Courage Despite Fear Piscine Molitor Patel, otherwise known as Pi, spends 227 days in a lifeboat on the Pacific Ocean with a tiger named Richard Parker. His stories are told in the book, Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Pi and his family board a cargo ship Tsimtsum with some of their zoo animals to go to Canada. The ship acquires unknown problems and sinks that leaves Pi by himself with an orangutan, zebra, hyena, and a tiger on a lifeboat. The theme of courage despite fear is shown throughout this novel. Pi faces extremely fearful challenges, but courageously confronted them, resulting in innovative and creative solutions. Throughout the beginning of Pi’s trek through the ocean, he watches the hyena attack the zebra and orangutan. He finally …show more content…
Pi comes up with a solution of keeping his distance from the Bengal tiger. It took courage to do what Pi did that day. He builds a raft with life jackets and oars and hopes that sharks won’t attack and bump into him (148). “Only fear can defeat life” (161). The theme fear is demonstrated by various examples in the Life of Pi. In order to survive, Pi tries methods of fishing for turtles, dorados, and even sharks. Turtles are often tough and frightening to catch, because of their flopping fins and big bodies. They are the one of the best sources of nutrients, because of their blood and flesh. Another example of encountering fear was the training of Richard Parker. Pi wants to train the tiger to respect and view him as the boss. He blows a whistle that makes Richard Parker sulk down to his designated territory. Direct eye contact and being firm with where the animal was, is part of the training process. If the animal takes a step into one’s territory, the person should blow the whistle as hard as he can. In doing that, the animal would soon realize that it shouldn’t go to that part of the boat. A turtle shell was a source of protection for Pi while he was training the tiger. Pi gains more confidence and was less fearful of being eaten alive by Richard
Pi was afraid and surprised that Richard Parker was in the boat once he had lifted the blanket. Then Richard Parker had roared at him and tried to attack by his claws ,but pi had gotten away as soon as he did. Pi and Richard Parker started to roamed slowly around the boat in the middle of the ocean. Pi didn't trust Richard Parker because he knows that he only wanted to kill and eat pi. Pi tried to get rid of the tiger and then he tried avoiding the tiger, but as time goes on he got tired of trying get rid of Richard Parker. So then he began tame the tiger by using his whistle he had gotten from his locker. As he and Richard Parker started to get along through the past days,they have become really close friends.
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.
The most dangerous fear that Pi deals with is Richard Parker who has no mercy on his victims. Pi knows that he should deal with Richard Parker in a small damaged lifeboat. He can't run away from his fears, so he makes a border between Richard Parker and himself. Pi says, " I started thinking seriously about how I was going to deal with Richard Parker. This forbearance on his part on hot, cloudless days, that is what it was and not simple laziness, was not good enough. I couldn't always be running away from him. I needed safe access to the locker and to the top of the tarpaulin, no matter on what time of day or the weather and no matter of his mood. It was rights that I needed, the sort of rights that come with the might. It was time to impose myself and carve out territory," (Martel, 224). If one runs away from self-fears, the person will not achieve the goals for which Pi is no different. Despair has had the most destructive effect on Pi that has really stopped him to try rescue him. The only factor that forces despair to diminish is taking practical steps. Pi could survive 227 days on the lifeboat with faith. He reminds himself everything in this world is a creature of God. He says, " Despair was a heavy blackness that let no light in or out. It was a hell beyond expression. I thank God it always passed. A school of fish appeared around the net or a knot cried out to be reknotted. Or I thought of my family, of how they were spared this terrible agony. The blackness would stir and eventually go away, and God would remain, a shining point of high in your heart.
