Tracing Narrative Threads 1) Father’s admonitions to stay away from the tiger in the zoo.
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.
When Pi and Ravi’s father was telling them about staying away from tigers he said “Tigers are very dangerous. I want you to understand that you are never—under any circumstances—to touch a tiger, to pet a tiger, to put your hands through the bars of a cage, even to get close to a cage. Is that clear?” (37) This evidence indicates that
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The name Pi is also symbolic because as Pi stated: “I was named after a swimming pool” (8) The word “Piscine” in French translate to ‘swimming pool’ in English. The significance of his name is because he spends 227 days in a huge swimming pool (the ocean) fighting for his life.
The thread develops during the novel because as the novel goes on and he’s stuck on the lifeboat, Pi starts to question who Pi really is. When he starts questioning who he is, he finds it hard to learn who he truly wants to be. The message the author is trying to get across is be true to yourself. 3) Young Pi’s dedication to three religions
As explained in the book, Pi follows three different religions; Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity. Pi is extremely interested in all three religions and tries to find himself through religion. Although, he does not understand why he can’t follow all three religions. “But he can’t be a Hindu, a Christian and a Muslim. It’s impossible. He must choose.” (76) This thread represents that he dedicates himself to the things he believes in and will fight for what he believes in. Even when his family disagreed with his decision of following all three religions, he still fought for what he believed.
This thread develops during the novel because while he is on the lifeboat Pi starts questioning who truly he is and wants to be. The young boy who was once dedicated to vegetarianism, which was rooted in his religion, must make a life changing decision.
The novel is organized into three part each containing chapters. There are a total of 319 pages, which adds up to 100 chapters. The exposition began in Toronto, Canada with middle aged Pi and who have a wife, Meena and his two children, Nikhil, his son and Usha, his daughter. Then, the story goes into Pi’s younger year with his mother and father, Gita and Santosh, along with his brother Ravi. The conflict is that they are leaving to Canada because of political troubles. The first complications is that children will make fun of Pi’s name then his father teach him and his brother the danger pose by wild animals. Another complication is that he is a believer for three different religions. Pi’s parents found out and demanded to choose a single religion, but they gave in and got him his rug. Pi describes his meeting with two Mr. Kumars; one is an atheist biology teacher and the Muslim baker. Pi’s father sold the zoo animal in preparation for the movement to Canada. Pi had a confrontation with the priest, pandit, and imam about him practicing different faiths, and then he explains why he does it. The climax is when the ship sunk, leaving Pi an orphan. He now has to survive on a boat with animals on it. The hyena ate the zebra and Orange Juice the orangutan, but was eaten by Richard
"Without Richard Parker, I wouldn't be alive today to tell you my story."(164) This quote was spoken by Pi, it was said because Pi realized how much Richard Parker helped him. Richard Parker kept Pi from thinking too much about the tragedy of the ship sinking and his family. Richard Parker also kept Pi from being lonely and kept Pi busy to pass time. I also think Richard Parker kept Pi connected with his family and was encouraging him. "The lower you are, the higher your mind will want to soar."(283) This quote was spoken by Pi, it was said because Pi was giving up and he was at his lowest point. He goes to faith and imagination to help him get through this. He soon lands on a beach in Mexico after that happened. I think the author wanted to show us that being faithful can be effective even in this situation. "You must take life the way it comes at you and make the best of it."(91) This was spoken by Pi, it was said because things didn't turn out how Pi expected he would of never thought his family would move and sell all the animals. Later in the book more unexpected things happen and Pi keeps his head up. He keeps going on with his life even though they are major set backs. This shows that Pi is very optimistic about his life which is a good quality to
In the Life of Pi he must learn to rediscover himself because of the tragic accident that has happen to his family. Pi must learn to be able to get over the loss of his loved ones and quickly reconnect with himself in order to help him survive. Pi must turn himself around and remember to focus on the things that matter most, trying to survive. Pi rediscovers himself in Richard Parker because he uses the companion of the tiger to help keep himself calm. Pi has left his comfort zone of being under the care of his parents and must now discover his own values and beliefs in order to navigate and survive his life in the sea.
