Primacy of Survival in 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.

In Life of Pi, the main character is Piscine Molitor, though people call him Pi. Pi’s family was on their way to immigrate to Canada via ship, though the ship sinks in the middle of the ocean and the only survivors are Pi, an orangutan, a zebra and a tiger stranded on a lifeboat. Later on, the orangutan and zebra die, leaving a hungry tiger that is unpredictable and Pi who has limited resources, in the middle of the ocean. If Pi wants to not die and have a chance to survive, he must stay alive from the ocean and the tiger. Since Pi is stranded on a lifeboat with a tiger in the middle of the ocean with limited resources, Pi has to survive mentally and physically throughout the whole ordeal.

When Pi gets stranded on the boat with the animals, this quakes his perfect reality from events going as planned to what he should do in order to stay alive.” He then had to accept the death of his parents and also his brother. pi being so haunted by the thoughts of Mortality, brought him to create mental blocks in order to eat raw meats and raw fish. The biggest obsticle he had to face was learning how to tame a Bengal tiger with no experience. “ I had to tame him. It was at that very moment i realized this necessity.” This quote conveys pi’s logical thoughts to his survival thoughts. This quote also gives pi the

Characters- Piscine Molitor Patel (Pi)- In the pretext for the story, Pi is introduced as a shy, middle-aged man, recounting his story that changed his life. Throughout the story, Pi hints that the imagination is always better than the cold hard facts, which leads the reader to believe the story of his survival might be slightly embellished. Growing up, Pi devoted himself to studying several different religions, leading to his strong belief in god, and bonding with the animals in his father’s zoo. The novel tracks Pi journey from his childhood to how he ended up on a boat, trying to survive with a tiger as company. Used to living a very dependent life, Pi is forced to become self-sufficient when he ends up alone.

He is most likely frighted by this idea because he lived with animals and woke up with them every single day throughout his childhood. However when he is put in a situation where he needs to fight for survival, he needs to change his eating habits. Pi tried for a very long time to stay away from consuming animals, but at one point he realized in order to stay alive, he needed to eat his first ever animal. When reminiscing about the event he said, “You may be astonished that in such a short period of time I could go from weeping over the muffled killing of a flying fish to gleefully bludgeoning to death a dorado. I could explain it by arguing that profiting from a pitiful flying fish's navigational mistake made me shy and sorrowful, while the excitement of actively capturing a great dorado made me sanguinary and self-assured. But in point of fact the explanation lies elsewhere. It is simple and brutal: a person can get used to anything, even to killing” (185). This line is so powerful because he truly does feel bad for the animal. Even through all of the tough times that he is enduring on the boat, he still feels really bad about

On his journey to North America, Pi experienced many unfortunate events that no one, especially a sixteen year old should ever have to face. The environment that surrounded Pi was unfamiliar and came with many obstacles. Accompanied by a sailor, taiwanese cook, and his mother, Pi had to face the gruesome truth; his acquaintances were all willing to go to any extent in order to survive. Since food is a necessity of life, these innocent humans were all forced to kill and eat their own kind to stop their hunger. To make this story tolerable, Pi retells it with animals instead of people by replacing: the cook for a hyena, the taiwanese man for a zebra, his mother for Orange Juice and himself for Richard Parker. By altering reality, Pi was able

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 Pi is trapped on a lifeboat, his only company is a Bengal Tiger. It was in this circumstance that Pi understood the animal need for survival. Pi says of his transformation from a strict vegetarian into someone who expected to kill to survive, that, “I descended to a level of savagery I never imagined possible.” (218). Everyday, Pi felt like he was at a crucial point in his life, since he didn't know whether he would live to see tomorrow, especially with Richard Parker on the lifeboat. This is when Pi’s animal instincts kicked in and mirrored that of the tiger’s. The animal inside of him, and his survival instincts ended up plainly evident in his battle for survival.

