Despite negative views from the society, isolation reveals and strengthens the good in an individual as they are not manipulated from their surroundings. As shown in Life of Pi, where the main character’s alienation has an impact on the nature of humankind, his identity and morality. First of all, human beings are capable of adapting to any changes, which is why Pi has become a better survivor and has overcome many difficulties when he was isolated on the lifeboat. Furthermore, a person can discover their true identity when faced with hardship. Pi’s true self is revealed as he remained faithful to God till the end. Lastly, when alienated, Pi is forced to choose between good or evil in order to stay alive, and he chooses to take care of Richard …show more content…
After Pi’s family is killed at sea aboard the shipwreck of the Tsimtsum, he is forced to turn to his survival instincts. Alone on the lifeboat, Pi has many issues to face in addition to the tiger onboard: lack of food and water, predatory sharks, and horrible sea currents. As soon as he soon realizes that his most immediate threat is Richard Parker, Pi must establish his control over certain zones in the lifeboat. He pours his urine over the tarp to designate a portion of the lifeboat as his territory, and he uses his whistle to ensure that Richard Parker stays within his designated space. This success gives him confidence, making his other obstacles seem less impossible. In Life of Pi, he mentions, “I had to tame him. It was at that moment that I realized this necessity. It was not a question of him or me, but of him and me.” (Martel, 181) It is at this moment that Pi realizes it is not an option to kill Richard Parker, but Pi must tame the tiger and gain dominance through forcefulness. Pi also uses his intelligence by consistently collecting fresh drinking water using the solar stills. Another way, Pi becomes a better survivor is by no longer choosing to be a
Many people today are astounded at the atrocities that the prisoners of the Nazi Death Camps survived; I can presume what my fate would be if I were ever forced into such a situation. Similarly, it is hard to imagine surviving a shipwreck in the middle of the largest ocean, but that is what Pi Patel did. On his way to Canada with his father and a shipment of a variety of large zoo animals, Pi’s journey on a large freight is ended due to an accident, and a new one begins on a life raft. Pi and a Bengal Tiger, named Richard Parker, are the last survivors on the lifeboat, and Pi manages to survive despite the elements and shark infested water. “It is pointless to say that this or that night was the worst of my life. I have so many bad nights to choose form that I’ve made none the champion,” Pi describes of his 227 days at sea. The experience at sea was not only horrific because Pi struggled to save his own life, but also because he witnessed the death of his mother and father, as well as his beloved zoo animals. The sinking of the freight carries great symbolism because Pi’s entire life as he knew it was sank along with the ship: “I looked about for my family, for survivors, for another lifeboat, for anything that might bring me hope.
Isolation is a popular theme in Ray Bradbury’s short stories. It is in all the short stories that were read in class. I, personally, can identify with this theme because i suffer from depression and anxiety. I know that it is sometimes easier to be alone then to deal with people. I know what it is like to not want or be able to leave the comfort of home.
The impact of isolation on an individual and their resulting response is examined throughout two texts, John Boyne’s The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and Yann Martel’s Life of Pi. The two authors communicate the significant initial negative responses the characters have to their specific isolation. In their texts, both Boyne and Martel express how learning to trust others and building unlikely relationships can lessen the impact isolation has on an individual. The difference of behaviour as a result of isolation of an individual is distinct and the contrast between the behaviours of certain characters awakens the reader to the impacts isolation has on an individual.
When Pi is first on the lifeboat, he has no idea that Richard Parker is on it with him. After a short period of time, Pi learns about Richard Parker’s presence with him. The sudden appearance of Richard Parker represents the needs for survival that have suddenly come to attention. Richard Parker, at first, seemed like an unconquerable beast, but with diligence and courage, Pi is finally able to tame him. This is a metaphor for when Pi gets stranded on the lifeboat. Pi finds that the need for survival is very sudden but over time he is able to develop these skills.
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.
Ridley Scott’s The Martian and Yann Martel’s Life of Pi effectively explore the potential outcomes of isolation. Both texts encapsulate a valuable sense of ingenuity, as well as mental stability portrayed through unexpected companions. Whilst solitary conditions destroy the protagonists’ mental and physical wellbeing, persistence and determination is developed due to detachment from humanity. In the presence of isolation, the protagonists’ obtain the ability to adapt to foreign environments, as well as alter the human psyche.
Society is known to put everyone and everything into roles that, if or when the role assigned is changed, all hell breaks loose. Through Freud’s theory, he explains the behaviors that are associated with the id, the ego, and the superego. Being that Pi was someone who had been relatively well-off prior to embarking on his trip to Canada and then thrown into a new scenario that involves him becoming a starving survivor of a boat wreck stuck in a boat with a tiger that is threatening to eat him, it can be seen that Freud’s theory is displayed. When observing the events that take place throughout Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, it is observable that he creates an impressive relationship between Freud’s theory of the id, ego, and superego and Pi’s mental facade while using a paradox within the specific animals, as well as his strive for survival.
