Yann Martel's Life Of Pi

Throughout his young life, Pi has been guided by a strong set of morals and values. A strict pacifist and vegetarian, Pi never dreamed of killing an animal, especially for food. Pi states, “…When I was a child I always shuddered when I snapped open a banana because it sounded to me like the breaking of an animal’s neck” (Martel 197). However, faced with starvation at sea, Pi must decide between adhering to his morals and satisfying his ravenous hunger when a school of flying fish descends upon the lifeboat. He chooses his own survival and decides he must butcher a fish to feed himself. Martel uses vivid details and language to convey Pi’s feelings about the necessity of violence and killing a living creature for survival. Martel conveys a sense of suspense to the reader as Pi raises his hatchet several times to

People who take life for granted don't truly accept life and not reshape their identity, until they've tasted adversity and all the vast misfortunes and catastrophe. Yann Martel’s book “Life Of Pi”, shows how adverse situations can help shape a person’s individual identity and play a noteworthy role in one’s life by establishing one’s ability, shaping one’s values and beliefs.

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.

Thinking about fear and its power, Pi acknowledges, "He pushed me to go on living. I hated him for it, yet at the same time I was grateful. I am grateful. It's the plain truth: without Richard Parker, I wouldn't be alive today to tell you my story" (Martel 164). Not ironically, Pi is pondering fear before he makes this statement; fear itself is what brings about his human instinct to survive. This animalistic instinct, as expressed through Richard Parker, is what keeps Pi alive. When Richard Parker kills the hyena, Pi points out, "It seemed the presence of a tiger saved me from a hyena..." (Martel 136). Once again, the importance of Pi's animalistic side is prevalent; however, it leads Pi to killing the chef. Pi uses Richard Parker as a way of ascribing his guilt away from himself onto Richard Parker. To further disassociate himself from his savage side and remind himself of his humanity, Pi includes himself in the story. When the sea is calm and Richard Parker appears, Pi notes, "The weird contrast between the bright, striped, living orange of his coat and the inert white of the boat's hull was incredibly compelling. My overwrought senses screeched to a halt" (Martel 160). In this moment, Pi is able to escape all senses of survival and take in the beauty. Conclusively, moments like these remind him of his humanity. Pi's use of both himself and

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

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 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.

He starts out with a zebra, hyena, an orangutan, and a tiger, but the animals slowly diminish leaving only Pi and Richard Parker. Pi works to tame and care for Richard Parker, and the two survive for two hundred twenty-seven days. Pi encounters a fellow French castaway who is eaten by Richard Parker (Martel 311-320). Pi also comes across a man-eating island (Martel 322-358). The events that take place are fairly far-fetched, and the probability of all of them occurring to the same person in the period of time given is even less believable. The second story, on the other hand, is a perhaps more believable retelling of the original story. Pi relates the second tale upon the request of his interviewers for “‘a story without animals’” (Martel 381). In this story the animals are replaced with human representatives including an injured Chinese sailor, a French cook, Pi’s mother, and Pi himself. The second story, like the first, begins with many passengers on the boat, but in the end it leaves only Pi to survive by himself after brutally murdering and eating the cook who killed both the sailor and Pi’s own mother (Martel 381-391). Unlike Pi’s first story, this account is dark, desperate, and harshly realistic, without any sense of hope to counter it all. After relating both of these stories to his interviewers, Pi asks them which story they think is better (Martel 398). Although the

When writing, authors need to think of their audience and involve an element of surprise. Authors use plot twists in their writing to help them accomplish surprising the audience, allowing them to keep their audience’s interest. Not only do plot twists help keep the audience’s attention, they also make the audience question their beliefs about what they think of the story. Authors can use this tool to advance their themes. Yann Martel uses a crazy plot twist in his book, the Life of Pi, to suggest to readers that truth is relative.

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.

In Life Of Pi by Yann Martel, Richard Parker, and Pi go on a very tough journey all over the ocean with only a lifeboat, and a limited supply of food, and water. They started out with multiple animals on the boat they but only one survived. Richard Parker was the highest on the food chain on the boat. Richard quickly ate the Hyena, Zebra, and the Orangutan. Bengal Tigers have a very large appetite. So, he soon ran out of food after he ate all of the other animals. Therefore, to save his own life Pi started to catch fish for both of them to eat. When this story took place Bengal Tigers were very endangered. Pi was starved, if he killed Richard Parker should he get in trouble? Even though tigers were endangered, and

HE must stay far from the tiger. With the tiger being on the boat, at first, it is impossible for Pi to be on the same boat. Pi, finds many helpful items in the boat. He find water and food which he transports to his raft away from the malicious tiger. As time passes, the tiger is getting hungrier and Pi's fear that the tiger would devour him are near. One night, a huge whale slams into Pi's boat causing him to lose all his food and fresh water. Being stranded in the middle of the sea knowing death was around the corner makes Pi want to fight and

Beliefs that an individual or society hold can become a moral code, one to judge actions on and to adhere to. In this way, beliefs become actions. People behave in such a way that their beliefs are brought clearly to light. An individual’s belief shapes not only their behavior, but their intrapersonal thoughts and feelings as well. A belief becomes a pillar that holds up all consequent behavioral aspects of an individual.

Vampires are attractive and strong yet evil and selfish due to their bloodlust. Many believe that vampires greatly differ from mortal humans, but Yann Martel uses the vast differences between Richard Parker and Pi Patel to reveal how even humans can have two different sides to themselves.

When originally reading the description of the algae island it seems impossible to have such an odd and deadly island. It is even weirder that no one has ever come across this island, making it seem fake. Pi describes the island to be made of of algae, no soil or grass, “The fabric of the island seemed to be an intricate, tightly webbed mass of tube-shaped seaweed” (Martel 257). Upon reading part three of the novel, it becomes apparent the island may have not actually existed, but instead it is a representation of a lesson Pi is trying to teach. The island conveniently came into the story when Pi and Richard Parker were no longer hoping for survival, but instead they accepted death. Once on the island, Pi restocked supplies, ate all the algae