Yann Martel’s book Life of Pi portrays the gripping reality Pi Patel has to endure all the while with a Bengal Tiger. In a tale of unique friendship and tragedy the two subsist out at sea for 227 days while Pi survives in fear and Richard Parker (the tiger) kept Pi’s mind occupied. Pi and Richard Parker survived together and nearly died together while being afloat. But in such close quarters Pi realizes that Richard Parker is still a predator and will kill him if necessary. This fear and Parker himself kept Pi busy whereas others might have gone insane. Without Richard Parker, Pi could not have survived. “It was not a question of him or me, but of him and me.” (Martel 164) Upon the Tsimtsum sinking Pi was thrown into a lifeboat where Richard Parker eventually came. Together they spent almost a year on the Pacific Ocean while enduring more hardship than some people manage to do in a lifetime. Pi realized that they were …”literally and figuratively, in the same boat.” (Martel 164) This shows that while they are both on a lifeboat they are also hungry, thirsty, and desperate for salvation. While on the boat, Pi, despite his first plan on what to do with Richard Parker, began feeding him which cut into Pi’s own ration of food. He came up with an unorthodox plan to rid Richard Parker and his conscience. The plan included 6 steps: Push Richard Parker off the lifeboat, kill him, attack him, choke him, poison him, and wage a war of attrition. (Martel 158) However, Pi began to
After following the arguments for and against the United States’ entry into the Great War these past few days, I have come to the support the decision of President Wilson to enter the war. Not only must we fight for democracy and the rights of the people, but the failure of the Allies would result in a huge economic setback for America. For these reasons I believe the entry of the United States into the war is the right call at the present time. However, we are not entering this war purely for unselfish reasons.
“Without Richard Parker, I wouldn’t be alive today to tell you my story.” The significance of this quote is that the presence of Richard saves him from the effects of loneliness. “The lower you are, the higher your mind will soar.” This quote is important because when Pi is at his lowest point, he reaches for his only remaining sources of salvation, which is his faith and imagination. “Life on a lifeboat isn’t much of a life. It is like an end game in chess, a game with few pieces. The element couldn’t be more simple, or the stake higher.” The quote significance is that the few that survive the ship are force to face each other in a strategic battle of wits to see who will
Pi is alone with Richard Parker on the lifeboat and they both starve and suffer with dehydration. Pi starts catching fishes for both of them. He always gives the biggest share to Richard Parker as he is the strongest. One day, he decides to eat the largest part. He wants to calm his desire for hunger. He does not want to share anything with Richard Parker. Pi starts eating like an animal. Pi tells, “It came as an unmistakable indication to me of how I had sunk the day I noticed, with a pinching of the heart, that I ate like an animal” (Martel 183). The innocent boy is now as dangerous as an animal that can do anything for the food. His yearning for food makes him selfish. It is in pi’s hand not to sacrifices his integrity, but he chooses to sacrifice because he knows that at this critical situation it is right to do. Even though Pi loses his integrity, he gains the power of being the strongest one on the
Welcome, I am an Egyptologist from the British Museum, and I am here to talk to you about a fantastic civilization called Ancient Egypt. Ancient Egypt was an empire that began in approximately 3100BCE, and ended in 30BCE. In the time of Ancient Egypt, funerary customs were an important part of the Egyptian’s culture and beliefs and these customs evolved through time to become more elaborate, and common. The artefact I have chosen to explore with you is the book of the dead as it will provide you with a greater understanding of the complex funerary customs, and their beliefs in the afterlife.
In Thomas Wolfes’ story “The Child by Tiger” Dick Prosser a deeply religious veteran from the South begins working for a white family after serving in the United States Army. Prosser was well liked by the Shepperton family and the boys of the neighborhood, until the day that Dick Prosser’s PTSD was triggered and killed many people of the town. The boys of the town looked up to Dick, they thought that he was able to do everything. He was also considered to be very smart for an African American. Thomas Wolfe uses George L. Dillon’s styles of reading in “The Child by Tiger”. Wolfe uses two out of three of George L. Dillons styles of reading, one of the styles is the Anthropologist style. In Thomas Wolfe’s story Anthropologist style is a way of looking at the social norms and values of the story. Dillons Anthropologist style of reading is represented in Wolfe 's story by showing the effects of PTSD and the way African Americans were viewed and treated. Wolfe uses another one of George L. Dillon 's styles of reading. Digger for Secrets is also used in “The Child by Tiger.” Digger for Secrets style is how the readers go beneath the surface of the story to uncover things that are not directly stated. George L. Dillons Digger for Secrets style can be uncovered in the way Thomas Wolfe describes Dick Prosser 's physical appearance and how deeply religious Prosser was for someone who served in the army.
