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. The tiger in this story has a name, Richard Parker. This is from the help from a hunter whose name is Thirsty None Given. Pi spends quite a long time describing the origin of Richard Parker’s name. He also does the same with his own name. “[Mr. Chiba] ‘So the Taiwanese sailor is the zebra, his Mother is the orangutan, the cook is…the hyena…-which means he’s the tiger!’” (311) In the stories both the zebra and sailor fall from great heights. From this fall they had both broken they leg badly, the sailor had his bone protruding from his skin. As the zebra and sailor are suffering badly for most of the time they are shown, they are an inference that they represent Pi’s physical suffering as well as the heavy emotional toll that has happened to him though on the boat. In the first day the cook (hyena) had the idea to sever the leg at the broken bone a... ... middle of paper ... ... that he is battling is his own mind, Richard Parker. The mind and the soul coexist within a human. The mind needs the soul otherwise the mind would run amok and dominate the soul. While the soul needs the mind for bringing bodily comforts to people. “I trained him to jump through a hoop I made with thin branches. It was a simple routine of four jumps.” (274) Pi had trained his mind to understand what it can and cannot do in moral ways. He was doing this to balance out his soul’s power with his own mind’s power. He figures out how to train himself with his six plans. These six plans were almost all unrealistic in execution, but the sixth plan was to wait for Richard Parker to die by not giving him food or water, but Pi realizes that he may retaliate against Pi. There was a seventh plan which was to help Richard Parker, or his mind, to survive until the very end.
The reader is meant to think Pi manages to survive about a year at sea with an adult bengal tiger, and considering the reader's knowledge so far in the novel that makes sense. Amazed by this idea, the reader continues, each chapter becoming more, and more intriguing. Until just about the last chapter this novel seems almost logical, despite its unrealistic premise. Yann Martel does such a good job of conveying such convincing information about Pi’s journey with Richard Parker that there is not a thought in the reader's mind that this could just be a story. When the Japanese officials from the Ministry of Transport come, Pi tells them his unbelievable story, and to them it is too unbelievable. They ask him to tell a new story, a more realistic one. And Pi does, one that doesn’t have tigers, zebras, orangoutangs, or hyenas. Instead it is a story of Pi, his mother, the cook from the boat, and the sailor. In this new story Pi is represented as the tiger, his mother is the orangoutang, the cook is the hyena, and the sailor is the injured zebra. As it turns out Pi’s unbelievable story might not be as unbelievable as the reader originally thinks. Pi, as said in the quote above, is twisting his story to bring out its essence whether that is on purpose or
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.
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.
...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.
Pi Patel in Yann Martel’s Life of Pi is a young Indian boy who is put through a tremendous traumatic experience; he gets lost at sea! Not only does he lose all his family, but he is forced to survive 227 days at sea with very limited resources. This ordeal causes great psychological pressure on Pi and causes his mind to find ways to cope with all the stress. When asked to describe what happened, Pi tells two stories: one with him surviving with animals including an adult Bengal tiger named Richard Parker, and a parallel story with humans in which Pi is forced to bend morality. Pi’s story of his survival with Richard Parker is a fiction that he creates to cope with a reality that is too difficult to face.
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,
Imagination played a large role behind the scenes in the book Life of Pi. “This was the terrible cost of Richard Parker” As the reader, this passage makes you think that Richard Parker was a burden for Pi, that there was nothing positive that came from this tremendous creature. Richard Parker was more than just an idea that Pi thought up, Richard Parker was Pi’s Conscience/himself. The first line of this passage represents imagination, since Richard Parker is Pi’s imagination it would translate to this was the terrible cost of my imagination. When Pi witnesses Richard Parker attack the cannibal he says “Something in me died then that has never come back to life” This has a more spiritual meaning than a literal meaning in the way Pi says it. This means that when he “imagines” this man being killed this shows how cruel life can be even when he looks to god for answers. The reason that Richard Parker is Pi’s imagination is because during the course of this book Richard Parker mimicked exactly what Pi did. For example the moment that they bot...
