Life Of Pi Identity Essay

Pi had only witnessed the animals living in their cages, and being fed by the zoo keepers. During his travels, he witnessed the slaughter of the zebra and orang-utan, by the hyena which were very morbid and repulsive. Pi had never witnessed the animals hunting for their own food, therefore seeing the hyena kill and eat the zebra and orang-utan was very traumatizing. Once Richard Parker killed the hyena, it made him realize that the only way to survive his journey was to feed the tiger by catching fish and turtles. As time went on Pi realized that his supplies were limited and he needed to eat the sea life in order to survive.

Pi’s life before the boat crashing was full of hope and wonder. His presence was ethereal, making a purpose out of everything around him. His family ran a zoo, which gave him a tight-knit relationship with animals. Pi loved to try new things. He met new people which led to his exploration

Though Richard Parker proves vital for survival, he also reflects Pi’s character and helps further develop it throughout the novel. When first introduced, Pi was a teenaged boy curious in many different belief systems and also vegetarian. However, his experience with this tiger aboard a lifeboat after a shipwreck leads to necessary changes in Pi’s lifestyle and these dramatic changes in way of life are characterized through the tiger itself. For example, Richard Parker instinctively tears at animals and eats them in a barbaric manner in means of survival. Though Pi is disgusted by his animal-like behavior, he later resorts to the same methods of eating, “noisy, frantic, unchewing wolfing-down…exactly the way Richard Parker ate” for his own survival (Martel 225). As a previous vegetarian, Pi is not comfortable with the idea of killing animals to eat them but realizes “it is simple and brutal: a person can get used to anything, even to killing” (Martel 185). He even, later, uses human flesh from a passenger that Richard Parker killed for means of survival and food. He also kills birds by “[breaking] its neck [and] leveraging [their] heads backwards”, a harsh and violent murder (Martel 231). Pi’s ability to adapt to a more vicious yet necessary way of life reveals his inner animal

I found the human version to be particularly interesting because when Pi described each of the animals in his narrative, he anthropomorphized them. For example, Pi talked of Orange Juice as if she were a human, commenting on the appearance of shock her eyes and the way she sat, also her compassion maternal instincts. Originally, we might have thought that Pi’s zoo-oriented upbringing was the cause of his human-like descriptions, but the alternate story raises the notion that perhaps these animals were never really animals in the first place.

Each change of situation helped Pi make good decisions that not only improved his identity but also receive the experience of a lifetime he can count on. By fulfilling his physiological and basic needs while on the ocean, Pi improved his abilities to become fearless, resourceful and physically stronger. Pi needed to take the grim decision to leave behind his vegetarian diet to fulfill his basic needs. Although, this decision was uncontrollable he was able to overpower his desperation by leaving the algae island. Pi proved that when individuals face adverse situations when lacking physiological needs, basic needs and desperation gain the ability to adapt to their change of situation by improving their identities. Humans are faced with obstacles in their lives of which they must overcome by adapting to the situation. This experience helps them gain new elements to their

Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along’”. Yann Martel’s novel, Life of Pi, chronicles the life of Pi Patel, a young boy who lives in Pondicherry, India. During his childhood he discovers his growing ambition towards practicing three religions, and develops a curiosity for zoology.

His religious beliefs from Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity give him a spiritual understanding of the world. He must combine his scientific facts from the zoo in conjunction with his religious beliefs to have the will and knowledge to survive in the lifeboat. The desire to survive is present from the point where Pi is thrown onto the lifeboat, to when Pi steps off the lifeboat. While at sea, Pi forfeits his vegetarian ways to survive on sea creatures.

In the first half of Life of Pi by Yann Martel, Pi Patel is a young boy that grows up in India. His name is actually Piscine, but due to people saying “Pissing” instead, he started going by Pi. His father owned a zoo, which he visited regularly. As he grows up, he becomes a Hindu, Muslim, and a Christian. Many people tell him that he can’t be all three, but he has to choose one. He claims, “I just want to love god” (CITATION HERE). Towards the end of the first part, Pi learns that his family is moving to Canada and they are closing the zoo. His family embarks on a tanker to Vancouver with some of the animals they were selling to other zoos. Disaster strikes, and the ship is destroyed, but he manages to find refuge in one of the life rafts. Unfortunately for Pi, a zebra, hyena, orangutan, and a Bengal