As a senior at Babson College concentrating in Business Analytics and heavily interested in data-driven decision-making, I am thrilled to apply to West Monroe’s Advanced Analytics Consultant positon. Last year, I had the opportunity to research, collect primary and secondary data, and make business decisions when I participated in Babson’s Management Consulting Field Experience. My team, comprised of five highly motivated Babson undergraduates and a graduate student project leader, was able to create a blueprint for a crowdsourcing platform that would help our client, Clarkston Consulting, with its innovation methodology. In the span of three months, our team identified a target market, determined product features, and designed the platform. Through this project, I strengthened my communication skills as I worked with my team, project leader, and also a high-profile client. Further, my passion research and data analytics was reinforced as I utilized the tools taught in my classes in the real-world project. Along with this experience as a consultant, I am
The tiger that Pi refers to throughout his ordeal is could be perceived as the alter-ego of himself, “The tiger killed the hyena- and the blind Frenchman- just as he killed the cook” (311). While Pi was able to use his imagination to portray a tiger as himself, Richard Parker was never more than an extension of Pi’s imagination. Richard Parker simply symbolized Pi in the real world and could never
The violent outbreak of Richard Parker, along with his silent departure at the end of the novel, portrays how futile it is to try to change a wild animal into a civilized being. Richard Parker seems, at first, to have experienced a spiritual breakthrough and transformation after Pi’s attempt to training. Even in the end, Pi’s ability to survive such a journey with a beastly killer seems evidence enough that Pi trained the tiger. Pi’s main goal, along with survival, is to establish a level of equality between himself
To simply be alive consists of the acts of breathing and having blood pump through the body, but to be a human being consists of much more complexity. The nature composed of a human being involves having self sovereignty on our own emotions, opinions, desires, faiths as well as having a moral subconscious. Yet, what occurs when a situation allows an individual to react in a behaviour that doesn’t follow these defining factors of human nature? In Yann Martel 's Life of Pi, he creates the conflict of a cargo ship sinking, and the only notable survivors on the life raft consists of a hyena, a zebra with a broken leg, an orangutan, and a 16-year-old Indian boy. The protagonist of the novel, Pi Patel, is faced with a personal survival conflict
Although it is not obvious at first, the large threat of a tiger on board blends into a symbol of survival for Pi. Though Richard Parker is a large issue for Pi, he is not the only issue being faced. Issues such as lack of food, scarce drinking water, and no sense of direction also
“I must say a word about fear. It is life’s only true opponent” (Martel 161). These wise words come from a young man named Pi, the main character of the novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel. It is the fear-filled story of Pi, who becomes trapped on a lifeboat in the middle of the Pacific ocean and must survive the elements for a harrowing 227 days. In the story, Pi claims to have not been alone on the boat; he says he lived in the company of a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. However, one can suspect that Richard Parker is only a figment of Pi’s deteriorating mind and that he was created so that Pi could distance himself from the animalistic behavior and actions he was forced to resort to in order to survive. In Life of Pi, Yann Martel uses literary
Martel (2002:19) “I know zoos are no longer in people good graces and religion faces the same problem. Certain illusions about freedom plague them both”. Through this quote the reader notice that there are aspects related between zoology and religion in Life of Pi. In the beginning of the novel we are introduced to zoology and religion. The author make it clear to the reader that Pi had majors in both subjects zoology and religion and later use that knowledge to help him do things one can say is impossible.
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’’.
Furthermore, Pi confesses to wanting Richard Parker to live primarily for Pi’s own survival when he states, “A part of me did not want
The saying “desperate times call for desperate measures” holds truth to an extent. In the award winning novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel, drastic measures are taken by characters in order to survive while stranded on a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean. Through his journey, main character, Pi Patel, endures many hardships and witnesses several deaths. Significantly, the death of the zebra accompanying Pi and the other animals establishes a generalization of human nature being sophisticated yet inherently vicious according to methods of survival.