pi written by Yann Martel is Pi who challenges with many issues in his journey from India to Canada. One of the issues is living alone on the lifeboat in the middle of ocean with a Bengal tiger for while. One can learn to deal with fear as Pi deals with the tiger that called Richard Parker. Pi faces his fears, takes practical steps, persevere, and acknowledge his fears.

    Read More

  • Sigmund Freud´s Theory in Life of Pi by Yann Martel

    546 Words  | 2 Pages

    Piscine Molitor Patel known as Pi acts differently upon various situations and environments. As he was living in India he was a vegetarian but when he got stranded on the lifeboat his psyche went to survival mode and he had to...

    Read More

  • Life of Pi

    359 Words  | 1 Pages

    Having just experienced the sinking of his family’s ship, and being put onto a life boat with only a hyena, Pi felt completely lost and alone. When he sees Richard Parker, the Bengal tiger from his family’s zoo, it is a familiar face to him. His initial reaction is to save the life of his familiar friend so that he may have a companion, and a protector aboard the lifeboat. Suddenly Pi realizes just what he is doing. He is saving the life of Richard Parker, by welcoming him, a 450 pound Bengal tiger, onto the small lifeboat. He experiences a change of heart when helping the tiger onto the boat. Pi realizes that he is now posing a threat on his own life. With Richard Parker on the boat, Pi is faced with not only the fight to survive stranded in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, but the fight to survive living with a meat eating tiger. The change of heart that Pi experiences might possibly mean that he is an impulsive thinker. It may mean that he often does something on impulse without thinking it through, and then later regrets his actions.

    Read More

  • Life of Pi (Unabridged) by Yann Martel

    1326 Words  | 3 Pages

    Pi, short for Piscine Molitor Patel, is a young Indian boy growing up in South India in the 1970's. His father owns a zoo and, with increasing political unrest in India, decides to sell up and emigrate to Canada. They accompany the wild animals on board the ship on their journey to the new zoos in North America.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Dualism In Life Of Pi

    943 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Life of Pi, by Yann Martel

    1144 Words  | 3 Pages

    A human has a strong desire to survive and ready to transgress his inner borders and break his principles to save his life. There are three aspects of survival: psychological, emotional and physical survival. They are all related to each other and in order to sustain one has to go through all three stages. A person has to struggle with themselves: they have to breakdown their internal principles such as high morality and deep religious commitment in order to come through Psychological, Emotional and Physical survival.

    Read More

  • The Role of Richard Parker in Yann Martel’s Life of Pi

    1248 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...knowledge his shadow self. He was able to survive his plight on the lifeboat because of the characteristics of his shadow self, Richard Parker. Even at the loss of his shadow self, Pi remains connected and constantly misses this part of his persona. After his ordeal on the lifeboat, Pi becomes rational and humane; however his experiences has scarred him, and will forever remain with him. Readers can definitely learn from Pi’s experience with his shadow self. The more we refute our shadow, the more it weighs us down. However, if we are willing to come to terms with the reality of our shadow, learn how it works, “tame” it so that it does not control us, we would be more literate and enlightened.

    Read More

  • A Freudian Examination of Yann Martel’s Life of Pi

    2074 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Themes In Life Of Pi

    840 Words  | 2 Pages

    One of the many themes Yann Martel explores in the Life of Pi is the will to live. The will to live plays a major role in the movie because Piscine Patel faces an internal battle between giving up hope of rescue or to remain fighting for his survival. This is first demonstrated during one of the first scenes on the lifeboat. Pi had to suffer and watch while the hyena attacked and ate the zebra plus the monkey. Eventually, the carnivore tried to strike Piscine and his will to live was first shown as he fought to survive (Life of Pi). The animal attacks revealed Pi’s initial survival instinct and also how much he was willing to fight to stay alive. Martel decided to display this idea to his audience

    Read More

  • In Order to Survive; One Must Give Up their Morals

    891 Words  | 2 Pages

    Everybody has their own morals and limits, this includes Pi Patel. Pi is a very nice young man who would be considered to be a person with many good traits: he is religious, a pacifist, very peaceful, and loves animals. Most humans are generally very kind and gentle towards other living creatures and don’t do much outside of their own comfort zone. Unfortunately, life is very unforgiving and some people end up in extremely dire situations in which they have to resort to drastic measures. Throughout the book, Yann Martel uses Pi as a symbol to represent all humans and suggests that in order to survive; one must give up their morals. Over the course of P...

    Read More

  • Role Of Relationships In The Life Of Pi

    856 Words  | 2 Pages

    Piscine Molitor Patel creates great relationships with everyone that he meets. He is never shy when meeting new people and is always up for opportunities that happen to come his way. When I think about what Pi has taught us throughout this book, his relationships are what we all strive to have.

    Read More

  • Essay On Significance Of Life Of Pi

    1527 Words  | 4 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Religion And Religion In Life Of Pi By Yann Martel

    730 Words  | 2 Pages

    for coming as a fish to save him. “Even when God seemed to have abandoned me … indifferent to my suffering, He was watching; and when I was beyond all of hope of saving, He gave me rest, and gave me a sign to continue my journey.” This quote portrays how Pi felt that God was with him every time, and that is why he is willing to live and not give up. He prayed and prayed as he believes that it is one of the keys to

    Read More

More about Life Of Pi

Open Document