Human Nature In 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.

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.

Firstly, Pi’s devotion for God was clear and he often seeks clarity from god. Throughout the novel, Pi’s love for God caused him to practice three major religion at the same time; breaking any barriers between Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam. Pi believes all three religions are equally true and interconnective as “[Islam and Christianity] both claim Abraham as theirs. Muslims say the God of the Hebrews and Christians is the same as the God of the Muslims. They recognize David, Moses, and Jesus as prophets” (80, Martel). Pi was morally ambiguous, he did not know if one religion would bring him closer to God than another causing him to follow all three. When Pi was stuck on the life boat, he often called out for help from god as he feared death. As he was giving up, a voice inside of him spoke from his heart and said “I will not die. I refuse it. I will make it through this nightmare. I will beat the odds, as great as they are. I have survived so far, miraculously. Now I will turn miracle into routine. The amazing will be seen every day. I will put in all the hard work necessary. Yes, so long as God is with me, I will not die. Amen” (164). Pi was uncertain whether or not he was going to survive however, he hoped through praying, he would as his faith in God brought him comfort.

Yann Martel manipulates the narrative style and structural devices within this passage to support the will to survive theme that is present in Life of Pi. Before the shipwreck, Pi was a spiritual individual with a strong appreciation for the joy and peace in life. Pi commonly experienced cruelty and doubt from his family and friends; however, he remained calm by following the guidance from his three religions. After the shipwreck, the spirituality within Pi’s life was tampered with because the chaotic and brute actions of the animals threatened to separate Pi from his peaceful demeanour. At first, Pi maintained his interaction with God, but as the days passed and the conditions worsened, Pi’s animal instincts began to develop.

Humans generally face struggles in their lifetime. Such struggles could be within themselves or with someone or something else but commonly stem from some sort of opposition in lifestyle. In Yann Martel’s novel, Life of Pi, Pi’s passion for personal survival conflicts with his moral obligations to himself internally, morphing his external character.

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 blackness would stir and eventually go away, and God would remain, a shining point of light in my heart.” (Martel 232) Human communication is essential because without it, people will start to be deprived of their humanity. Humanity is the characteristics that belong to humans like love, compassion, sympathy, mercy, etc. Isolation from humans and not being able to have any human communication or contact, will lead to losing the sense of humanity in a person. "I didn’t have pity to spare for long for the zebra. When your own life is threatened, your sense of empathy is blunted by a terrible, selfish hunger for survival.” (Martel 133) Pi loses the compassion that he would have once had for the zebra. Without any human communication, there was no one to reassure him as a support system for Pi.

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.

Life throws different sorts of hurdles at every individual. We are faced with new obstacles every day due to which we learn many lessons, but probably the most important instinct being survival. Some circumstances lead to hurtful experiences that undoubtedly teach us survival. The novel, The Life of Pi written by Yann Martel and Shakespeare’s Hamlet both have that in common. Pi and Hamlet both encounter life altering situations and to survive through it is all what matters.

By looking at Life of Pi by Yann Martel, one can see that an individual has a limit to how much physical and emotional strain they can endure before they are forced to resort to doubting their beliefs and values, and when they are forced into isolation, may become mentally unstable and create their own version of reality. Martel portrays this idea best through the main character, Piscine Patel, otherwise known as Pi. Pi unwillingly embarks on a strenuous voyage in the Pacific Ocean in a lifeboat after most of his family dies in a shipwreck during their move to Canada to escape the political situation on India in the 1970s. The emotional pain at the loss of his family is indescribably horrifying, and the physical deterioration that Pi experiences far exceeds his limit, as the whole journey is a question of his love, hope, and faith. According to “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs,” a theory by Abraham Maslow, first, the physiological needs must be met, then the needs of safety, belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. When one spends their time alone, trying to meet those integral needs of life, there will always be physical and spiritual barriers.

Life of Pi shows that humans and animals should do anything necessary to survive whatever challenges they face to live instead of just accepting death. Whatever ways that help one to survive are necessary, even if they compromise personal values, are vicious, or are wicked. Pi, a human; a hyena, and a blind man all fight to survive in a variety of ways that are examples of this thesis.

In Life of Pi, the movie displays an tragic shipwreck, which leaves a boy and a tiger for dead in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, without any survival tools or prior experiences. The boy, also known as Pi, is left with an Adult Bengal Tooth Tiger. A vicious animal preying at all times. The role that adversity plays in the film has Pi leaving no choice than to adapt to the culture around him While an average young boy or in-fact any person would freak out and lose hope, Pi decides that the wanted to fight and survive. As quoted in the film, Pi says “ You must take life as it comes and make the best of it”. This quote he says, he describes how when you are thrown into a problem, you

The artifact I made for the book Life of Pi is a fish that is supposed to represent the Ying and Yang. Ying represents the more negative, intuitive and passive side while the yang represents positivity, active and logical. Each side has symbols to represent how they are Ying or yang. The fish is used as the artifact because of how it represents Pi’s survival on the boat. On the ying side I used a boat to to symbolize isolation and loneliness. I decided to put this on the ying side because at many times of the book Pi almost felt defeated about how lonely he felt and how there was no way off the boat. The hyena is suppose to represent evil and an example of this is when the zebra is injured the hyena is metaphorically feeding of its pain."Hyenas

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.

It is difficult to talk about the Life of Pi text without making a reference to faith, and the same goes with explaining Pi’s survival. Pi’s belief in pluralism and acceptance of the three religions, Hinduism, Christianity and Islam aid his future and is a crucial part of his survival at sea. His faith in knowing “so long as god is with me, I will not die” gives him the mental strength and will power to survive his ordeal. Even in the middle of the ocean, Pi practices all his religious rituals such as ‘‘solitary masses without consecrated Communion Hosts’’