Analysis of Hollow at the Core - Deconstructing Yann Martel’s Life of Pi

Throughout his young life, Pi has been guided by a strong set of morals and values. A strict pacifist and vegetarian, Pi never dreamed of killing an animal, especially for food. Pi states, “…When I was a child I always shuddered when I snapped open a banana because it sounded to me like the breaking of an animal’s neck” (Martel 197). However, faced with starvation at sea, Pi must decide between adhering to his morals and satisfying his ravenous hunger when a school of flying fish descends upon the lifeboat. He chooses his own survival and decides he must butcher a fish to feed himself. Martel uses vivid details and language to convey Pi’s feelings about the necessity of violence and killing a living creature for survival. Martel conveys a sense of suspense to the reader as Pi raises his hatchet several times to

In Life of Pi, author Yann Martel utilizes metaphors to foreshadow future events and to reveal new insight about Pi’s character and the theme. When Pi is a young boy, his father teaches him and his brother why they should never put their hands in the animals’ cages. Pi’s father decides to teach them this valuable lesson by forcing his sons to watch a hungry tiger devour a vulnerable goat. Pi says, “I don’t know if I saw blood… or if i daubed it on later, in my memory, with a big brush” (39). As Pi tells two stories of the same event, it foreshadows the ending of the book where Pi tells news reporters two stories of his survival out at sea. This reveals that Pi is very creative and imaginative,

Cannibalism: It Still Exists By: Linh Kieu Ngo and Love: The Right Chemistry By: Anastasia Toufelis are the two selections assigned to go with the concept essay. In the Cannibalism essay author Ngo explains a different side of cannibalism. The side of cannibalism that is practiced for dietary reasons, ceremonial purposes, and survival. Toufexis’ essay on love talks about the “physical” more chemical and biological aspect of love, relationships, and romance. It delves into the comical explanation for passion and why people fall in love.

In the novel, Life of Pi, by Yann Martel, the theme of truth is seen most prominently in the last part of the book when main character, Piscine Patel is being interviewed by two Japanese men. Pi defines truth as being relative and an invention of man, when the believability of his story is questioned. He argues that even stories, such as his, can still be true to some no matter how difficult to believe they are.

The tiger that Pi refers to throughout his ordeal is could be perceived as the alter-ego of himself, “The tiger killed the hyena- and the blind Frenchman- just as he killed the cook” (311). While Pi was able to use his imagination to portray a tiger as himself, Richard Parker was never more than an extension of Pi’s imagination. Richard Parker simply symbolized Pi in the real world and could never

Though Richard Parker proves vital for survival, he also reflects Pi’s character and helps further develop it throughout the novel. When first introduced, Pi was a teenaged boy curious in many different belief systems and also vegetarian. However, his experience with this tiger aboard a lifeboat after a shipwreck leads to necessary changes in Pi’s lifestyle and these dramatic changes in way of life are characterized through the tiger itself. For example, Richard Parker instinctively tears at animals and eats them in a barbaric manner in means of survival. Though Pi is disgusted by his animal-like behavior, he later resorts to the same methods of eating, “noisy, frantic, unchewing wolfing-down…exactly the way Richard Parker ate” for his own survival (Martel 225). As a previous vegetarian, Pi is not comfortable with the idea of killing animals to eat them but realizes “it is simple and brutal: a person can get used to anything, even to killing” (Martel 185). He even, later, uses human flesh from a passenger that Richard Parker killed for means of survival and food. He also kills birds by “[breaking] its neck [and] leveraging [their] heads backwards”, a harsh and violent murder (Martel 231). Pi’s ability to adapt to a more vicious yet necessary way of life reveals his inner animal

Isolation plays a significant role in Pi's story, and both Martel and Lee have their differences in conveying this theme. Martel does not write Pi's journey in chronological order. Despite this, the author manages to effectively express the protagonist's emotions to the audience. Throughout the first chapter, the reader learns about Pondicherry Zoo, which was ran by his father and was considered his home. Martel makes Pi describe his life at the zoo, stating that "it was a paradise on earth. I have nothing but the fondest memories growing up in a zoo. I had the life of a prince," (page 14). Martel writes is past tense here, thus indicating to the reader that Pi no longer has a life at the zoo. This is soon confirmed a couple of pages later, with Pi stating that "the Pondicherry Zoo doesn't exist anymore. It's pits are filled in, the cages torn down. I explore it now in the only place left for it, my memory," (page 19).

