Zoomorphism In Yann Martel's Life Of Pi

In Life of Pi, the main character is Piscine Molitor, though people call him Pi. Pi’s family was on their way to immigrate to Canada via ship, though the ship sinks in the middle of the ocean and the only survivors are Pi, an orangutan, a zebra and a tiger stranded on a lifeboat. Later on, the orangutan and zebra die, leaving a hungry tiger that is unpredictable and Pi who has limited resources, in the middle of the ocean. If Pi wants to not die and have a chance to survive, he must stay alive from the ocean and the tiger. Since Pi is stranded on a lifeboat with a tiger in the middle of the ocean with limited resources, Pi has to survive mentally and physically throughout the whole ordeal.

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

Pi’s life before the boat crashing was full of hope and wonder. His presence was ethereal, making a purpose out of everything around him. His family ran a zoo, which gave him a tight-knit relationship with animals. Pi loved to try new things. He met new people which led to his exploration

Bengali polymath, Rabindranath Tagore, once said “you can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.” In the novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel, the protagonist, Pi, faces many challenges at sea while being accompanied by a tiger by the name of Richard Parker. This tiger, though a nuisance, proves to be essential in the role of Pi’s survival. Throughout the story, Richard Parker symbolizes survival, a reflection of Pi, and a being of God.

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.

Characters- Piscine Molitor Patel (Pi)- In the pretext for the story, Pi is introduced as a shy, middle-aged man, recounting his story that changed his life. Throughout the story, Pi hints that the imagination is always better than the cold hard facts, which leads the reader to believe the story of his survival might be slightly embellished. Growing up, Pi devoted himself to studying several different religions, leading to his strong belief in god, and bonding with the animals in his father’s zoo. The novel tracks Pi journey from his childhood to how he ended up on a boat, trying to survive with a tiger as company. Used to living a very dependent life, Pi is forced to become self-sufficient when he ends up alone.

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.

The novel’s flavor would have changed immensely if Richard Parker was not the sole surviving animal. If Pi had ended up living on the boat with the zebra, the book would not have been very exciting. For starters, tigers are my favorite animals, so to me the zebra would have made the novel less interesting. The zebra was a weaker animal, and more submissive and boring. If the zebra was the sole surviving animal, Pi may have went crazy from boredom or given up hope much more quickly. The zebra seems rather useless compared to Richard Parker. The zebra could not have helped Pi catch flying fish like Richard Parker did with his claws. The novel may have been more dull and ended sooner if Pi had died with the zebra. Pi would end up exerting a lot of energy helping the zebra survive, especially since the zebra is a herbivore and food would be scarce to come across. We wouldn’t have seen such a religious and personal growth in Pi.

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

Pi said that he had survives 227 days on a lifeboat with an adult male bengal tiger named Richard Parker. As interesting as that sound it is highly unbelievable, Richard Parker would have quickly become hungry and attack Pi. Pi stated when they were on the island on “ He killed beyond his need. He killed meerkat that he did not eat. In animals, the urge to kill is separate from the urge to eat” (Martel,269. Eventually

Lastly, Richard Parker isn’t the only force of nature that Pi deals with. Both characters experienced the Pacific Ocean’s waves and thunderstorms with only little shelter. Weeks of water, sun, and salt exposure ruin Pi’s clothes and the lifeboat’s condition and lead to thirst and fatigue. Yet Pi also finds moments where he appreciates the nature’s glories. He stares at whales, dolphins, and other marine life that swim by.

He has reached an island! Made entirely of algae, freshwater ponds, and all the meerkats Richard Parker could ever eat. No more killing helpless animals, settling for rainwater, and keeping Richard Parker fed. However, the island hides a dark secret. “The island was carnivorous.”(355). When Pi is introduced to the fact that the island is carnivorous all the happy thoughts of this perfect island are gone. He could not remain on this island any longer. Pi states, “By the time morning came, my grim decision was taken.” (357). His mind was made, he must leave the island to survive. If he stays, he will be eaten alive. Pi prepares for the departure,“I filled my stores with fresh water and I drank like a camel… I ate algae throughout the day until my stomach could take no more...I killed and skinned as many meerkats as would fit… I could not leave Richard Parker… When he was aboard, I pushed off.” (357). Pi gathered as much as he possibly could and set out to sea, unknowing of whether or not he would be rescued. All he knew was that he would not be eaten by that island. This in fact would prove his determination to survive, as he sacrifices the comfort he received from the island for his chances on his raft out at

Pi is on the lifeboat with Richard Parker (the bengal tiger). He is in the middle of the ocean because his ship sank going to Canada with some of the zoo animals and his family. The animals are the orangutan, zebra, hyena, and Richard Parker. His ship, sank and he had to survive at sea with the animals on a lifeboat. When the ship crashed, Pi saved Richard Parker by throwing a life preserver around his neck and saving him.

In the book Life of Pi by Yann Martel, a sixteen-year-old boy named Piscine Patel was a normal sixteen-year-old kid living with his parents in Pondicherry, India. His father, Santosh Patel, was the owner of a local zoo there when he decided to vacate India due to Indira Ghandi taking over the country. Pi, his family, and animals from the Pondicherry Zoo boarded Tsimtsum, a Japanese cargo ship with the intention to go to Canada. On the night of July 2, 1977, a raging storm appeared and there was a shipwreck. Pi scrambled to safety by jumping into a lifeboat along with a hyena and a zebra. Pi rescued a tiger named Richard Parker and also an orangutan on a banana island. The four animals that are on the lifeboat with Pi are not real animals but simply figments of his imagination resembling his characteristics that disappear one by one throughout his 227-day journey of being stranded in the Pacific Ocean.

Furthermore, his vast knowledge of animals, having grown up at a zoo, helps him to tame Richard Parker. Pi knows tigers’ psychological thinking and exploits this by classically conditioning Richard Parker. Likewise, Pi’s experience of watching a tiger kill a goat in his early childhood taught him the fundamental lesson that ‘an animal is an animal’, enabling him to strategically and mentally survive his long and testing time at sea. In addition to that, during the early parts of Part 2, Pi comes across a survival manual, a crucial object for his continued existence. The book gives him critical information on the do’s and don’ts of survival at sea and it is hard to imagine that Pi could have survived without this book which also gave him the opportunity to write down his words which were “all he has left’’.