Theme Of Hyena In Life Of Pi

Being more comfortable around such a beast, however, later proves to be a fault of Pi’s. The unpredictable behavior of such a wild animal causes a huge threat to Pi. Richard Parker exemplifies this wild behavior by “bursting over the ridge at full gallop…coming [Pi’s] way high speed” (Martel 263). Pi describes this event as a “rapid and direct approach of a known killer” which casts a different image of Richard Parker than the previous seemingly harmless companion (Martel 236). Pi’s reaction to his fear is using his method of whistle which causes more anger within Richard Parker. Richard Parker’s unexpected reaction to the training method proves how capricious a personality of an animal is. Thus, attempted taming of a wild animal was merely a distant goal Pi thought he had accomplished.

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,

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.

During this part of the novel, Pi’s father is teaching him a lesson by letting a tiger brutally kill a goat right in front of him. He is trying to teach Pi to not go near an animal such as tigers because they are incredibly dangerous. I believe this thread represents the foreshadowing of what is to come for Pi.

The tiger that Pi refers to throughout his ordeal is could be perceived as the alter-ego of himself, “The tiger killed the hyena- and the blind Frenchman- just as he killed the cook” (311). While Pi was able to use his imagination to portray a tiger as himself, Richard Parker was never more than an extension of Pi’s imagination. Richard Parker simply symbolized Pi in the real world and could never

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

Commentary: When the author notes a step by step way of training the tiger, the reader better understands how important zoos, animals, and animal training was in Pi’s childhood, being the son of a zoo keeper. Instead of reading a training manual (like in the movie) Pi comes up with his own theory on how to tame Richard Parker.

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.

With the information given to us in the first 36 chapters in the book, we learn about his journey through the first three parts of the Hero’s Journey; Ordinary Life, The Call to adventure, and the Refusal of the Call. We start off in Pi’s ordinary life, where we learn that he was raised in a zoo in Pondicherry, India. This gives us through the rest of the book of the deep respect he has for all forms of

In the Life of Pi, animals have the human-like emotions. They will be mad when others do something harmful to their friends. After the ship sank, there are some animals survived on “Pi’s Ark”: a zebra, a hyena, an ape and a tiger; however, the hyena is hurting the zebra. The ape: “But with her giant arms,

In addition, Pi decides to feed a “450-pound” (Martel 61) bengal tiger named Richard Parker for his own self preservation. He acknowledges, “I had to tame him. It was at that moment that I realized this necessity…More likely the worst would happen: the simple passage of time, in which his animal toughness would easily outlast my human frailty” (Martel 164). This means that Pi fears that the fierce animal strength and power of Richard Parker would eventually kill and eat him for food.

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.

Her final outreach in an attempt to survive was when she “hit the beast on the head with her…arm” (Martel 131). This startling action the orangutan produces is evidence that she has abandoned her passive nature when she witnesses the hyena’s brutal capabilities. Additionally, Pi, a passive character also, has violent thoughts toward the hyena after the zebra’s death because of his feeling of terror and need to survive. The death of the zebra provokes “intense hatred for the hyena” as Pi “[thinks] of doing something to kill it… [but does] nothing” (Martel 120). Pi’s reaction to the zebra’s death forms into bitter feelings for the hyena because the hyena inherently shows its true colors of savagery. However, the desire to survive prevents Pi from doing anything against the hyena because his “sense of empathy is blunted by a terrible, selfish hunger for survival” (Martel 120). This selfishness that Pi experiences is against his own moral beliefs, however he finds it necessary to look past his own morals because of his intense desire to live. Pi’s desires to abandon his beliefs and resort to violence stem from the scene of the zebra’s mutilation. Therefore, the cruel death of the zebra ignites a stronger desire to live from the other members on the boat and causes a shift in their own behaviors.

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

Yann Martel’s visit to the Trivandrum Zoo helped to largely inspire the characters in his novel “Life of Pi.” Even Luke Harding agrees that the: “Trivandrum Zoo – one of India's oldest – provided much of the inspiration behind Yann Martel's extraordinary novel Life of Pi, which won the Booker prizelast week” (Harding). Some of the most important characters in “Life of Pi” come in the form of animals, and all of these animals can be found in this zoo except for the orangutan. Martel’s visit to the Trivandrum Zoo helped to give character to the animals as it helped to give Martel a perspective on the animals’ behavior, particularly the