Theme Of Empathy And Animals In Life Of Pi

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

In human and animal nature, many similarities are portrayed in Life of Pi as well as a strong relation between the two. In contrast, humans and animals share the same sort of lifestyle, just living a different life according to Pi’s thoughts. In a tragic situation that one is in, such as Pi they must find a way to pass time and keep themselves busy by using their circumstances,

Even after he kills a fish in a seemingly careless fashion, in his sleep “[his] mind lit up by the…flickering of the dying [fish]” seems to haunt him with resentment (Martel 186). This subconscious image is a product of Pi’s internal conflict with his new methods of survival. Therefore, Pi is unable to completely eliminate his feelings while trying to survive due to his torn thoughts between morality and necessity.

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.

When we are placed in situations of desperation, we often resort to other motives that we would normally categorize as inhumane in order to survive:“When your own life is threatened, your sense of empathy is blunted by a terrible, selfish hunger for survival,” (133). This becomes apparent to Pi when he does not feel any sympathy towards the zebra, after the ruthless attack from the hyena. Pi has trouble coping with this behaviour as it is going against values that defines him as a person: religion and his moral obligations. This willpower to survive often blocks our sense of empathy for one another and controls our mind and our hearts. Later in the chapter, the hyena has an opportunity to attack the orangutan, but does not. This relates to the idea that theses two opposites of moral and survival instincts can co exist together, such as the rhino and the goat. Ultimately, the symbolism of the two opposite natures coexisting with one another proves that nature is filled with surprises and the need for balance of cooperation and competition is essential to survive.

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

Another important part highlighting the motivation of Pi’s fear is when he is truly aware of his fear and what is going on. Martel shows that Pi has come to terms with this fear by saying “I must say a word about fear. It is life's only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know. It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy. It goes for your weakest spot, which it finds with unerring ease. It begins in your mind, always” (2.56.178) This passage shows Pi’s awareness of his fear and suffering, as well as, that he knows he must go through much more in order to survive.

Yann Martel offers two accounts of Pi’s survival story so that Pi is able to personify animals and also give animalistic qualities to humans. This exchange is only seen after both accounts are read. The reader is able to determine which he or she accepts as reality, but since the facts of the story go unchanged and both tales are primarily the same, the sole purpose is to highlight the traits humans and animals posses. Yann Martel exemplifies human traits in animals and animal traits in people through his claim in passage A by telling the two stories of Pi’s survival.

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

Dalai Lama accurately describes what a healthy relationship between man and nature is when she stated that “It is our collective and individual responsibility to preserve and tend to the world in which we all live.” Unlike Lama’s beliefs about the environment, Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep portrays the consequences and chaos revolving around an unhealthy relationship humanity has with the Earth. At first, one might assume that the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick describes the correlation between humanity and the power of empathy. Indeed, this view may be supported by the interactions between Rick Deckard, the protagonist, and the androids he encounters, and how his beliefs about humanity

“The difference between the brain of the human and the higher animal obviously lies in the degree, not the difference on the essence” (Charles Darwin). The purpose of the quote is to express the feeling that the animal and human is similar, they have the human-like qualities. In Life of Pi written by Yann Martel, Pi uses animal imagery to show that animals that can be mad, suffer, and sad which are all human qualities.

Whether is be the individualism of a zebra, the hope of an orangutan, the hatred of a hyena, or the determination of a tiger symbolism can be determined for any character. Pi’s journey obtains symbolism for each animal and a story of faith for himself through the sea and the rigors that he and the animals

What is it really that makes us human? Our characteristics draw a fine line between us and animals, or even artificial intelligence, but what is it that makes us so different, so “superior”? Philip K Dick’s novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, shows the different stages of morality tests that the main character, Rick Deckard, experiences, and how he grows as a character to discover what being human really means. Simple things such as being a bounty hunter and killing androids, the way society views people like JR Isidore, and electric animals all take a deeper look at the term empathy and what it means to be human. The novel explores many different attributes as to what sets humans apart, but the recurring theme of empathy shows that

Due to Pi’s devotion to all of his faiths, particularly Hinduism, not only changed how he thought about his current situation, but also changed how he would think about every single situation after in Martel’s Life of Pi.

In his novel, Life of Pi, Yan Martell uses similar techniques to George Orwell’s Animal Farm in order to explore human nature. Primarily, both authors use anthropomorphism to demonstrate to readers key features of characters’ behaviour. By utilising the stereotypes associated with certain animals, each author allows readers to explore the essential nature of people and of different classes. This anthropomorphism also enables for better understanding of traumatic events. Additionally, through comparisons between humans and animals each author draws different conclusions as to the true nature of humans. Symbolism is then used to explore human hope, with the structure of