Life Of Pi Symbolism Essay

“It is true that those we meet can change us, sometimes so profoundly that we are not the same afterwards, even unto our names.” This mighty quote, plummets out of the novel Life of Pi. Its idea of the story that Yann Martel tells in this novel is of a journey that makes the story sound realistic. It’s undoubtful that only a master storyteller, like Yann Martel himself, could write such dominant and lifting quotes. Martel gives us the novel Life of Pi, which is a coming of age story about a young boy who reaches maturity through tragic, but uplifting loss and miraculous survival. The story, Life of Pi, is reflected apron on a wild journey that comes with many adventures, tragics, some laughs, and also survival.

In Life of Pi, the author Yann Martel utilizes symbolism throughout the novel to illustrate the adaptive path one goes through to cope with conflict; succumbing to a lower morale, seeking hope through religion, and self conformity.

“You cannot believe in God until you believe in yourself” This statement frequently goes through Pi’s journey on the boat in Life of Pi. The quote, written by Swami Vivekananda, refers to Pi since he questions if God is with him through his journey. Pi ends up in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with a tiger as company, and his three religions that he believes in. Each religion has it’ own way to help Pi on his journey to salvation and his discovery of himself. In Life of Pi, Martel utilizes the connection between Pi’s religions and their colors to illustrate how they help him on his journey and ultimately provide salvation, and also by giving the reader a link to today’s society with religion.

Karanvir Dhami Ms. Yu ENG3U March 7, 2011 Symbolism in Life of Pi In Life of Pi there are many literary devices used to present the different themes in the novel. The main literary device used in Life of Pi is symbolism. Symbolism is often used to represent an object to something else, either by association or by resemblance. Most of the names of animals, objects and even humans in this novel have a symbolic meaning. In Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, symbolism such as pi’s name, the colour orange and the algae island, are used throughout the novel to provide Pi with protection to help him either survive or overcome his emotional pain. The mathematical pi is undefined, infinite and unable to be understood, just like Piscine Patel.

Once rescued, Pi’s credibility is questioned as he embellishes the accounts of his journey to the Japanese inspectors who find his story unlikely. Pi’s reasoning and rationale are based on illusions and mirages he envisioned while stranded on the lifeboat. His story demonstrates his desire to create a different story in order to avoid the harsh facts of life. Delving into deep and often complex truths, as Gladwell did in Outliers, enforces the reader to face the realities of life as they are and not live under any false illusions. Pi Patel, in Martel’s Life of Pi, differs from Gladwell in that he desires to live in a world of comforting lies. As he narrates his journey to others, Pi fabricates many aspects of the story in order to deceive himself and others surrounding

At the beginning of the novel, Pi’s story is described as “a story that will make you believe in God.” Writer himself Yann Martel was going thru his writers crisis, traveling world looking for a good story to write something about. Martel found a man who told his story. His man named Piscine Molitor Patel who is a practicing follower of three religions: Hinduism, Christianity and Islam. For this reason, extremely mature boy must constantly fight the lack of tolerance and understanding in his surroundings. While in the case of adult people the lack of a specific decision on the faith can be perceived as humiliating, but Pi is fully justified because of his young age. His desire is to find the road to the creator will be seriously tested during

“To travel is to take a journey into yourself” (Logothethis 1). We are the heroes of our own lives and are given the opportunities to make decisions that will shape our own personal stories. Life of Pi is a beautiful novel which fits Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth (Hero’s Journey) archetype, a pattern which has been used to structure stories for generations from all around the world. Piscine Molitor Patel (Pi), the protagonist of the novel, finds himself shaping his life, knowing that each mistake puts his survival at stake. Yann Martel has written a breathtaking story about the voyage and erudition of Pi. He uses the Monomyth archetype to show the measures one would take to survive, even if it requires putting their religion

At the age of fourteen Pi was introduced to three religions, christianity, hinduism and islam. He was on a trip with his parents in Munnar when he met a Christian priest along with other religious leaders. In these religions they preach that god is the main influence of life. Pi listened and learned in these religions, buying a bible and prayer rug that he read and used daily. This influenced his belief that God impacts all life events because it was what he read,

In Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, there is a strong theme of religion throughout the novel. Pi loves God and will do anything to grow closer to Him. He joins three other religions because he does not want to be limited to one faith and one way to praise God. After learning about the other faiths from their religious leaders, he decides to join them. He goes against his family’s wishes by joining these other faiths. During the novel, Pi’s faith in God is tested when he is lost at sea, but he uses his faith as comfort during those dark days. Pi uses his knowledge of prayer to help him. In Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, Pi uses his knowledge of the Hindu faith, the Catholic faith, and Muslim faith to cope with the harsh reality of being lost at sea.

This quote reveals the theme of identity and context where the Pi from before the journey contrasts the one on the journey. Because of the circumstances in which he must survive, Pi is forced to do such revolting actions such as cannibalism and drinking blood whereas before he was a strict vegetarian who would never dare to go near such barbarity. Despite his painful ordeals, Pi is still able to hold on to religion when he has lost almost everything else and this quote shows his gratitude and faithfulness to God as well as the sense of comfort he receives from His psychological presence. This descriptive setting of the beach is when he finally reaches land in Mexico after 227 days at sea.

Pi spends three days and three nights on an oar very similarly to Jonah who spent three days and three nights in a whale’s stomach and Jesus who was dead for three days and three nights until resurrecting. All symbolism relates back to Pi’s faith and is a connection with God and what God had planned for him. Symbolism within the film is used to give meaning and perceptive to the

Martel shares his character, Pi’s mentality about the stories derived from religion

Throughout Pi’s life at sea and after being rescued, he makes an example of many important figures and states of being in the Hindu religion. Pravritti: “people who choose to live in the world rather than withdraw from it.” (Carnagie et al.) The contradictory Nivritti: those who choose to withdraw from life. Dharma: “righteousness in one’s religious and personal life.” (Carnagie et al.) Finally, Artha: “prosperity and success in material affairs.” (Carnagie et al.) These four words play an important part on the happenings inside Pi’s mind, as well as how his life moves along.

In the novel, Life of Pi, Yann Martel uses Pi’s difficult journey to show the use of symbolism, motifs, and themes that are throughout the novel. The use of symbolism is shown through Richard Parker a Bengal tiger and the colour orange, the motifs in the novel were hunger and thirst and ritual, and themes that were seen on this journey were religious beliefs and the will to survive.

The evident motif of religion plays a major factor in Pi’s life; however the author chooses not to focus on one religion specifically but instead enforces a glorification of more religions. Martel creates a main character who is a curious young boy who decides to learn about Christianity, Hinduism and Islam all at once. Even though Pi is primarily