...rker, the tiger. But Miss Brill just walks away, goes home, and gives up. She is much more simpleminded than Pi. A stranger upsets her happy fantasy while Pi has had his family killed and is still living through the traumatic life experience of trying to survive the ocean. “It is pointless to say that this or that night was the worst of my life. I have so many bad nights to choose from that I’ve made none the champion (123).” Pi also had to enjoy the company of a hungry, scaverous hyena. It ate away the zebra and killed the orangutan. But he did not give up. He keeps living his life. Finally, he gets a break when Richard Parker killed the cruel hyena. “Richard Parker’s jaws closed on the side of the hyena’s neck [...]. Its eyes went dull (150-151).”
Pi realizes a part of growing up is learning to accept leadership and that nothing is easily given, especially in the Pacific Ocean. After a lifetime of vegetarianism, Pi had to finally kill flying fish for food, resulting in an emotion and mental breakdown (Martel 183). This action challenges Pi’s beliefs, yet, must be overcome. He soon realizes that...
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.
Life of Pi by Yann Martel is an adventure novel portraying the journey of a young Indian boy from Pondicherry, named Piscine Molitor “Pi” Patel. The novel depicts the story of Pi, a boy who survives a distressing shipwreck in a lifeboat along with a large Bengal tiger, Richard Parker, in the Pacific Ocean. In the novel, the author uses several rich symbols to represent important ideas and events. Throughout the story, the zoo, the algae island, and the colour orange effectively help communicate Pi’s journey to the targeted audience.
Pi had to be constintly aware of his surrounding’s. Pi had started to train Richard Parker . “I wonder if those who hear this story will understand that my behaviour was not an act of insanity or a covert suicide attempt, but a simple necessity”(229) This was what Pi said about training Richard Parker with a whistle and a shield. Pi knew in order to survive with Richard Parker he had to train him and show him to get along. Of course you can’t easily train a tiger over night but it takes time to because these are very wild animals. Pi did not train him well enough. Training him was a distraction from the fact that he is stranded in the ocean. He was in a dangerous situation. Situation was at sea but the danger was represented through Richard Parker. Pi situation at sea changed him He was a vegetarion but started eating fish and meat in order to survive at
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.
Life of Pi is so compelling to read and yet it is such difficult concept to truly understand. Yann Martel's novel, Life of Pi, is the about of Piscine Patel, who prefers it as Pi. At his age of sixteen, he survived for 227 days on a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean with a hungry tiger to worry about. There were other inhabitants on the boat as well, a zebra, a hyena and an orangutan. Yann Martel is such a great author that he has masked one story over the other story though the work of Pi. Pi hides his second, true story by trying to give the people on the boat different appearances, in his devout triad of religions, and disembodying himself from his own thoughts. Pi hides his second story, in the first story, by trying to disembody himself from his own thoughts. To do so he had used physical look of Pi’s emotions, religion, and though circus acts.
Now sixteen, Pi's father decides to relocate to Canada. His dad sells most of the animals, but takes a few with them on their sea voyage. However, disaster strikes with the ship sinking. Pi accompanied by a hyena, an orangutan, a zebra and Richard Parker the 450-pound Bengal share a raft. Richard eliminates the other animals leav...
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.
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 lifeboat and survive the wreck. The disaster left Pi, along with a few animals, to be the only survivors all in one lifeboat.... ... middle of paper ...
Accommodating him was a priority I could not neglect for an instant” (Martel 212). Pi was always fearful for his life on the boat. He was in close quarters with an animal who was ultimately wild and aggressive. Richard Parker was a zoo animal for most of his life and had become accustomed to having the necessities of life such as food, water, and shelter being given to him by a zookeeper.
Throughout the novel, “Life of Pi”, there are various, brilliant examples of symbolism hidden within the chapters. Although they may not be the most obvious, these symbols are most evident within the animals that Pi encounters inside the lifeboat adrift at sea. Each wild creature symbolizes a person that Pi has created to embody the many traits and diversities within the actions of the animals. The feeble and injured zebra aboard the boat is considered to be a youthful, Chinese “Sailor”, representing the vulnerabilities and struggles of everyday survival. The ferocious and menacing hyena signifies the immense malevolence of the world, and is referred to as the “Cook”.