It is not unlikely that in severe circumstances, humans use the company of one another to survive. For example, in Night, Elie Wiesel uses his father to motivate him to live during his terrifying stay at Auschwitz. However, not all cases of this “survival relationship” necessarily involve two humans. In Life of Pi by Yann Martel, when he is shipwrecked at sea for 227 days, Pi Patel faces life-threatening circumstances every minute of the day. After his rescue,though, he tells two different stories to explain this incredulous journey. One involves loneliness and brutality,while the other involves animals and faith, the latter being the true story. Pi’s explanation involving animals is the true story because it vividly and descriptively displays
The protagonist, Pi is initially apprehensive to accept Richard Parker on the raft, but later comes to appreciate the tiger once he realizes this animal’s presence is crucial for his survival on the boat. First, Pi is scared and reluctant to accept his shadow self because it conflicts with his character and complicates his beliefs. This is evident when he says, “Together? We’ll be together? Have I gone mad? I woke up to what I was doing […]. Let go […] Richard Parker […] I don’t want you here […]. Get lost. Drown! Drown!!” (Martel 123). Though Pi recognizes his shadow self by encouraging Richard Parker to come on the boat, he soon realizes that he is about to accept his shadow self. He instantly regrets his decision and throws an oar at him in an effort to stop Richard Parker. His action symbolizes his denial and confusion he feels towards the extent of br...
What was missing here to tame Richard Parker?... Survival was at hand. And so it came to be: Plan Number Seven: Keep Him Alive. ”(Martel 81)Pi is trying to find ways to tame Richard Parker and keep him alive. Pi is intelligent because when he was trying to feed Richard Parker he was teaching himself how to fish to get food for Richard Parker also Pi was using a whistle to keep Richard Parker
Imagine taking a trip to a faraway land to start a new life and getting lost at sea. Picture being in a small boat with a Bengal tiger for more than 200 days with a limited amount of food and water. Life of Pi by Yann Martel tells the story of a boy who was traveling to Canada with his family when their ship sunk. The boy, Piscine Patel, was thrown onto a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. Piscine, or Pi, had to survive 227 days at sea on a small lifeboat with a tiger. He had to watch his food and water intake so that he would never run out and he had to avoid the Richard Parker. Life of Pi by Yann Martel is an extraordinary piece of literature that exhibits the difference of personalities between characters and broadens the
At first, when he’s on the boat with the other animals, he is the smallest and weakest of the bunch. After watching the hyena, zebra, orangutan, and Richard Parker brawling, Pi found himself hiding and kneeling. “Curiosity got the best of me. I had to see her better. Despite the rolling of the boat, I brought myself to a kneeling position” (Martel 121). After Pi is done hiding from all of the bigger, stronger animals, he gets up and decides to watch it all unfold. This shows his insignificance because he is aware that he is the smallest and weakest of all of the animals on the boat. Eventually all of the animals die off and it is just Pi and Richard Parker left. While he is having a brawl with the tiger over territory and power, he is still terrified. At this moment to stay alive and show he is relevant and has dominance over the tiger, he yells and waves his arms and blows his whistle as loud as he can. However, even though Pi now established dominance over Richard Parker, he is still insignificant. “I saw my suffering for what it was, finite and insignificant, and I was still” (Martel 177). In this quote, he realizes that even though he’s suffering now, all these things still mean nothing in comparison to all that’s around him like the moon, the bright stars, calm waters, and the vastness of the
In Yann Martel’s novel Life of Pi, the narrator and protagonist Pi is placed in a life or death situation which tests his beliefs and morality. The novel also does a great job representing the relationship between human and animal behaviors and the socially accepted behavior created by our modern day society. In my opinion due to the drastic changes in Pi environment it molded his ways thinking and his actions in a particular way that he was not accustomed to until the end, this can be proven through Sigmond feuds theory of humans behavior.
In the first version of the story, Richard Parker is a violent creature that helps Pi survive by providing him with company so he does not get lonely or go crazy. Pi says, “If I still had a will to live, it was thanks to Richard Parker… if he died I would be left alone with despair, a foe even more formidable than a tiger” (Martel 164). Pi also makes it clear that Richard Parker “will swim as far as he has to, to catch the drifting raft and the food upon it” (Martel 161). Because of Richard Parker, Pi has a companion, otherwise, he would be left with nothing to do except wallow in sorrow about his pitiful condition. Richard Parker also keeps Pi alert and keeps him engaged throughout the day. In contradiction, Richard Parker also is a burden. He makes Pi exert energy, takes up unneeded space on the boat and is a constant threat to Pi’s life. Pi needs to constantly makes sure that Richard Parker does
In drastic situations, human psychology uses coping mechanisms to help them through it. In the novel, Life of Pi by Yann Martel, Pi’s coping mechanism is his religions and his projection of Richard Parker. Martel’s Life of Pi shows how the projection of Richard Parker played a greater role in keeping Pi alive in comparison to his beliefs in his religions. During the period in which Pi was stranded on the lifeboat, Richard Parker kept Pi aware, helped Pi make the right decisions, and was Pi’s sub-consciousness.