Brandon Bocanegra Mrs. Leeman English 1 (Period 3) March 4, 2015 Night: Theme Analysis The theme I had decided to analyse in the book “Night” by Ellie Wiesel is the theme of “Faith.” The reason for me deciding to choose this theme is solely for the purpose of how expressed it is shown in the writing of the entire book not to mention this theme is dynamic enough to be applied upon nearly every character that is mentioned and described in the book “Night” by Ellie Wiesel. I will now first start drafting out onto detail on what I currently mean by “Faith.” Before I start I would also like to mention that this type of faith in the theme also reaches out to more than just the religious spectrum to a wide variety of instances such as families

Thesis: In Life of Pi, Yann Martel depicts Richard Parker as peaceful and beautiful and then as an animal of power and strength through concrete diction,compound-complex sentences, and metaphors in order to reveal that appearance of something or someone may be a deception of their true nature and personality. Topic Sentences: Yann Martel’s utilizes concrete diction, illustrated by descriptive words, in order to reveal that although Richard Parker is a beautiful animal, he is still dangerous. Martel’s use of compound-complex sentences demonstrated by run-on sentences and commas to reveal that Pi’s awe of Richard Parker was due to the fact of Richard Parker’s natural beauty and his true, dangerous nature.

Pi (and by extension, the author, Yann Martel) seems to think that what should compel one to believe a story is whether the story is a good one – whether it helps readers “see higher or further or differently”. Story and narrative automatically cause viewpoint, or perspective. Perspective as a literary device is a result of stories with framed narration. Is this narrator trustworthy, asks the reader in that ageless dilemma, can I believe what is written? As a form of narration, it both enriches and challenges perspectives on truth. Truth, it seems to say, can also be multi-faceted, appearing in many viewpoints.

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

Yann Martel’s theme of truth being relative is again established when Pi experiences a shipwrecked. On the lifeboat, Pi continues to survive living with a bengal tiger, he survives after seeing the other animals on the boat kill each other, and he survives by eating fish even though he is a vegetarian. Inspite of all the suffering Pi is going through he still turns towards God. This is proved when Pi says, “I practised religious rituals that I adapted to the circumstances – solitary Masses without priests or consecrated Communion Hosts, darshans without murtis, and pujas with turtle meat for prasad, acts of devotion to Allah not knowing where Mecca was and getting my Arabic wrong. They brought me comfort, that is certain. But it was hard, oh, it was hard. Faith in God is an opening up, a letting go, a deep trust, a free act of love – but sometimes it was so hard to love. Sometimes my heart was sinking so fast with anger, desolation and weariness, I was afraid it would sink to the very bottom of the Pacific and I would not be able to lift it back up...The blackness would stir and eventually go away, and God would remain, a shining light in my heart. I would go on loving” (208-209). Through this quote, Yann Martel is showing how Pi continues to worship God even though he was suffering and struggling with his faith. Pi still believes that God is the most important to him inspite of what his is going through emotionally

Throughout time, humans have written books based on various genres in an effort to tell a story, whether it is fact or fiction. Storytelling is one of the most beautiful ways to express ideas, and creative thoughts, involving characters, settings, to create a plot. Life of Pi, by Yann Martel, cleverly incorporates ambiguity from the omission of information, and lack of resolution. These aspects in turn, create the ambiguity, which leaves the reader to interpret the text in anyway. The ambiguity formed develops the significance of Pi’s storytelling, to the author and the readers. The post-modern aspects in Life of Pi, leave many things open to interpretation based on Pi’s storytelling ability.

To him, he feels that putting his faith in different religions brings him closer to God which is important because he is very passionate about his love for God. His yearning to be close to God is cause to his “desire to believe rather than the belief itself" (Stephens). Pi focuses so much on just trying to believe in God that he does not much focus on his own beliefs. Martel, in this way, implies by spreading personal beliefs throughout different religions and maintaining an open mind, one will achieve a great closeness to God. Therefore, Martel suggests that participation in varying religions proves beneficial to having an open lifestyle and to one’s relationship with God.