Human Nature In Yann Martel's Life Of Pi

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,

Author Nancy Wynne Newhall once wrote “The Wilderness holds answers to more questions than we have yet learned to ask.” To man, nature can be manipulated and overrun easily but it is not easily destroyed permanently. In Life of Pi by Yann Martel, Pi convinces himself he has altered the beastly nature of his tiger companion, Richard Parker, however, he fails to realize this as a misconception until the certain events with Richard Parker that ultimately revealing that the savage nature within wild animals cannot be tamed.

Most people don’t have to suffer trauma in a lifeboat all by themselves. Further, most people don’t have to retell their story years after with accuracy. That is exactly what Pi has to do in Yann Martel’s novel Life of Pi. There are many challenges that Pi goes through that Pi goes through that could make him an unreliable narrator including a lack of written records, trauma, loneliness, and the effects dehydration and malnutrition has in a person. Furthermore, by considering Pi’s unreliability the reader comes to understand that the truth of his story remains irrefutable and therefore the truth is more important than the facts. Pi could be assumed by the reader to be an unreliable narrator through a lack of written record of his experiences from the past, his trauma and loneliness at sea, and the mental effects of dehydration, malnutrition and hallucinations.

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

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.

To simply be alive consists of the acts of breathing and having blood pump through the body, but to be a human being consists of much more complexity. The nature composed of a human being involves having self sovereignty on our own emotions, opinions, desires, faiths as well as having a moral subconscious. Yet, what occurs when a situation allows an individual to react in a behaviour that doesn’t follow these defining factors of human nature? In Yann Martel 's Life of Pi, he creates the conflict of a cargo ship sinking, and the only notable survivors on the life raft consists of a hyena, a zebra with a broken leg, an orangutan, and a 16-year-old Indian boy. The protagonist of the novel, Pi Patel, is faced with a personal survival conflict

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.

When writing, authors need to think of their audience and involve an element of surprise. Authors use plot twists in their writing to help them accomplish surprising the audience, allowing them to keep their audience’s interest. Not only do plot twists help keep the audience’s attention, they also make the audience question their beliefs about what they think of the story. Authors can use this tool to advance their themes. Yann Martel uses a crazy plot twist in his book, the Life of Pi, to suggest to readers that truth is relative.

In Life of Pi, written by Yann Martel, a young boy named Pi decides to differ from the religious path he is intended for. Instead he decides to embrace three religions even though he is ridiculed by his parents and religious leaders. The three religions he decides to put his faith in are Christianity, Hindu, and Islam. When his family decides to board a ship to Canada, the trip seems to be going well until the storm. The ship sinks leaving Pi as the only survivor, or so he thinks.

Religion is a very significant aspect of life which shapes one’s ideas, judgements, and actions. Sadly, there are instances in which some religions undermine other religions, which can be damaging to the way someone views themselves in conjunction with the religion they identify with. In the novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel, religion plays a major role in Pi’s life, and it influences his beliefs and actions. In the poem Religious Diversity Is Celebrating God’s Creativity by Gregory Allen Uhan, the author emphasizes how every religion should be celebrated, not undermined. In both texts, the idea of religious acceptance is used to convey how one religion is not inherently better than another, and all that religions express God.

Pi values life and every organism placed in this world. That is why Pi chooses to be vegetarian. Even the sound of peeling bananas does not appeal to Pi. To him it sounds like an animal’s neck breaking. The first time Pi ever sees a life being taken away is when his father shows him and his brother a tiger’s ferocity. In this moment Pi realizes the importance of life and how quickly it can be taken away. “I don’t know if I saw the blood before turning into Mother’s arms or if I daubed it on later, in my memory, with a big brush but I heard” (45). Pi’s father shows Pi and his brother that even beautiful looking creatures could do great harm. The tiger is a majestic creature but tore through that goat like a madman. Life is precious and it can be easily taken from anyone. The death of the goat stuns Pi as much as when he learns about the death of Jesus Christ. To Pi it is impossible to injure a god, much less to kill one. How could someone so powerful die in such an embarrassing way? Pi now learns that death does not only happen in anger and sadness, but love as well. “Why would God wish that upon Himself? Why not leave death to the mortals? Why make dirty what is beautiful, spoil what is perfect” (68). Pi then understands that this death was out of love for all humans. An amazing selfless act allows Pi to see that love is in life and to cherish it. It makes him

According to Sigmund Freud, personality is comprised of the id, ego, and superego. The id is the primitive instinct in humans, the ego is the reasoning that humans go through, and the superego is the values and morals of a society. He places great importance on how behavior is shaped through these unconscious psychological conflicts. From a psychological approach to Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, it is arguable that Pi’s id took on the form of Richard Parker as a way of coping with the stress he was under from being isolated at sea for 227 days. Pi’s superego could not be fully in effect considering the abstract acts that Pi had to do in order to survive. He had to drink turtle blood, kill fish, and at one point even try to eat feces to stay alive;

Yann Martel writes his novel Life of Pi so that the story can be interpreted in two ways in the end. One is a realistic and literal interpretation; the other is one full of images and figurative meaning. The first story involves wild animals, a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan and a 450-pound Bengal tiger. The second story, which is the story Pi tells the insurance workers, is the realistic one, involving a sailor, cook, his mother and himself. The stories are almost parallel to one another but the story involving the animals is the true story.

The saying “desperate times call for desperate measures” holds truth to an extent. In the award winning novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel, drastic measures are taken by characters in order to survive while stranded on a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean. Through his journey, main character, Pi Patel, endures many hardships and witnesses several deaths. Significantly, the death of the zebra accompanying Pi and the other animals establishes a generalization of human nature being sophisticated yet inherently vicious according to methods of survival.

Pi contacted with animals when he was very young. Therefore, when he was in trouble and afraid to solve the problem, his savagery will help him. “We fight to the very end. It’s not a question of courage. Its something constitutional, and inability to let go. It maybe nothing more than life-hungry stupidity. Richard Parker started growing that very instant as if he had been waiting for me to become a worthy opponent. My chest became tight with fear”( Martel p.187). Pi finally chose to face the tiger, and save himself. He did not choose to stay until the tiger eats him. Even if he knows that it’s difficult to survive, he did not give up. Pi stayed with animals when he was a child. His curiosity made him have a great interest in animals. He might learn something from the wild animals. Moreover, if animals did something very cruel and their behavior will probably leave a deep impression about those things in Pi’s mind. Therefore, Pi’s savagery leads him to have the determination to against the tiger, Richard