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My survival narrative
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The demand to survive in an extreme environment encourages certain individuals to proceed to live their life despite the hardships they may face. In the novels, Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, and Life of Pi by Yann Martel, the individuals must discover what it takes to obtain the will to survive in these extreme environments they are presented with. Thus, resulting in comparisons between their mental states (internal challenges), and contrasts between their physical states (external challenges) by Louie Zamperini and Piscine Molitor Patel (Pi). To inaugurate, it is lucid that Louie from Unbroken and Pi from Life of Pi share reflecting qualities in their mental state. For example, in the text Unbroken, it states,”His vibrant body had shrunken until only the bones remained, draped in yellow skin, crawling with parasites. All I see, he thought, is a dead body breathing.” This shows that even though Louie is in a very unfortunate situation and tends to lose hope and confidence, that very element of his mental state is what pushes him to strive to live and continue with his life. Likewise, in Life of Pi, it similarly states, “ You might think I lost all hope at that point. I did. And as a result, I perked up and felt much better.”. This coherently indicates how along …show more content…
Louie from Unbroken and Pi from Life of Pi both undergo specific challenges that help their well-being flourish and advance in order to help them achieve the common goal of grasping the essence of the will to survive in an extreme environment like the ones these characters faced. Thus, it is clearly shown throughout each text that the internal obstacles of Louie and Pi share common qualities, however, the two both differ when it comes to their physical state in which Pi has much more supplies and resources for himself the Louie does for the three people
I enjoyed reading Unbroken which is a book that showed the struggles of a grueling air warfare between United States and Japan. Throughout the book, Laura Hillenbrand, author of Unbroken gripped the reader’s attention through the details of gut-wrenching conflicts. By showing the art of survival through the character, Louis Zamperini, Hillenbrand demonstrates the theme of resilience through persistency, intelligent choice making, and willingness to live.
Seaman, Donna. "Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, And Why (Book)." Booklist 100.1 (2003): 37. Literary Reference Center. Web. 6 Mar. 2014.
Survival is the center all adventures; there are multiple environments which are set up in a way to build up the main characters and reveal the characteristics which truly represent the heroes who are fittest due to Darwin’s theory of evolution and survival of the fittest. Cormac McCarthy’s Novel “The Road” set up an environment, which truly pushes the main heroes of the story to the limit physically and mentality. Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451”set up a world where knowledge and many other ordinary common values are forbidden which pushes the main character mentality. Adrienne Rich “Driving into the Wreck” exploring a shipwreck and describing many of Richs emotions such as the sadness, pain, realization.
“You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” Adapting to a new situation or experience like violent crashing waves can be difficult. Nevertheless, a person needs to learn how to surf in order to outlast the pounding waves. In a similar fashion, individuals need to learn how to adapt to a challenging situation in order to survive. This idea of the significance of adapting to new situations is often explored in literature. In the novel, Life of Pi, Yann Martel makes powerful use of character development to suggest that individuals may be able to adapt to situations in life through a sense of determination, or through denying reality and using their imagination instead.
Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, is a fictional novel written in 2001 that explores the primacy of survival by employing symbolism, foreshadowing and motifs. This story follows the life of the protagonist, Piscine Molitor “Pi” Patel, as he embarks on his journey as a castaway. After boarding the Tsimtsum which carries Pi and his family along with a menagerie of animals, an abysmal storm capsizes the ship leaving Pi as the only survivor, though he is not alone. The great Bengal tiger, Richard Parker, also survives the shipwreck and during the 227 days that Pi and Richard Parker are stranded at sea together, the two must learn to coexist and trust one another for survival. Through Pi and Richard Parker’s struggles to remain alive, Martel explores the primal idea of survival by employing literary techniques.
An id and ego split is also shown between Pi and Richard Parker. Richard Parker is an imaginary tiger that is created by Pi in order to keep him alive and focused on staying alive. Pi eventually abandons his superego and partakes in eating meat, even though he was a strict vegetarian prior to being lost at sea. Over the duration of Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, the story relates to Freud’s theories in several ways that are made blatantly obvious; these relations are what makes this story come together to keep the reader involved and interested. Works Cited Martel, Yann.
