Life Of Pi By Yann Martel

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.

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.

Everyone must learn to overcome, or acclimate to fear. It is an unavoidable part of life. People do not usually address all of their fears at one time, but occasionally, unlikely situations occur. In Life Of Pi, by Yann Martel, Piscine (Pi) Patel overcomes many fears, in a slight 227 days aboard a lifeboat, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. He and his family are in the process of moving, when the Tsimtsum, the boat they are boarding, mysteriously sinks. Pi is the only survivor, along with an orangutan, a zebra, a hyena, and a Bengal tiger. Although many themes are present, the most prominent through the whole book is learning to live with and overcome the very thing that causes the most grief, the most anxiety, and a lot of reflection; Fear.

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 the novel, Life of Pi, by Yann Martel, it tells the tale of Pi from dual perspectives, Pi’s and the author’s. Pi tells the majority of the story, describing his adventure of surviving being stranded on a lifeboat, infested with zoo animals, for 227 days. The reader is put into a position where they are learning along with Pi about religion, faith, and being extremely resourceful. Pi transforms based on his experiences, spirituality, and relationships showing how the author utilizes his character’s faith to shift the reader’s perception of religion.

“Dictionary.com” defines survival as an aspect of “remaining alive, especially under adverse or unusual circumstances” . This quote specifies that when one’s under significant circumstances, survival will become a priority. This is a theme that is very important in both novels studied this year, “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel, and “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding. This means that staying alive will become a task. People can depend on survival and become desperate to do anything for life.

Laura Ann and I have begun reading Yann Martel’s The Life of Pi. After reading this section we have both agreed that two substantial themes are apparent. These are religion and the influence of growing up at a zoo on Pi, the main character. These two points are intertwined and are put in comparison multiple times. The book begins with background on Pi’s life before an unnamed tragedy takes place. During Pi’s childhood he is introduced to Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam. All of which he is fascinated by and participates in each of their practices. Although these religions are very different and at times contradicting, Pi believes in all of them. He also relates religion to zoology, “I know zoos are no longer in people’s good graces. Religion

For a book claimed as “a story that will make you believe in God,” Yann Martel’s Life of Pi does not fall too far from that claim. Being the son of Indian zoo owners, Piscine Patel always grew up in close proximity with animals. However, this could not prepare him for being adrift in a lifeboat for 277 days, with a full grown 450 pound adult bengal tiger. All the while, Pi manages to juggle being faithful to three religions at the same time. While the plot of the story may seem to grind to a complete stop early on, Martel finds a way to speed it up just in time to provide a thrilling conclusion. Pi must fight many internal conflicts, like being faithful to his religion or doing what he must in order to survive, even if it conflicts his beliefs.

Human nature is an uncertain concept which humans themselves have been grappling with since the beginning of their existence. In its definition, human nature envelops and describes the traits of humans as an entire species. The book Life of Pi by Yann Martel challenges previous conceptions about human nature. Martel instead introduces a human nature which is centered around selfishness, faith, and the will to live through significant animalistic metaphors. Selfishness is a trait which appears throughout the book.

In literature, there are several examples of journeys that the character sets out on with a set purpose, yet ends up having an underlying reason or outcome to it. In Yann Martel’s novel Life of Pi, Pi embarks on such a “quest” due to unforeseen circumstances beyond his control. Pi’s quest, on the literal level, was one purely of survival; his goal was to live just long enough to make it to land. Metaphorically, however, Pi’s quest serves to reaffirm his religious beliefs and his spirituality. Through his trials and challenges, it is his faith that keeps his spirits up and allows him to survive. Although he is forced to temporarily abandon some of his ideals and be faced with the possibility and acceptance of death, his religious faith

Life of Pi is an incredible survival story written by Yann Martel. It follows a young protagonist named Piscine Patel, Pi, and his journey of hope and courage. His strength is grounded in his faith and religion, as well as his admiration for the startling world of science, and teaches that both science and religion can offer a unique perspective on the world around us. Pi has the simple yet extraordinary notion that even scientists can take a “leap of faith” (1), which enables them to be viewed in the religious community as “brothers” (4), rather than viewed as enemies of faith. The agnostics, however, are unable to conform to this way of society and are left in an indefinable moratorium. Life of Pi offers the unique perspective that science and religion can be balanced and gives one a greater appreciation of life. This idea is exemplified by Pi’s struggle for survival that ultimately is achieved through his concrete faith in religion and foundation in science.

Yann Martel’s Life of Pi is an account of a boy, a tiger, and the vast Pacific Ocean. After Pi’s family sold their zoo in India, they moved to Canada, they sailed there with a few remaining animals. Until tragedy strikes when a terrible storm sinking the ship, leaving Pi with 4 animals one of them being Royal bengal tiger. Pi was the only human that survived, stuck on a lifeboat together with the tiger. Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months, Pi and the tiger eventually learned to trust each other.

How do you think you would handle being shipwrecked, stranded in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, with your only accompaniment being a four-hundred-fifty-pound Bengal Tiger? In Yann Martel's novel, Life of Pi, the protagonist, Pi, does just this. The novel describes his experience with his family, immigrating to Canada from India, their ship sinking, and ending up stuck at sea. This teaches Pi many life lessons along the way. Pi also faces many struggles during this time but comes out of it having learned many things about himself.

Yann Martel, the author of Life of Pi, tells a miraculous survival story that everyone will want to believe. He tells readers about the life a boy, who later in the story gets stuck on a lifeboat with fierce companions for 227 days. Piscine Molitor Patel, otherwise known as “Pi”, accompanies his family in moving to Canada from India, though the ship sinks and he then tells his journey twice. Pi told his journey in two versions, an animal version, and a human version. In both versions Pi is accompanied with a zebra/sailor, a hyena/cook, his own mother/orangutan, and himself/tiger (Martel 311). Though the characters in the novel, like Pi, the Chinese officials, and the writer, preferred the animal version, the preferred version would be the human version.

Everyone grows up. Some sooner than others. It may be subtle, and it could be traumatizing. In “The Life of Pi” produced by Ang Lee, Pi got the latter. The major running theme throughout the movie is that the loss of innocence is something everyone goes through. Ang Lee shows this in the use of lighting, angles, and sound effects in multiple scenes. When Pi has to change his name because the kids at school were making fun of him, when he is forced to watch the tiger eat the baby goat alive, his first love and his first heartbreak, when his family has to move away from his home, losing his entire family in a shipwreck, caring for himself and a tiger while at sea, and finally, in realizing what actually happened those first few days after the shipwreck are all examples of this theme.