Analysis Of Yann Martel 's Life Of Pi

The Life of Pi, an award-winning novel by Yann Martel, tells the story of Pi Patel, a young boy stranded at sea with an adult Bengal tiger. Marooned on a tiny lifeboat adrift in the Pacific Ocean, Pi finds himself struggling to survive. Faced with imminent suffering and death brought on by hunger, thirst, and an unending battle with the elements, Pi must make a decision between upholding his and society’s strict set of morals and values, or letting his survival instincts take over. Through compelling language and imagery, Martel gives Pi’s conflict between morals, fear, and survival a sense of excitement, suspense, and climax.

In Life of Pi, his long journey and ardent will to stay alive can alone discribe pi’s transformation from a confused and sheltered boy, into a young man who is now mentally broke but somehow uses his psychological experience to strengthen himself. Pi’s spirituality and religion pushes the reader to shift its perspective.

Religion is “the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods” (Dictionary). In society, many people follow the ethics of certain religions in order to make decisions about their life. The author Yann Martel uses Piscine Molitor Patel in the novel Life of Pi to send a message to readers about using ambiguity to create a theme about morality through the use of religion as spiritual beliefs can stabilize and nourish one in times of hardship. The use of religion, story-telling and science compared to religion resulted in ambiguity and therefore illustrated the theme of the importance of morality.

Throughout the novel, Pi’s thoughts reveal and internal struggle between his desire to live and his own beliefs to what is morally right. Pi grows up on varying religious viewpoints because he studies different religions. His religious diversity forms a moral standard of “dignity not …depravity” (Martel 71). He values dignity and character over corruption of morals initially because he sees

Bengali polymath, Rabindranath Tagore, once said “you can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.” In the novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel, the protagonist, Pi, faces many challenges at sea while being accompanied by a tiger by the name of Richard Parker. This tiger, though a nuisance, proves to be essential in the role of Pi’s survival. Throughout the story, Richard Parker symbolizes survival, a reflection of Pi, and a being of God.

Throughout Yann Martel’s Life of Pi many elements of the novel blur the lines of reality and fantasy. This leaves multiple facets of perspectives in his readers. I Patel is thrust to the forefront of a catastrophic ordeal resulting in the loss of everything he knows s and loves. As this occurs we begin to see the total brutality of survival in both stories. Martel’s phenomenal use of symbolism, dualism, and religious allegory eloquently convey this imaginative world of brutality, savagery, and thirst for survival.

Damaged people are dangerous Because they know they can survive. This quote was said by Josephine Hart. I have chosen this quote to express the idea that people who have gone through something usually are able to find closure and get past that obstacle. “Life Of Pi by Yann Martel” describes a teenage boy named Pi whose parents died in a shipwreck. After that tragedy it landed Pi on a Lifeboat with Richard Parker a Bengal tiger, Orange Juice a Hyena and a Zebra in the Middle of the Pacific ocean.In order for Pi to survive, he has to use intelligence and creativity. Although both the film and the book show pi overcoming his obstacles. The film does not stay faithful to text Life Of Pi because there were many differences and few similarities.

On its surface, Martel’s Life of Pi proceeds as a far-fetched yet not completely unbelievable tale about a young Indian boy named Pi who survives after two hundred twenty-seven days on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. It is an uplifting and entertaining story, with a few themes about companionship and survival sprinkled throughout. The ending, however, reveals a second story – a more realistic and dark account replacing the animals from the beginning with crude human counterparts. Suddenly, Life of Pi becomes more than an inspiring tale and transforms into a point to be made about rationality, faith, and how storytelling correlates the two. The point of the book is not for the reader to decide which

In the beginning of the Life of Pi, Yann Martel establishes his theme of truth being relative through the main character, Pi. When Pi was confronted about worshiping three different religions, he says,

When Yann Martel tells of Pi Patel’s life story after the shipwreck, he presents it in two distinctive ways: one being with animals, and one without. As a young boy, Pi began to develop a love of animals as a result of growing up on the lands of Pondicherry Zoo, his family zoo in India. He also finds that he has a deep passion for religion. Supposedly, Life of Pi will make one believe in God, as it did to Pi in these two stories.

Hinduism deeply changes Pi for the good, although people don’t believe his story, Pi is convinced that through his faith, he survives crossing the Pacific Ocean. There is also a great amount of symbolism in Martel’s novel, from the Tiger, to even the travel itself, symbolism plays a great deal in the Book.

In this empathic response task, I assume the role of Piscine Molitor “Pi” Patel, the narrator and protagonist of Yann Martel’s novel, Life of Pi, directly after his unexpected coincidental encounter with three religious leaders on a seaside esplanade in Chapter 23, which led to the astounding revelation that Pi was not only a Christian, Muslim, or Hindu, but all three at once. This revelation prompted a heated discussion between Pi’s priest, imam, and pandit, the religious leaders whom Pi had been practicing Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism with. The heated discussion was about which religion was the ‘true religion’. I attempt to share with readers Pi’s opinion of religion and faith after the encounter by writing a diary entry from Pi’s perspective that reflects the musings of Pi Patel after the three religious leaders confronted him and demanded that he choose between being a christian, a muslim and a hindu, his opinion of religion and faith, his experiences with different religions, and how he rationalizes his decision to believe in all three religions simultaneously. In this novel, imagination helps to present an alternative perspective of religion and faith.

When originally reading the description of the algae island it seems impossible to have such an odd and deadly island. It is even weirder that no one has ever come across this island, making it seem fake. Pi describes the island to be made of of algae, no soil or grass, “The fabric of the island seemed to be an intricate, tightly webbed mass of tube-shaped seaweed” (Martel 257). Upon reading part three of the novel, it becomes apparent the island may have not actually existed, but instead it is a representation of a lesson Pi is trying to teach. The island conveniently came into the story when Pi and Richard Parker were no longer hoping for survival, but instead they accepted death. Once on the island, Pi restocked supplies, ate all the algae

One of the major themes in “Life of Pi” is religion and Martel’s visit to India helped to influence his story in many

Life of Pi, written by Yann Martel explores the relation between religion and interpretation. The author creates an open door for the reader to digest the story in a number of manners causing it to be diverse. Not only is the audience compelled to be empathetic towards Piscine, but they ought to be altered spiritually and mentally due to this author’s agenda, and desired plan. This holistic route of understanding this story is purely a way of interpreting the world we live in. In this essay, I argue Yann Martel opened the door of interpretation when he used Piscine Patel’s story to encapsulate a plot that in turn would provoke readers to a state of transformation in