Coping With Adversity In Yann Martel's 'Life Of Pi'

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Hello everyone! I am Muhes Ariyaratnam and this is speech on coping with adversity. Everyone faces adversities big or small. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and Steve Jobs was kicked out of his own company. They went on to have very successful careers in their respective fields. Two of the greatest humans faced adversity. Similarly the book Life of Pi by Yann Martel and the play King Lear by William Shakespeare contain the same theme of coping with adversity. In both texts characters cope with loss of loved ones, poor mentality, and nature. Firstly, Loss of loved ones is one of the main adversities that characters face in these stories. Pi faces loss of loved ones when he realizes that his family died. As Pi …show more content…

Pi’s boat sinks due to harsh weather. Pi “faced the elements” he described it as “A spectacle of wind and water, an earthquake of the senses that even Hollywood couldn’t orchestrate” (Martel 113). The author Martel uses a metaphor in this quote, he compared the earthquake to Hollywood. This quote describes how unpleasant nature was. Pi had to face the obstacle of nature to move on. Moreover, Pi went to a dangerous island which he thought he could live in. Pi states”the island was carnivorous” (Martel 312). The island would have killed Pi if he stayed there. Pi had to deal with the troubles of the dangerous island. Likewise King Lear is caught in a storm after he left Regan’s castle. King Lear shouts “Rumble thy bellyful. Spit fire! Spout rain! Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire are my daughters. I never gave you kingdom, called you children, you owe me no subscription (3. 2. 14-16). Shakespeare uses a metaphor in this quote to compare the terrible weather to King Lear’s terrible daughters. King Lear has to deal with the disaster of this storm. Edgar also braves the storm. King Lear meets Edgar disguised as poor Tom and says “Why thou wert better in thy grace than to answer with thy uncovered body this extremity of the skies” (3.4. 98-99). Edgar is outside when there is a storm while he is naked. Edgar has to face poor weather conditions. There are instances where characters cope with the adversity of nature in both

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