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Life Of Pi By Yann Martel

Decent Essays

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. The theme of Life of Pi slowly emerges throughout the novel. Pieces of the theme become present when the readers begin to understand the novel as a whole. Martel divides this novel into three parts, which helps the readers understand Pi and everything about him, which helps the readers figure out what may or may not have happened. The theme of this novel would be that when in a survival situation, it will take all a person is in order to survive. In the first part of the novel, readers learn about Pi, his life, his religious beliefs, and zoology. Pi believes in three different religions, Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam (Martel 64). His is religiously diverse, since there are so many religions and Gods in the

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