Life Of Pi And Richard Parker Analysis

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Pi and Richard Parker: The Life-Saving Parallel
A defense mechanism is an unconscious process, as denial, that protects an individual from unacceptable or painful ideas or impulses. Defense mechanisms often come into use when one is in intense or insurmountable amounts of stress. Yann Martel, in his novel Life of Pi, uses parallels between animal and human characteristics within two stories – each of the same remarkable journey – where the reader is left to question which story is true. Martel’s anthropomorphic novel marvelously projects the characteristics of people into animals as a way for the main character, Pi, to deal with the harsh realities of his 277-day journey aboard a lifeboat.
Pi details the story of how he survived a shipwreck in which he and his family were …show more content…

Martel’s use of parallels are abstract: the zebra represents the wounded sailor, the hyena represents the debauched cook, the orangutan poses as the protective mother, and the Bengal tiger represents the most significant parallel of them all – Pi himself.
Martel uses the parallel between Pi and Richard Parker to split the destructive emotions and harsh realities along the journey. Many of the emotions, impulses, and desires to live that are crucial to Pi’s survival are casted onto Richard Parker. This makes it easier for Pi to tell the story as if a tiger committed the actions rather than himself.
“I held on to one thought: Richard Parker. I hatched several plans to get rid of him so that the lifeboat might be mine. ” (Martel 210). Here Martel describes Pi as pushing away his animal instincts and attempting to fight the primitive behavior inside of him. Richard Parker is the animal inside of Pi, the will to live and fight for life no matter the circumstances. Despite his moral values, Pi embraces the wild beast inside of him in order to survive for 277 days at

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