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Comparing Yann Martel's Life Of Pi 'And Animal Farm'

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What techniques do the authors of two texts use to explore human nature?
In his novel, Life of Pi, Yan Martell uses similar techniques to George Orwell’s Animal Farm in order to explore human nature. Primarily, both authors use anthropomorphism to demonstrate to readers key features of characters’ behaviour. By utilising the stereotypes associated with certain animals, each author allows readers to explore the essential nature of people and of different classes. This anthropomorphism also enables for better understanding of traumatic events. Additionally, through comparisons between humans and animals each author draws different conclusions as to the true nature of humans. Symbolism is then used to explore human hope, with the structure of …show more content…

Each author takes advantage of the stereotypes associated with certain animals in order to explore the different elements of human behaviour. In Life of Pi, Martel reduces each of the shipwreck survivors into their base survival instincts. Each person is characterised by their actions, with the French cook being the “bear-like” (pg. 28) and “ugly beyond redemption” (pg. 30) hyena, Pi’s mother the “tentative” (pg. 27) and “gentle” (pg. 34) orang-utan and Pi the “fierce, 450-pound carnivore” (pg. 23), Richard Parker. In this, he illustrates to readers how people cope with traumatic events, and the elements of their nature that these events bring about. Pi understands his behaviour by comparing it to the actions of a tiger, therefore justifying his cannibalism as a basic survival instinct. Similarly, Orwell uses the characteristics of animals such as pigs and sheep to demonstrate how people behave when in positions of power or vulnerability. The “foolish” (pg. 3) horses, “cynical” (pg. 2) donkey, compliant sheep and greedy pigs serve to highlight the characteristics that separate the leaders from the general public, and the corruption, greed and cruelty that accompany these. Through anthropomorphism, complex ideas about human nature can be simplified into basic and universal concepts, shown through the behaviour of …show more content…

In particular, Martel uses the taming of Richard Parker by Pi to illustrate how the violent survival urges that are within all people can be controlled. Through this, he demonstrates a positive view about human nature and a person’s ability to perform acts of compassion and kindness within survival situation despite the prompting of base instincts. In addition to this, Martell also emphasises the importance of selfishness and greed in survival situations, as it is only through ensuring the survival of Richard Parker that Pi can survive. Crucially, in his story Pi states that “a part of [him] did not want Richard Parker to die at all, because if he died [Pi] would be left alone with despair, a foe even more formidable than a tiger” (pg. 94). It is only through taming his fear and his anger that Pi is able to endure his solitude. In contrast, the relationship between the human and pigs in Animal Farm shows Orwell’s negative views about the universally corrupting force of power and greed. That the former “slaves” (pg. 25), formerly full of anger and purpose, eventually grow to respect and interact with the masters who had made their lives full of “misery and slavery” (pg. 3) demonstrating how, through corruption, former enemies may become friends as their ideologies grow closer and closer together. Orwell differs here from Martel in the negative conclusions he makes about human

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