In this journal, I will be questioning whether Pi will survive in the ocean. First, Pi has animals to keep him company aboard the raft. Even though the animals like to fight with each other it still makes Pi feel less lonely, and therefore more willing to try and survive. This shows how Pi will survive because he is determined to. Secondly, Pi begins to learn how to gather food and water to survive. “With time and experience I became a better hunter” (Martel 173). Pi begins to eat quality amounts of fish and turtles, and feeds Richard Parker the tiger some of the fish. This shows how Pi will learn to survive and adapt to the climate around him. Lastly, Pi is realizing what he has to do to survive. Pi was a vegetarian before he became stranded, so having to eat fish is different to him.

When the Emergency ended eighteen months later, Ghandi ordered a new round of elections. Concerned about the sharp turns in government, Pi’s parents decide to leave their country and move to Canada . As an outcome of his decision, Santosh sells most of the animals in his zoo, save the tiger and orangutangs. A few days later, the Patel family boards a Japanese cargo ship called the Tsimtsum, which is headed for Canada. When sailing in the middle of the night, Pi goes onto the deck of the ship, only to be confused hen he sees Chinese men panicking and yelling at him. As he goes closer, they strap Pi with a lifeboat and throw him overboard. Unbeknownst to Pi, the ship is sinking and everyone on the boat,including his parents, has perished. Now, Pi is left crammed onto a 26 foot long life boat with the remaining animals from his fathers zoo-a Bengal tiger, orangutang named Orange Juice, zebra and, a hyena. Without hesitation, the hyena instantly eats the zebra and Orange Juice alive. The Bengal tiger,named Richard Parker, kills the hyena. Later on, Piscine and Richard split the lifeboat into their own territories. Day by day Pi slowly trains Richard Parker

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.

The land was his safe ground, his safe haven. He then entered the ocean, the outside, his unknown. The waves had started calm and still, then turned rough and frigid. Two hundred twenty-seven days stranded in a vast ocean and only sixteen years old. In Yann Martel’s novel, Life of Pi, Piscine (Pi) Patel’s family decides to move to Canada and sell their zoo in India. Events take a turn for the worse when an enormous storm sinks the ship, leaving Pi as the sole human survivor. Pi is found on a lifeboat along with a hyena, an injured zebra, an orangutan, and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger, and his main goal is survival. In an attempt to survive, Pi uses his beliefs that he acquired in India, which include zoomorphism, having faith in God, and

Furthermore, his vast knowledge of animals, having grown up at a zoo, helps him to tame Richard Parker. Pi knows tigers’ psychological thinking and exploits this by classically conditioning Richard Parker. Likewise, Pi’s experience of watching a tiger kill a goat in his early childhood taught him the fundamental lesson that ‘an animal is an animal’, enabling him to strategically and mentally survive his long and testing time at sea. In addition to that, during the early parts of Part 2, Pi comes across a survival manual, a crucial object for his continued existence. The book gives him critical information on the do’s and don’ts of survival at sea and it is hard to imagine that Pi could have survived without this book which also gave him the opportunity to write down his words which were “all he has left’’.

“Survival is the ability to swim in strange water” (Frank Herbert). Pi demonstrated life on the Pacific as a test of all aspects. Life on the Pacific tested his physical endurance, he was lost for two-hundred and seventy seven days. In that time, Pi demonstrates his faith towards God, himself, and Richard Parker. Pi develops a robust bond with Richard Parker, then connecting spiritually. Survival in the novel Life of Pi is etched in the deepest parts of the story. These aspects of the novel are depicted through personal and self-reflection within himself. Pi survives because of his strength, faith and a close relationship with Richard Parker.

It is known that one of the most difficult things to do, is survive on sea in terms of a survival situation. (Grade Saver). Surviving on sea is one difficult thing to do on your own although imagine doing it with a Bengal tiger? Not imaginable, but it did happen with Piscine Molitor Patel of Pondicherry India. Pi survives on sea for seven months (227) days from India to the coast of Mexico mentally and physically because he had hope, Richard Parker, and religion. Without these three things- he may not have survived because he speaks about the importance of these things to him and the role that they play in his life and the influence they have on him on this treacherous, lengthy journey.