Man Vs Nature in Yann Martel's Life of Pi Essay

dish” (Martel 235). These quotes show Pi’s effort to train the tiger and using his wits to outsmart

This book focuses on the survival of a man named Pi after a horrible shipwreck and many months in a lifeboat with a large Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. This book would be a good choice for me because it strikes my interests by including survival at sea with a life endangering animal.

Commentary: When the author notes a step by step way of training the tiger, the reader better understands how important zoos, animals, and animal training was in Pi’s childhood, being the son of a zoo keeper. Instead of reading a training manual (like in the movie) Pi comes up with his own theory on how to tame Richard Parker.

Pi’s hand joining with Richard Parker’s not only shows the unity between the two in the animal story, but also shows the savagery that exists within Pi and how that brought him to survive in the

Who has the power? A sixteen-year-old or a Bengal tiger? Power is typically concerned with who or what has control over someone or something else, so the question almost seems silly, because what could a young teenage boy have over a carnivorous, wild animal? Although it may seem obvious that the wild animal would have control over the boy, the answer is not as definite in the Life of Pi by Yann Martel. In the novel, the tiger, Richard Parker, and the teenage boy, Pi Patel share power. In other words, the two characters share power because of the unusual dynamic of equals between them. As a result of their dynamic, it brings up the question of how this situation came to be

In the novel ‘Lion’ survival is depended on behaving instinctively, illustrates that there are many ideas about survival presented in the book ‘Lion’.

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

Pi is shameful that he let the beautiful zebra become an offering to the dominating hyena for their meal. He does feel regret for the zebra and prays for the souls he also let become meals for other dominant animals. Therefore, Pi uses his animal story to explain that he let the other animals be eaten so that he was not. Similar to, Willy’s feeling of guilt after cheating on Linda and how he desperately wants to make up for his unfaithfulness, “I’ll make it up to you, Linda I’ll –” ( Miller 39). Willy cheats on Linda with another woman because he claims he was lonely. He realizes how much he has put Linda through and he uses his truth about the American Dream to justify that though he cannot be faithful to Linda he attempts to provide her with enough money to be happy with his admirable personality. Pi is regretful for his savage and selfish behavior that lead to the death of several animals for his needs and to justly explain that he creates the animal story to show that it was only an act of

The most interesting part of the novel is it’s end which is left on the readers to decide that whether the liked the first story of tiger and a human or the second one that includes animals giving out the mix feeling of humor and grief also Pi Patel describes it as a happy ending (although the tiger left him but he got on land after 100 days on life boat moreover he accomplished his quest of finding God).

Though Richard Parker proves vital for survival, he also reflects Pi’s character and helps further develop it throughout the novel. When first introduced, Pi was a teenaged boy curious in many different belief systems and also vegetarian. However, his experience with this tiger aboard a lifeboat after a shipwreck leads to necessary changes in Pi’s lifestyle and these dramatic changes in way of life are characterized through the tiger itself. For example, Richard Parker instinctively tears at animals and eats them in a barbaric manner in means of survival. Though Pi is disgusted by his animal-like behavior, he later resorts to the same methods of eating, “noisy, frantic, unchewing wolfing-down…exactly the way Richard Parker ate” for his own survival (Martel 225). As a previous vegetarian, Pi is not comfortable with the idea of killing animals to eat them but realizes “it is simple and brutal: a person can get used to anything, even to killing” (Martel 185). He even, later, uses human flesh from a passenger that Richard Parker killed for means of survival and food. He also kills birds by “[breaking] its neck [and] leveraging [their] heads backwards”, a harsh and violent murder (Martel 231). Pi’s ability to adapt to a more vicious yet necessary way of life reveals his inner animal

“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

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.

In chapter 8 Ravi, Pi and their parents are at the zoo and Pi’s father is teaching his sons a lesson on the dangerousness of a tiger by

Among the three main characters, Piya is a Bengali-American cetologist who travels to the tideland in order to find and research the Irrawaddy and Orcaella dolphins that are native to the region. Piya was born in Calcutta and moved to Seattle with her parents when she was one-year-old. Her father believed that, in order to better assimilate into U.S. culture, the family should sever its ties to India. Therefore, growing up in a family whose children are not allowed to access their own language, Piya can only speak English. Being the emblem of the conservation politics that has heavily influenced the Sundarban Islands, Piya tries to appreciate the country’s unique culture and its people, but is impeded by her own morals and the characteristics which come from being an American citizen. This can be elucidated by Piya’s confrontation with the villagers who kill and burn a tiger alive inside a mud hut in retribution of their deceased villagers and livestock that were slaughtered by the creature. Although Piya’s attempts to stop this attack are failed, her stance is evident—people are not

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.