Morality In Life Of Pi

Throughout his young life, Pi has been guided by a strong set of morals and values. A strict pacifist and vegetarian, Pi never dreamed of killing an animal, especially for food. Pi states, “…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” (Martel 197). However, faced with starvation at sea, Pi must decide between adhering to his morals and satisfying his ravenous hunger when a school of flying fish descends upon the lifeboat. He chooses his own survival and decides he must butcher a fish to feed himself. Martel uses vivid details and language to convey Pi’s feelings about the necessity of violence and killing a living creature for survival. Martel conveys a sense of suspense to the reader as Pi raises his hatchet several times to

Most people don’t have to suffer trauma in a lifeboat all by themselves. Further, most people don’t have to retell their story years after with accuracy. That is exactly what Pi has to do in Yann Martel’s novel Life of Pi. There are many challenges that Pi goes through that Pi goes through that could make him an unreliable narrator including a lack of written records, trauma, loneliness, and the effects dehydration and malnutrition has in a person. Furthermore, by considering Pi’s unreliability the reader comes to understand that the truth of his story remains irrefutable and therefore the truth is more important than the facts. Pi could be assumed by the reader to be an unreliable narrator through a lack of written record of his experiences from the past, his trauma and loneliness at sea, and the mental effects of dehydration, malnutrition and hallucinations.

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

Pi’s life before the boat crashing was full of hope and wonder. His presence was ethereal, making a purpose out of everything around him. His family ran a zoo, which gave him a tight-knit relationship with animals. Pi loved to try new things. He met new people which led to his exploration

When the boat was searched by the investigators, there was little to prove that Pi was indeed trapped with a Bengal tiger. When Pi told Mr. Tomohiro Okamoto and his junior colleague, Mr. Atsuro Chiba, to look in the boat for proof, they did not find any traces of a tiger having being present. Instead, they found what Pi claimed to be meerkat bones that were eaten by Richard Parker after their departure from the island but what were actually bones from another pest that escaped from the sinking Tsintsum, and which was eaten by one of the lifeboat’s human inhabitants, “We have no proof they were meerkat bones” (300). The educated investigators reasoned that the bones came from the animals from the ship and that meerkats were not the likely victims.

Everybody; no matter your religion, skin colour, or gender possess a combination of morals based on the things internally believed are right or wrong. These can be established through many influences including, social constructs, personal experiences, and upbringing. Yann Martel is constantly challenging the reader’s morals throughout Life of Pi, after Pi is on the lifeboat, he has to make the extremely hard decision between his own religious morals, and survival. In all of Pi’s dilemmas, survival always outweighs the “needs” of mankind 's culture, making these constructs no longer a priority. Utilitarianism, consequential versus categorical moral

In the first chapter of part two, Pi describes the horrifying task of pulling Richard Parker into the lifeboat with a lifebuoy. Now, Pi is describing the cook hauling him in. Orange Juice floats to the lifeboat on a bed of bananas, as does Pi’s mother. The zebra and the sailor both have attained a broken leg from jumping into the lifeboat, and finally, the hyena and the cook are both described as maniacal, and both eat the mass of flies.

Pi kills a fish for the first time and that experience has changed him. At first, Pi was upset about his actions but sees that one must do what they must to survive.

He starts out with a zebra, hyena, an orangutan, and a tiger, but the animals slowly diminish leaving only Pi and Richard Parker. Pi works to tame and care for Richard Parker, and the two survive for two hundred twenty-seven days. Pi encounters a fellow French castaway who is eaten by Richard Parker (Martel 311-320). Pi also comes across a man-eating island (Martel 322-358). The events that take place are fairly far-fetched, and the probability of all of them occurring to the same person in the period of time given is even less believable. The second story, on the other hand, is a perhaps more believable retelling of the original story. Pi relates the second tale upon the request of his interviewers for “‘a story without animals’” (Martel 381). In this story the animals are replaced with human representatives including an injured Chinese sailor, a French cook, Pi’s mother, and Pi himself. The second story, like the first, begins with many passengers on the boat, but in the end it leaves only Pi to survive by himself after brutally murdering and eating the cook who killed both the sailor and Pi’s own mother (Martel 381-391). Unlike Pi’s first story, this account is dark, desperate, and harshly realistic, without any sense of hope to counter it all. After relating both of these stories to his interviewers, Pi asks them which story they think is better (Martel 398). Although the

In Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, a boy named Pi undergoes a series of unfortunate events that ultimately lead to him being trapped on a lifeboat in the middle of the Pacific with a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. As the story develops, so does Pi’s fear and feelings of inferiority to Richard Parker. Until Chapter 80 of the novel, Richard Parker is sedate, allowing Pi to survive. However, the upcoming switch of roles on the lifeboat will strongly impact the rest of Pi’s journey. In chapter 80, Pi becomes the alpha animal on the lifeboat after catching a dorado fish and refusing to feed it to Richard Parker.

When Pi witnessed his family die as well as the Frenchman losing all sense of humanity, he cannot bare to narrate the events. That is why he devises an imaginative story about animals killing each other, because it is natural in them and less heart-breaking.

An Allegory as an Antidote “That's what fiction is about, isn't it, the selective transforming of reality? The twisting of it to bring out its essence?” – Life of Pi (Author’s Note VI) Allegory has played a major role in all aspects of storytelling – literature, films, and art – and is employed prominently in Yann Martel’s Life of Pi. The character of Pi uses an altered version of the events (one that substitutes the humans for animals) in order to soothe the pain and raw horror of being on the boat, seeing his mother’s murder, witnessing the cook’s cannibalistic actions, and ultimately having to kill the cook.

Subsequently, the main event that happens is the sinking of Pi’s ship, Tsimtsum. Pi’s attempt to help his family left with him being stranded, as the cabins were flooded. As Pi was trying to find the crew he saw “Towards the bow I saw some men running in the gloom. I thought I saw some animals too, but I dismissed the sight as illusion crafted by rain and shadow.”(Martel, 101) The author leaves out how the animals escaped their secure cages,

Pi is a vegetarian, when they are in the ship, his mother argues with the French cook because the soup is not meatless. After the ship sink, the foods are consuming, Pi has to hunt the fish to keeps himself alive. He is afraid of killing because it is contrary to the doctrine. Several times he is hesitant to break fish’s neck, and he hides the fish’s head with the blanket. When he takes this fish’s life he is cry and feels guilty. He says, “ Lord, to think that I’m a strict vegetarian. 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.I descended to a level of savagery I never imagined possible” (Martel 197). With time flying and experience increasing, Pi becomes a better hunter. His hunting action is more skillful, and he enjoys his meat. “ Turtles —which previously I had roughly opened up with the knife and tossed onto the floor of the boat for Richard Parker, like a bowl of hot soup—became my favorite dish” (Martel 212). He bravely fight the fear which come from the scarfing of him Hindu religion. he gets survival and keeps

Piscine Molitor Patel says it himself that his survival is “hard to believe” and can hardly comprehend it looking back. Yet, the readers are promised with a happy ending, and a happy ending with Pi’s survival is what we get. However, it raises the incredible question of just how Pi managed to survive the hardships, loss, pain and suffering, all in the Pacific Ocean’s harsh, unforgiving environment. The first explanation involves Pi’s inborn desire to survive at all cost and to resist giving up. Also, Pi’s versatility to change from a life-long vegetarian to a meat eater and his creativeness in making the best out of a horrible situation are some of the key factors that contribute to his survival. Furthermore, the role of Richard Parker in