Literary Devices In Life Of Pi

In Life of Pi, author Yann Martel utilizes metaphors to foreshadow future events and to reveal new insight about Pi’s character and the theme. When Pi is a young boy, his father teaches him and his brother why they should never put their hands in the animals’ cages. Pi’s father decides to teach them this valuable lesson by forcing his sons to watch a hungry tiger devour a vulnerable goat. Pi says, “I don’t know if I saw blood… or if i daubed it on later, in my memory, with a big brush” (39). As Pi tells two stories of the same event, it foreshadows the ending of the book where Pi tells news reporters two stories of his survival out at sea. This reveals that Pi is very creative and imaginative,

I personally feel that Yann Martel’s intent was to establish a theme around mental boundaries. The two different forms of Pi’s story when he was stuck out in the middle of the ocean differ drastically. In one story there is the plot where Pi is stuck on a lifeboat with wild animals, and then in another story the boat is full of real people. The assumption is that Pi only substituted all the people with animals to create a more fictional version of the harsh reality that his family either died or was killed on that lifeboat. Keep this is mind when you consider the plot especially in parts two and three of the novel.

Yann Martel manipulates the narrative style and structural devices within this passage to support the will to survive theme that is present in Life of Pi. Before the shipwreck, Pi was a spiritual individual with a strong appreciation for the joy and peace in life. Pi commonly experienced cruelty and doubt from his family and friends; however, he remained calm by following the guidance from his three religions. After the shipwreck, the spirituality within Pi’s life was tampered with because the chaotic and brute actions of the animals threatened to separate Pi from his peaceful demeanour. At first, Pi maintained his interaction with God, but as the days passed and the conditions worsened, Pi’s animal instincts began to develop.

Yann Martel (born 1963) is an author best known for the Man Booker Prize winning novel Life Of Pi, a# 1 international bestseller published in more than 50 territories. It has sold more than 12 million copies worldwide and spent more than a year on the New York Times Bestseller list. It was adapted to the screen by Ang Lee.

Yann Martel`s Life of Pi follows A journey of a young man and a Bengal tiger as they travel across the ocean in a lifeboat.Director Ang lee made many consider the book to be beautiful,but virually unflimable.Being needed to told on screen Ang lee discerned very adeptly,about Life of Pi ‘’if there is will there is a way’’.

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.

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

Before the ship sank, even before they went on the ship, Pi says that religion will save him. I think this statement is very true because it has saved him throughout his journey. He survived because of his religion. He says it himself that religion will save him, and it did save him.

Being an epitome of The Hero’s Journey, Life of Pi displays the first stage, the Call to Adventure, when the Tsimtsum (ship) sinks and Pi is ultimately left with only a Bengal Tiger and his wits to survive. Due to the rich and diverse experiences he had with his family and friends, he is well prepared to take this journey.

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

There are two people in Martel’s book “Life of Pi” that truly represent this. Martel uses the same name for those two people. Both characters are named Mr. Kumar. The first Mr. Kumar that is introduced is a teacher. He has his own unique perspective on the world and chooses not to “believe in religion” (Martel 29).

Thesis: In Life of Pi, Yann Martel depicts Richard Parker as peaceful and beautiful and then as an animal of power and strength through concrete diction,compound-complex sentences, and metaphors in order to reveal that appearance of something or someone may be a deception of their true nature and personality. Topic Sentences: Yann Martel’s utilizes concrete diction, illustrated by descriptive words, in order to reveal that although Richard Parker is a beautiful animal, he is still dangerous. Martel’s use of compound-complex sentences demonstrated by run-on sentences and commas to reveal that Pi’s awe of Richard Parker was due to the fact of Richard Parker’s natural beauty and his true, dangerous nature.

Richard Parker as an Allegorical Representation of Pi’s Crisis of Faith and Humanity It is clear throughout Life of Pi that despite condemning the anthropomorphism of animals (Martel 34), Pi, himself has a tendency to apply human characteristics to the animals he encounters throughout the story this includes the animals living in his father’s zoo that he claims to anthropomorphize to the point that they speak perfect English(cite). To keep Pi from falling into the pitfalls of believing that animals are capable of feeling in the same way that humans are Pi’s father one day shows him and his brother how savage an animal such as a tiger can truly be. This event in and of itself is the perfect set-up for introducing Richard Parker who is a projection

During the summer of 2014 I was given a summer reading assignment. That reading assignment was to read to books called “The Life of Pi” and “How to read Literature like a Professor”. The story that best describes the letters that we are reading in class is “The Life of Pi”. The reason why I say this is because in the story there is survival, friendship, and boat sailing.

To him, he feels that putting his faith in different religions brings him closer to God which is important because he is very passionate about his love for God. His yearning to be close to God is cause to his “desire to believe rather than the belief itself" (Stephens). Pi focuses so much on just trying to believe in God that he does not much focus on his own beliefs. Martel, in this way, implies by spreading personal beliefs throughout different religions and maintaining an open mind, one will achieve a great closeness to God. Therefore, Martel suggests that participation in varying religions proves beneficial to having an open lifestyle and to one’s relationship with God.