Life Of Pi Textual Analysis

Being narrated by an older version of the main character, Life of Pi is a story about a man named Pi Patel. Most of the beginning of the novel includes all the history of his life; it introduces topics such as his major, the definition of his name, and his family. His majors are religion and Zoology, which comes back later in the book. It also gives the reader the interesting background of the meaning of his name, based off of a swimming pool. These larger topics and more were shared with the readers. A prominent part of all of this is the fact that it almost always comes back to animals.

In the early stages of Life of Pi, Martel mentions a place that Pi and Ravi had gone to visit while on vacation. While looking aimlessly through the window, they noticed three hills. On top of one hill was a catholic church, another a Hindu temple, and the other a Muslim mosque. Each hill portrays each of the religions in Pi’s complex faith. The hills represent Pi’s struggles to understand each religion. Later on, we find out that Pi is caught in between these three religions. He couldn’t completely disregard any of the religions, so each one kept warring for a place in his life. In How to Read Literature like a

In the book, The Life of Pi by Yann Martel, Pi becomes a different person after he kills the flying fish. In the beginning of the passage Pi shares that he is a vegetarian, and could never hurt anything living. After Pi kills the flying fish to use for bait, he says, “I wept heartily over this poor little deceased soul” (Martel 88). This portrays the morals of Pi before he kills the flying fish. He gives life a great value and is reluctant to interfere with the wellbeing of anything living. Later in the story, Pi kills another fish, this time a dorado. After catching the dorado, Pi says, “killing it was no problem” (Martel 89). The attitude Pi has towards killing a fish changes drastically the second time compared to

The way Pi acts throughout his journey suggests that having faith is one of the most important practises to learn as it can give an individual hope. Pi has a strong connection to all his practising faiths: Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism. Society is set to have many unspoken rules that we must abide by to

Survival is an instinct. Often times, in order to survive, people must shed a part of their innocence. For some, it may be subtle, taken in tiny bites along the way, and for others it could be in one traumatizing moment. Ang Lee, director of “The Life of Pi,” explores this theme throughout his film. Lee shows the viewer this loss in the use of imagery, lighting, and color. He takes the viewer on a journey through the eyes of Piscine Patel as his innocence and humanity slowly get chipped away and he is forced to do what is necessary to survive and the lengths he goes to to regain that lost innocence.

In this article the meaning of Existentialism is explained as the author, Randall Niles, describes how existentialism is a 20th century philosophy that centers itself on the analysis of human existence. He explains the popular slogan “existence precedes essence” by the very first founders of Existentialism, Jean Paul Sartre. The notion of the slogan is described by explaining how humans come into existence when they are first born, and spend their lifetime changing their essence and nature so it satisfies them. The philosophy of Existentialism is further analysed by explaining how humans find themselves and the ultimate meaning of their life by acknowledging their responsibility and making decisions accordingly. Moreover, it also explains

During this part of the novel, Pi’s father is teaching him a lesson by letting a tiger brutally kill a goat right in front of him. He is trying to teach Pi to not go near an animal such as tigers because they are incredibly dangerous. I believe this thread represents the foreshadowing of what is to come for Pi.

"Without Richard Parker, I wouldn't be alive today to tell you my story."(164) This quote was spoken by Pi, it was said because Pi realized how much Richard Parker helped him. Richard Parker kept Pi from thinking too much about the tragedy of the ship sinking and his family. Richard Parker also kept Pi from being lonely and kept Pi busy to pass time. I also think Richard Parker kept Pi connected with his family and was encouraging him. "The lower you are, the higher your mind will want to soar."(283) This quote was spoken by Pi, it was said because Pi was giving up and he was at his lowest point. He goes to faith and imagination to help him get through this. He soon lands on a beach in Mexico after that happened. I think the author wanted to show us that being faithful can be effective even in this situation. "You must take life the way it comes at you and make the best of it."(91) This was spoken by Pi, it was said because things didn't turn out how Pi expected he would of never thought his family would move and sell all the animals. Later in the book more unexpected things happen and Pi keeps his head up. He keeps going on with his life even though they are major set backs. This shows that Pi is very optimistic about his life which is a good quality to

Pi’s collective knowledge from his friends and family provided an opportunity to develop a survival mindset and skills that would eventually help him survive through his journey.

In the book Life of Pi by Yann Martel, we see Pi’s character develop both emotionally and spiritually through the process described in Joseph Campbell’s the Hero’s Journey. Throughout the journey, we see Pi find his faith in his Ordinary Life, lose it during his Ordeal, and rediscover it when he has his Return with the Elixir.

As Pi has to fight through adversity when he is stranded in a the middle of the Pacific Ocean, he has to adjust his eating habits. When one is in a situation where there is not much to eat, any little thing must be consumed. As a very famous proverb says, “Beggars can’t be choosers.” This was Pi’s most difficult challenge when he was on the boat. As a child, Pi grew up to be a vegetarian. The idea of killing and then consuming an animal really freaked out Pi. He remembered from his childhood, “To think that when I was a child I always shuddered when I snapped open a banana because it sounded to me like the breaking of an animal's neck” (197). Even when Pi was eating something like a banana that is not related at all to an animal, he

At the start of this book, Pi’s dad advised his son about the dangers of a tiger. Clearly his dad was not wrong when he warned him about the tiger and not about any of the other animals in the zoo. “Meeting the mentor” in Piscine’s journey was represented in this part of the book. “He returned a few seconds later carrying a goat with its legs tied.(…) Mahisha’s snarl turned into a growl deep in the throat” (Martel 25)” Piscine whispered, as the goat was placed in the cage and left all alone with the vicious tiger. Seconds later, the tiger jumps and demolishes the goat. Piscine’s mother was not pleased at all with what her husband made her son witness.

In the story Life of Pi, Pi Patel says, “Doesn’t the telling of something always become a story?” In my opinion, yes I think that if you tell someone something, it can have a chance to become a story. This is based on the facts that the definition of a story taken from google, “an account of imaginary or real people and events told for entertainment” (google 1). Here, it tells us that anything you a person can say is a story because we are real people, and because of that anything we say can be made into a story. In this book, this quote could contribute to the survival theme or storying telling theme. This is based on the fact that Pi could have made up this story to help him deal with the problems he accounted on his journey, which contributes

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’’

“Survival is the ability to swim in strange water” (Frank Herbert). Pi demonstrated life on the Pacific as a test of all aspects. Life on the Pacific tested his physical endurance, he was lost for two-hundred and seventy seven days. In that time, Pi demonstrates his faith towards God, himself, and Richard Parker. Pi develops a robust bond with Richard Parker, then connecting spiritually. Survival in the novel Life of Pi is etched in the deepest parts of the story. These aspects of the novel are depicted through personal and self-reflection within himself. Pi survives because of his strength, faith and a close relationship with Richard Parker.