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Theme Of Isolation In Life Of Pi

Decent Essays

Yann Martel's novel (2001) and Ang Lee's film adaption (2012) of Life of Pi harbour themes such as isolation and the extent one would go to in order to survive. The story is split into two parts, the first part focuses on Piscine "Pi" Patel's background and his religious journey. Part two focuses on Pi's predicaments while he is stranded out at sea for 227 days. The second section of the story is renown for Pi's situation with a tiger named Richard Parker. Not only does the protagonist have to focus on his own survival, Pi needed to be attentive of the Bengal tiger; all whilst dealing with his loneliness. Martel and Led convey the ideas of isolation and survivability through the use of several literary and stylistic features throughout the texts. Isolation plays a significant role in Pi's story, and both Martel and Lee have their differences in conveying this theme. Martel does not write Pi's journey in chronological order. Despite this, the author manages to effectively express the protagonist's emotions to the audience. Throughout the first chapter, the reader learns about Pondicherry Zoo, which was ran by his father and was considered his home. Martel makes Pi describe his life at the zoo, stating that "it was a paradise on earth. I have nothing but the fondest memories growing up in a zoo. I had the life of a prince," (page 14). Martel writes is past tense here, thus indicating to the reader that Pi no longer has a life at the zoo. This is soon confirmed a couple of pages later, with Pi stating that "the Pondicherry Zoo doesn't exist anymore. It's pits are filled in, the cages torn down. I explore it now in the only place left for it, my memory," (page 19). As stated beforehand, the isolation truly hits Pi throughout the majority of the second part of his journey. On their way to Canada, the ship Pi and his family resided on got/became caught in a large storm. The ship flooded eventually, resulting in the ship and occupants submerged in the ocean. Pi watches this unfold from a small emergency/evacuation/escape boat. To expand on this, Pi is shown swimming against the waves in an attempt to avoid Richard Parker—thus noticing the ship descending underwater. During this scene, Lee films a medium shot of

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