Pi turns to God and says aloud, “‘Yes, so long as God is with me, I will not die.’” (Martel, 148). Instead of giving up, he used a miracle that God gives him and turns it into a routine. His belief of God watching over him gave him a lot of motivation Pi explains his struggles when he says “You might think I lost all hope at one point. I did. And as a result, I perked up and felt much better. We see it in sports all the time don’t we?” (Martel 134). At this moment, Pi decides to disregard Richard Parker and focus on his thirst. He thinks back to how when Jesus was crucified, that his only complaint was thirst. This gave Pi a reason to help himself by letting go of his worrying. As he slowly becomes more depressed, Pi comes to the realization that “God’s hat was always unraveling. God’s pants were falling apart. God’s cat was a constant danger. God’s ark was a jail. God’s wide acres were slowly killing me. God’s ear didn’t seem to be listening.” (Martel, 209). Whenever Pi starts to upset about his situation, he yells about how everything symbolizes God. Although sometimes it did not help, Pi says that he will continue to hope and love
This is evident when Pi decides that he will not be bullied anymore or called “Pissing Patel.” When Pi moves to a different school, he tells the reader, “I planned my escape and the beginning of a new time for me.” This means that Pi is determined to stop the bullies and begin a new chapter of his life. One can perceive that persistence when he enunciates, “I repeated the stunt with every teacher,” referring to his approach of writing his name as the number pi (3.14) on the board. Pi adapts to his situation of enduring bullying through a strong sense of determination, allowing him to finally stop suffering the humiliation, and thus adjusting to his situation. Furthermore, Pi adapts to his situation of being afraid of Richard Parker through intense dedication. This is indicated when Pi, filled with courage, declares, “It was time to impose myself and carve out my territory.” Pi becomes determined to display to Richard Parker that he is his master, and to show him that he is not afraid of him. This is established when Pi tells the reader, “Then I made my point... my single-note language blasting from the whistle, and Richard Parker moaning and gasping…” He does
“The presence of God is the finest of rewards.” (Yann Martel, Life of Pi 63) In Yann Martel’s riveting novel “Life of Pi” The basic plot of survival unfolds, however, this essay will show how the hidden yet the dominant theme of religion throughout the story is what helped the main character Piscine Molitor Patel (Pi) survive.
...ction of Richard Parker kept Pi aware, by showing Pi the reality of the current situation, assisted him with making the right decisions, committing certain actions, and is his sub-consciousness, his id that fights for survival. In Martel’s Life of Pi, Pi’s coping mechanism has been proven more useful in his projection Richard Parker rather than his beliefs in his religions, which has done nothing for Pi and was useless at that time. Humans and animals are very alike in certain aspects. When it all comes down to survival, humans and animals are almost alike. The human mind brings back the inner id from the human consciousness while in drastic situations to help them cope with it in order to survive. The human psychology has a very interesting way of creating coping mechanisms.
As a Hindu, Pi is a vegetarian; therefore, dismembering the bodies of sea creatures is proved to be a challenge and a fear for him. However, Pi faces an even greater fear, starvation. The first time he murders a fish on the lifeboat, guilt runs over him; nevertheless, he dismisses the guilt through appreciation to Lord Vishnu, the supreme god of Hinduism, by shouting,“ Once you saved the world by taking the form of a fish,” (p204) and “ …you have saved me by taking the form of a fish.”(p204/205) It is Pi’s religious beliefs that give him the inner strength to face the difficulties during his voyage. At the time his life is threatened by the beasts on the lifeboat and in the sea, he prays to all his gods from Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam by saying, “ Jesus, Mary, Muhammad and Vishnu!” (p166) or just simply，“God preserve me!”(p155). After receiving mental relief from the gods, Pi is able to take actions to counteract the danger, which he develops plans to establish his superiority over Richard Parker. For example, he trains Richard Parker like a circus animal by blowing his whistle as loudly as he can. He also makes strong eye contacts with Richard Parker during the tense moments. Generally, Religion helps Pi to abandon his vegetarian status and to gain superiority over Richard Parker during his
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
The Life of Pi by Yann Martel is a fantasy adventure novel. The main character of this book is Pi Patel, a 16 year old South Indian boy who survived at sea with a Tiger for 227 days. He was originally Islam, but then practiced Christianity and Islam. His father runs the Pondicherry zoo. Right when Pi turned 16 his family decided to close the zoo and move to Canada. His whole family boarded the Tsimtsum with all the zoo animals, in the process of being sold.
When Pi is first thrown on the boat, he is trapped with a hyena, zebra, tiger, and an orangutan; after awhile, they start to get hungry. In The Life of Pi, Piscine Patel states “It is when the moon rises that the hyena’s day starts, and it proves to be a devastating hunter” (Yann Martel 116). Being trapped on a boat with a rabid hyena and trying to stay alive is no easy task, but Pi manages to stay alive. He stays up on the tarp where the hyena can't get to him until Richard Parker, the tiger, jumps out and eats the hyena. Pi is strong and smart enough to avoid getting eaten or even hurt by any of the animals, and he lives to see another