Survival Instinct In Yann Martel's Life Of Pi

He created an unknown bond with him and didn’t notice it until they departed. “Richard Parker escapes into the woods without even looking back”. This quote signifies Pi’s inner-emotions towards Richard Parker. When Pi is brought back to the modern world he notices he is not his same self. he is now a man. His mind is then fixed into a new mind-set of “survival” and “scarcity” making it an obsicle to re-adapt to civilization, limiting what he would usually do with his life as a kid to dispersing his new assets he didn’t know he ever

Another way Pi was able to survive through his harsh times was by learning how to live with Richard Parker. At first Pi was terribly afraid that he might be the next goat. “I had a choice so long as he did not sense me. If he did, he would kill me right away. Could he burst through the tarpaulin, I wondered.”(Martel, 119) Since Pi was afraid of Richard Parker, he would try his best to avoid him. His fear towards Richard Parker distracted Pi from the sorrow left by the sinking of the Tsimtsum. Even if Richard Parker was a man-eating carnivore he had to learn how to live with him. “In my case, to protect myself from Richard Parker while I trained him, I made a shield with a turtle shell...” (Martel, 228) If Pi wasn’t able to tame Richard Parker

In the story, Life of Pi by Yann Martel the character Pi becomes a different person after he kills the flying fish. When Pi is on the raft, a number of flying fish landed on the boat with him and Richard Parker. Pi hesitated to kill the flying fish because it had landed on the raft by accident. Pi says, “Several times I started bringing the hatchet down, but I couldn’t complete the action,” (Martel 87). This shows that Pi really dislikes the prospect of killing. Pi hesitates because he is a good person and holds on to his morals. Later, when Pi needs to find another fish to feed Richard Parker, Pi fishes and reels in a large dorado. Once the dorado is on the raft, Pi kills the large fish without hesitation

Author Nancy Wynne Newhall once wrote “The Wilderness holds answers to more questions than we have yet learned to ask.” To man, nature can be manipulated and overrun easily but it is not easily destroyed permanently. In Life of Pi by Yann Martel, Pi convinces himself he has altered the beastly nature of his tiger companion, Richard Parker, however, he fails to realize this as a misconception until the certain events with Richard Parker that ultimately revealing that the savage nature within wild animals cannot be tamed.

Throughout the entire novel the author gives us characteristics about Pi, he is the protagonist and, for most of the novel the narrator. In the chapters that frame the story and tell us everything that has happened they portray Pi as a shy, graying, middle-aged boy, whom tells the author about his early childhood and the shipwreck that changed his life, and gave him a new friendship with someone whom you would never believe a human could become friends with. This novel makes everyone question the truth which makes us wonder if Pi’s story is accurate and makes us wonder what pieces we should believe. Pi emphasizes the importance of choosing the better story which makes

Richard Parker is a manifestation of the qualities that Pi needs; however, an abundance of these qualities will contribute to Pi’s downfall. This concept is also represented later in the book when the blind French cook tries to trick Pi. The cook’s primitive side overpowered him, causing him to die in the jaws of Richard Parker. If Pi did not tame his savagery, he would have been consumed by it, which would be represented by a fatal attack from Richard Parker. While contemplating the confrontation of his survival instincts, Pi says, “to know that and to apply it are two very different things” (Martel 246). This quotation describes the concept of survival in a lifeboat and in the real world. In both settings, it is difficult to deny yourself access to something that is lurking inside of you and pushing with so much force. Whether this quality is easily spotted or difficult to uncover, it is important to study it and decide if it is changing your character. Fortunately, Pi discovered early in his journey that the primitive qualities he was developing for survival were threatening to dominate him. After taming his savagery, Pi is pleased with his decisions and says “Isn't that what all survivors say?” (Martel 247). This quotation depicts the satisfaction in taming your inner self, while still allowing your fierce qualities to live in small

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

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

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

In contrast to the background of Lord of the Flies, Pi, the main character in Life of Pi, has a relatively peaceful childhood. He grows up in the 1970s in Pondicherry, South India, during a time of peace and prosperity. Except for school bullies, he is largely ignorant of violence, bar the time his father exposed him and his brother to the dangerous tendencies of the zoo animals. Furthermore, Pi explores religion for himself, and while he does have values impressed upon him by his parents, such as not eating meat, he is largely responsible for creating his own unique set of values that revolve around three major religions.

Furthermore, Pi confesses to wanting Richard Parker to live primarily for Pi’s own survival when he states, “A part of me did not want

Firstly, Pi goes through a lot of struggles while lost at sea. He wars with himself on topics such as his views on religion and his decision

He also becomes more in touch with Richard Parker. He shows Richard Parker that he is in control by using a whistle. Together they try and gather food and survive out at sea. This shows how Pi is learning to survive at

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.