Life of Pi

The Life of Pi, an award-winning novel by Yann Martel, tells the story of Pi Patel, a young boy stranded at sea with an adult Bengal tiger. Marooned on a tiny lifeboat adrift in the Pacific Ocean, Pi finds himself struggling to survive. Faced with imminent suffering and death brought on by hunger, thirst, and an unending battle with the elements, Pi must make a decision between upholding his and society’s strict set of morals and values, or letting his survival instincts take over. Through compelling language and imagery, Martel gives Pi’s conflict between morals, fear, and survival a sense of excitement, suspense, and climax.

“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.

People who take life for granted don't truly accept life and not reshape their identity, until they've tasted adversity and all the vast misfortunes and catastrophe. Yann Martel’s book “Life Of Pi”, shows how adverse situations can help shape a person’s individual identity and play a noteworthy role in one’s life by establishing one’s ability, shaping one’s values and beliefs.

In the book Life of Pi the author Yann Martel wrote about a young boy named Pi Patel surviving on a lifeboat by himself. Throughout the entire book Pi was very close to religion and in the end his religions were the main reason he had survived. At the start of the book Yann Martel introduces three religions, Islam, Christianity, and Hinduism. There are three main points that aided in Pi’s survival. One being that Pi was open to religions and started to follow the Islamic faith. The second reason is that Islam believed that one should pray five times a day, and Pi did exactly this. The last reason is that the religion

Humans generally face struggles in their lifetime. Such struggles could be within themselves or with someone or something else but commonly stem from some sort of opposition in lifestyle. In Yann Martel’s novel, Life of Pi, Pi’s passion for personal survival conflicts with his moral obligations to himself internally, morphing his external character.

A boy lost at sea and a man captured by pirates, who knew they could be so similar? Both of these characters experience hardships, that they have to overcome. Pi is a boy from The Life of Pi who got stranded in the middle of the ocean and Phillip Ashton is a man who was captured by pirates in 1722 but escapes and waits in the Caribbean until he is saved. In the novel Life of Pi, the main character Pi is similar to the castaway Philip Ashton because they both survive tragic incidents, lose their families, and have to face serious fears every day.

“It is simple and brutal: a person can get used to anything, even to killing.” (Martel 205) This quote describes how even though Pi despaired his first killing of the fish because he took a life, he now becomes delighted at the idea of killing fish; he even has hunter’s pride now. This displays how Pi loses a part of his morality because of the decisions that he had to make in order to survive because he did not have anyone to confide in or talk to in order to stay grounded to who he is. “He gave me life, my own, but at the expense of taking one. He ripped the flesh off the man’s frame and cracked his bones. The smell of blood filled my nose. Something in me died then that has never come back to life.” (Martel 283) This is a dark moment for Pi as he experiences an awful event, which causes him to lose the morality that he had during his

"You have to make choices even when there's nothing to choose from" (Péter Zilahy). This was the situation 16 year old Piscini Pi Patel had to endure during the 227 days he was stranded at sea. In the novel Life of Pi by Yaan Mantel, Patel is faced with a choice to make-to live or not to live? After losing everything and everyone he cared for, Pi was repeatedly faced with this life changing decision, literally! Using the techniques symbolic vampirism, biblical implications, and metaphorical blindness administered by Thomas C. Foster in his book How to Read Literature Like a Professor, the journey of Pi's survival is mutually experienced with the reader and the protagonist himself. Furthermore, they're the reasoning behind Pi's conclusive choice,

The will to live is a strong urge of survival that occurs when one’s life is threatened. The novel and film Life of Pi is about a boy named Piscine Molitor Patel who is lost in the middle of the Pacific Ocean due to a shipwreck with a 450 pound Bengal Tiger. The theme that fits the novel and film the best is the will to live. The novel and film effectively prove the theme by using symbols to portray how badly Pi wants to live. Characterization also plays an important role in proving the theme as the novel and book show how Pi and his tiger have to change themselves to live. Cinematic techniques such as different types of camera angles are used as well to prove that the will to live is the essential theme in the film. In the novel, Yann Martel shows how the camera angles prove what they prove. The film and novel Life of Pi effectively capture the theme of the will to live by the effective use of symbolism, characterization, and cinematic techniques.

Life of Pi shows that humans and animals should do anything necessary to survive whatever challenges they face to live instead of just accepting death. Whatever ways that help one to survive are necessary, even if they compromise personal values, are vicious, or are wicked. Pi, a human; a hyena, and a blind man all fight to survive in a variety of ways that are examples of this thesis.

When writing, authors need to think of their audience and involve an element of surprise. Authors use plot twists in their writing to help them accomplish surprising the audience, allowing them to keep their audience’s interest. Not only do plot twists help keep the audience’s attention, they also make the audience question their beliefs about what they think of the story. Authors can use this tool to advance their themes. Yann Martel uses a crazy plot twist in his book, the Life of Pi, to suggest to readers that truth is relative.

In the beginning of Life of Pi, the author opens up with a detailed description of the sloth, the different types, the speed, and the wittiness. It survives by being slow and because of its slowness; it allows algae to grow on its body that acts like a camouflage with the surrounding moss and foliage. The book starts out in first person with the main character, Piscine Patel, talking about his name which means "pool" in numerous languages. He found it weird that his parents named him Piscine but neither of them ever took to the water. It was Pi's uncle, Mamaji, who was the enthusiast of water. Mamaji had taught Pi how to swim. "I lay on the bench and fluttered my legs and scratched away at the sand with my hands, turning my head at every

Life is defined by adversity. One never truly comprehends the beauty of life until one comes close to losing it. We are put through many hardships in life, whether we are prepared or not, and we learn to understand and deal with those issues along the way; adapting to these situations could include learning how to swim or what animals eat. In Yann Martel’s novel Life Of Pi, Pi Patel is contrasted with the experienced sailor Deborah Kiley by entrusting faith, the use of his knowledge, and adaptation to the situation to overcome obstacles beyond his control.

Surviving a tragic situation is a true test of mental and physical strength. It is mainly the use of inner strength to conquer various obstacles through a journey that allow many people to survive. The novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel allows readers to imagine a young boy trying to survive a shipwreck using everything that he learns and experiences. Piscine Patel survives many things such as the lifeboat, dehydration, drowning, starvation and the island. The personality traits of Piscine Patel are what enable him to survive and the three most important character traits he possesses are hope, intelligence and perseverance.

Everyone grows up. Some sooner than others. It may be subtle, and it could be traumatizing. In “The Life of Pi” produced by Ang Lee, Pi got the latter. The major running theme throughout the movie is that the loss of innocence is something everyone goes through. Ang Lee shows this in the use of lighting, angles, and sound effects in multiple scenes. When Pi has to change his name because the kids at school were making fun of him, when he is forced to watch the tiger eat the baby goat alive, his first love and his first heartbreak, when his family has to move away from his home, losing his entire family in a shipwreck, caring for himself and a tiger while at sea, and finally, in realizing what actually happened those first few days after the shipwreck are all examples of this theme.