At the end of the story he ask “Which is the better story, the story with animals or the story without animals?” These two men respond and admits that the animal story is the better one and through this readers can get a major theme of the book, faith. Through the whole story Pi’s survival is mainly because of faith in his religion. Although religion can not be proven he has faith that it is real. Likewise the realness of Pi’s story is the same as religion and readers will have to have faith in Pi’s journey of faith that the story is

The Life of Pi is a story about a young boy named Pi Patel, short for Piscine Patel. Pi was born and raised in India as the son of a zookeeper. At school, Pi was bullied because of his name. Kids thought it was funny because when you pronounce his first name sounds like you’re saying “pissing”. But that doesn’t stop him from learning and discovering new things. Being very curious, Pi begins to study many different religions, such as Islam, Christianity, and Hinduism; Even though his father says “Believing in everything at once, is the same thing as believing in nothing.”

He sneaks down to see the Bangle tiger kept in his Fathers zoo. Pi believes the tiger is good because it’s one of God’s creation’s. After trying to feed the animal his father catches him and shows the young boy what he believes to be the true nature of the tiger. Fear was struck into the boy’s heart as he is forced to watch the this newly discovered monster devour a goat. It was this is this same fear that accompanies a much older Pi after being initially trapped on the life boat with the very same tiger. Eventually Pi was able to train the Richard Parker and finds purpose caring for the tiger while adrift at sea. Pi later says in his own words while writes in his journal “Without Richard Parker, I would have died by now. My fear of him keeps me alert. Tending to his needs gives my life purpose.” These scenes reveal that as long as we hold on to the positive we can surpass trials brought to us along the way. If it had not been for the brave boy’s outlook he would have been lost at sea

In the Life of Pi book, characterization is one of the main focuses of the author, making sure that the descriptions are nothing less than perfect. Piscine Patel, also known as Pi is described as a smart, scholarly young soul who is the son of the owner of a zoo. This provides Pi former knowledge of animals to help him through his life-changing voyage. He is also very curious about religion, at one point three different religious leaders refer to Pi as a member of their religion. Pi believed in all three Islam, Christianity, and Hinduism, his mothers religion. His interest in religion is later used to teach lessons of faith and help Pi survive his 227 days lost at sea with an adult Bengal tiger. In the movie Pi seems vaguely interested in religion, which loses the whole point of the book that makes faith and religion the strongest theme. The movie also skips over Pi’s education, only showing him in elementary school, while the book describes his education all the

The land was his safe ground, his safe haven. He then entered the ocean, the outside, his unknown. The waves had started calm and still, then turned rough and frigid. Two hundred twenty-seven days stranded in a vast ocean and only sixteen years old. In Yann Martel’s novel, Life of Pi, Piscine (Pi) Patel’s family decides to move to Canada and sell their zoo in India. Events take a turn for the worse when an enormous storm sinks the ship, leaving Pi as the sole human survivor. Pi is found on a lifeboat along with a hyena, an injured zebra, an orangutan, and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger, and his main goal is survival. In an attempt to survive, Pi uses his beliefs that he acquired in India, which include zoomorphism, having faith in God, and

Furthermore, his vast knowledge of animals, having grown up at a zoo, helps him to tame Richard Parker. Pi knows tigers’ psychological thinking and exploits this by classically conditioning Richard Parker. Likewise, Pi’s experience of watching a tiger kill a goat in his early childhood taught him the fundamental lesson that ‘an animal is an animal’, enabling him to strategically and mentally survive his long and testing time at sea. In addition to that, during the early parts of Part 2, Pi comes across a survival manual, a crucial object for his continued existence. The book gives him critical information on the do’s and don’ts of survival at sea and it is hard to imagine that Pi could have survived without this book which also gave him the opportunity to write down his words which were “all he has left’’.

Religion plays a big part in Pi’s childhood. While he likes science, which is usually the opposite of religion, he grows to be very religious. Pi first is a Hindu, a religion he was born around as he lived in India, a country where Hinduism is very common. Once Pi is fourteen, he finds a Christian church and decides to join the religion of Christianity, along with being a Hindu. Soon after, Pi meets a baker, Mr. Kumar, who shares the same name as Pi’s science teacher (a link between his love for science and religion, two studies he would later pursue in college) in a nearby town and becomes his friend, learning about Islam and soon becoming a Muslim as well as a Christian and Hindu - and it is considered unusual to practice three religions. A while after Pi has joined these religions, Mr. Kumar and the two men who run the church and temple meet Pi and his parents at a park. The three men soon begin to argue over Pi’s religion, and when he is asked by his parents what religion he is, he says he only cares for God in different ways. Soon after, Pi openly