Life of Pi, written by Yann Martel, is a novel about a young boy, Pi, trapped with a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker who survive together in the Pacific Ocean for 227 days. The central theme of the novel is Pi’s faith in God, which proves to be a crucial part of his survival during the extreme situation. In the book, How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas Foster, the author talks about the importance of literary elements such as symbols, geography, and stories to a literary piece. These elements are used in Life of Pi to develop its compelling story about growing up.
Being narrated by an older version of the main character, Life of Pi is a story about a man named Pi Patel. Most of the beginning of the novel includes all the history of his life; it introduces topics such as his major, the definition of his name, and his family. His majors are religion and Zoology, which comes back later in the book. It also gives the reader the interesting background of the meaning of his name, based off of a swimming pool. These larger topics and more were shared with the readers. A prominent part of all of this is the fact that it almost always comes back to animals.
The violent outbreak of Richard Parker, along with his silent departure at the end of the novel, portrays how futile it is to try to change a wild animal into a civilized being. Richard Parker seems, at first, to have experienced a spiritual breakthrough and transformation after Pi’s attempt to training. Even in the end, Pi’s ability to survive such a journey with a beastly killer seems evidence enough that Pi trained the tiger. Pi’s main goal, along with survival, is to establish a level of equality between himself
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.
The most interesting part of the novel is it’s end which is left on the readers to decide that whether the liked the first story of tiger and a human or the second one that includes animals giving out the mix feeling of humor and grief also Pi Patel describes it as a happy ending (although the tiger left him but he got on land after 100 days on life boat moreover he accomplished his quest of finding God).
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
Richard Parker, the tiger, is a symbol of Pi himself. Pi directly correlates himself with Richard Parker. If Richard Parker “give[s] up” (121) then Pi is giving up. When swimming toward the life boat Richard Parker “look[s] small and helpless” (121) much like Pi actually is. Next to the tiger, zebra, and hyena Pi is small and feeble; he has no way to defend himself against the other animals. Pi egging Richard Parker on, toward the boat; “keep[ing him] swimming” (122) shows Pi’s resilience for survival; determined for Richard Parker to survive, which is actually his determination to survive. It is often mistaken in the novel as to whether Pi is speaking of himself or of Richard Parker because they could be the same being.
Yann Martel’s Life of Pi is a prime literary example of the major impacts the roles of minor characters have on the plot of a story. Without such characters as the protagonist’s father, uncle, and brother, the entirety of the main characters’ lives would be shifted dramatically. So much, in fact, that the events of the novel may never have occurred had these secondary characters been absent.
In chapter 8 Ravi, Pi and their parents are at the zoo and Pi’s father is teaching his sons a lesson on the dangerousness of a tiger by
In the book the life of Pi religion was a big part of how Pi lived his life and how he survived out on the ocean for the two hundred twenty seven days that he was there for. (p.g 110)
Pi contacted with animals when he was very young. Therefore, when he was in trouble and afraid to solve the problem, his savagery will help him. “We fight to the very end. It’s not a question of courage. Its something constitutional, and inability to let go. It maybe nothing more than life-hungry stupidity. Richard Parker started growing that very instant as if he had been waiting for me to become a worthy opponent. My chest became tight with fear”( Martel p.187). Pi finally chose to face the tiger, and save himself. He did not choose to stay until the tiger eats him. Even if he knows that it’s difficult to survive, he did not give up. Pi stayed with animals when he was a child. His curiosity made him have a great interest in animals. He might learn something from the wild animals. Moreover, if animals did something very cruel and their behavior will probably leave a deep impression about those things in Pi’s mind. Therefore, Pi’s savagery leads him to have the determination to against the tiger, Richard
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.