Humans have diverse habits of coping with difficulties. In Yann Martel’s novel, Life of Pi, Pi, after having endured unimaginable circumstances, fabricates an alternate story to the original. However, the outcomes of both stories are the same; the Tsimtsum sinks, Pi's family dies, and Pi survives. As a way of coping with the tragedies he has endured, Pi creates a different story which expresses the characters prodigiously, all the while inhibiting his suffering and freeing him from his survival instincts. In an archetypical nature, Pi's altering of his mother in his experience hinders the agony of her deaths while honoring her memory. In the case of Pi's mother, Pi represents her using Orange Juice the Orangutan. Upon the arrival of Orange …show more content…
Although Orange Juice is an orangutan, Pi successfully represents her as a motherly figure, referring to her as the "Virgin Mary." In doing so, Pi maintains the qualities and memories he has of his mother even though he is expressing her through an animal. Rebecca Duncan explains, "Pi mourns the loss of his parents, his brother and his 'extended family--birds, beasts and reptiles' (Martel 98), a sentiment that alternates with hope that they too have survived." Pi uses the alternate story to intertwine the importance of the animals in his life while preserving the lives and memories of his family. Moreover, the animals are of lesser significance to him, and therefore reduce the severity of their deaths. Pi explains the torment of Orange Juice's death: "Dumb with pain and horror, I watched as Orange Juice thumped the hyena ineffectual and …show more content…
Thinking about fear and its power, Pi acknowledges, "He pushed me to go on living. I hated him for it, yet at the same time I was grateful. I am grateful. It's the plain truth: without Richard Parker, I wouldn't be alive today to tell you my story" (Martel 164). Not ironically, Pi is pondering fear before he makes this statement; fear itself is what brings about his human instinct to survive. This animalistic instinct, as expressed through Richard Parker, is what keeps Pi alive. When Richard Parker kills the hyena, Pi points out, "It seemed the presence of a tiger saved me from a hyena..." (Martel 136). Once again, the importance of Pi's animalistic side is prevalent; however, it leads Pi to killing the chef. Pi uses Richard Parker as a way of ascribing his guilt away from himself onto Richard Parker. To further disassociate himself from his savage side and remind himself of his humanity, Pi includes himself in the story. When the sea is calm and Richard Parker appears, Pi notes, "The weird contrast between the bright, striped, living orange of his coat and the inert white of the boat's hull was incredibly compelling. My overwrought senses screeched to a halt" (Martel 160). In this moment, Pi is able to escape all senses of survival and take in the beauty. Conclusively, moments like these remind him of his humanity. Pi's use of both himself and
Pi’s father -Mr. Patel-sacrifices an animal in order to teach his children a lesson of life. He is tired of his children who stick their fingers in the animal’s cage. He wants to keep his children away from doing such dangerous things. He wants to
“So, secretly, at night I would sneak down and speak to him. I’d lift the blanket up, just a little bit off the cage and stick my head under it” Stephen’s Davis’ novel, Juice is the confronting, funny, sad but truthful representation of modern teen relationships. Juice uses symbolic representation very effectively to convey the roles and relationships between the protagonist and his father. The symbols of the bird, Icarus and the birdcage portrayed key symbolic depiction of the roles and relationships throughout the play. The origin of Icarus, from Greek mythology helped to deconstruct and understand the relationship between Rodney and his father, this symbol played a major role in interpreting the play.
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
When one first watches the movie, one may quickly judge that the characters are in direct contrast to the colors they represent. In the movie, Tangie (orange) which means vitality with endurance plays the part of a promiscuous girl whose hatred for her mother drives her to do what she does. On further look at her character, I realize she is a true reflection of the color orange. She endures sexual abuse from her grandfather and faces abortion at a tender age but is still strong enough to overcome it and bring out her true beauty. The text also employ poems and songs to show the intensity of pain and emphasize the strength of each character and women in general.
each animal he did, has numerous answers. The hyena, zebra, tiger, and orang u tang all represented something in Pi’s religions and life, each animal had a connection somehow.
In the book Life of Pi by Yann Martel, a zookeeper’s son, Piscine Molitor Patel is traveling to Canada with his family and animals on the Japanese ship Tsimtsum. Unexpectedly, the boat sinks and Pi is the only human to make it out alive. After jumping onto a lifeboat, Pi discovers he’s not alone. A zebra with a broken leg is along for the journey. After a while, Pi discovers yet another animal, a male hyena. Then floating in on a ‘throne of bananas’, Orange Juice, a female orangutan joins the group of unlikely seafarers. Things turn deadly quickly. The hyena makes quick work of the zebra, making this the first of many deaths in this story. The hyena then fixes its gaze upon Orange Juice, she attempts to defend herself but to no prevail. Before
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.
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
One of the biggest parts of the symbolism is the tiger, Richard Parker. He could be compared with many things, but I like to compare Richard Parker to Pi himself, with Richard Parker being a direct link to Pi’s sanity and wellbeing. Hindu belief includes the transferring of the soul to new bodies, and I think that perhaps Richard Parker is Pi’s soul, reincarnated into the form of a tiger. What better to symbolize Pi than a tiger? Tigers live in harsh environments that hold no remorse for them, as does Pi, living in the harsh waters of the Pacific Ocean for two hundred and twenty seven days. As it is not real reincarnation being depicted in the novel, as they both exist at the same time, it can still be used as a representation of reincarnation. The other animals the beginning may also symbolize other objects. I think that the other animals may symbolize the conflicting emotions inside of Pi. The hyena, the part of Pi that wanted to eat the other animals for food. The zebra, symbolizing the hurt part of Pi, wanting to give up. The orangutan, the part of him that wanted to defend himself and the other animals from the
Everyone can pick an animal that they believe describes themselves or symbolizes themselves, but in Yann Martel’s Life of Pi he takes those characteristics to a new level. The symbolism of a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan, and a tiger all contribute to the characteristics of Pi and his journey through the sea, together, on a life boat.
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.
On its surface, Martel’s Life of Pi proceeds as a far-fetched yet not completely unbelievable tale about a young Indian boy named Pi who survives after two hundred twenty-seven days on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. It is an uplifting and entertaining story, with a few themes about companionship and survival sprinkled throughout. The ending, however, reveals a second story – a more realistic and dark account replacing the animals from the beginning with crude human counterparts. Suddenly, Life of Pi becomes more than an inspiring tale and transforms into a point to be made about rationality, faith, and how storytelling correlates the two. The point of the book is not for the reader to decide which
The paper will analyze how Pi demonstrates typical psychological defenses including the fear of abandonment and insecurity. It will also inspect how Pi further deals with the meaning of death as he drifts slowly across the Pacific Ocean with only a Bengal tiger for a companion.
The animals on board that Pi perceives as imperative are additionally orange. Orange Juice, the matronly orangutan, floated to the lifeboat on a raft of bananas.
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.