The Life of Pi, written by Yann Martel, is the story of a young man, Piscine, or Pi for short, who experiences unbelievable and unrealistic events, which are so unrealistic ambiguity is aroused amongst the reader. Duality reoccurs over the course of the novel through every aspect of Pi’s world view and is particularly seen in the two contradictory stories, which displays the brutal nature of the world. Martel wonderfully crafts and image of duality and skepticism though each story incorporated in this novel.
...knowledge his shadow self. He was able to survive his plight on the lifeboat because of the characteristics of his shadow self, Richard Parker. Even at the loss of his shadow self, Pi remains connected and constantly misses this part of his persona. After his ordeal on the lifeboat, Pi becomes rational and humane; however his experiences has scarred him, and will forever remain with him. Readers can definitely learn from Pi’s experience with his shadow self. The more we refute our shadow, the more it weighs us down. However, if we are willing to come to terms with the reality of our shadow, learn how it works, “tame” it so that it does not control us, we would be more literate and enlightened.
Choices play a prominent role in ensuring comfort and happiness in life. People make choices, which ultimately shape their lives. In Yann Martel’s The Life of Pi, the main character, Pi Patel is forced to make choices, which go against his morals, but ultimately keep him alive. This becomes clear when Pi chooses to change his person by eating meat. Pi then chooses to eliminate all personal boundaries, due to his incredible will to survive. Finally, he chooses to view all of the people on the life boat as animals in order to cope with the psychological distress of being lost at sea. When faced with choices, Pi puts all morals behind him to survive.
We, as humans, often underestimate the fragility of our morals and “humanity”. In Life of Pi, author Yann Martel tells the story of a young boy named Pi who, after being shipwrecked and losing his entire family, must somehow survive in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with a grown tiger for days on end by abandoning all the morals he once valued. Through Pi’s story, Martel shows how easily humans can become akin to animals when finding themselves in a desperate situation.
...ction of Richard Parker kept Pi aware, by showing Pi the reality of the current situation, assisted him with making the right decisions, committing certain actions, and is his sub-consciousness, his id that fights for survival. In Martel’s Life of Pi, Pi’s coping mechanism has been proven more useful in his projection Richard Parker rather than his beliefs in his religions, which has done nothing for Pi and was useless at that time. Humans and animals are very alike in certain aspects. When it all comes down to survival, humans and animals are almost alike. The human mind brings back the inner id from the human consciousness while in drastic situations to help them cope with it in order to survive. The human psychology has a very interesting way of creating coping mechanisms.
The author in the last chapter, when reading Mr. Okamoto’s report, sees that the officials chose to believe Pi’s first story as unique and astonishing, thus it being the “better story”. The contrast between the ‘dry yeastless factuality’ and the idea of the ‘better story,’- both developed in part one- help the reader understand Pi’s survival and also question the ‘honesty’ of events for a moment after hearing his second version of the story.
Imagine being stranded in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in a lifeboat, not alone but with some carnivorous animals, as company. The chances of survival do not seem so high, but when one has the will to survive, they can do anything to attain it. Pi Patel and his family are on their way to Canada from Pondicherry, India, when their cargo ship the Tsimtsum sinks. Pi is not the only survivor of the ship, along with him is a hyena, an injured zebra, an orangutan and a 450-pound orange Bengal tiger. Pi travels across the Pacific Ocean in only a lifeboat, with food dwindling quickly, he needs to find land and most of all survive the voyage. In Life of Pi; Yann Martel develops the idea that having the will to survive is a crucial key to survival; this is demonstrated through symbolism of the colour orange, having religion on the protagonist’s side and the thirst and hunger experienced by the protagonist.
People don't truly accept life for what it is until they've actually tasted adversity and went through those misfortunes and suffering. We are put through many hardships in life, and we learn to understand and deal with those issues along the way. We find that life isn't just about finding one's self, but about creating and learning from our experiences and background. Adversity shapes what we are and who we become as individuals. Yann Martel's Life of Pi shows us that adverse situations help shape a person's identity and play a significant role in one's lief by determining one's capabilities and potential, shaping one's beliefs and values, and defining the importance and meaning of one's self.
Religion is one of the many factors that determine the protagonists’ personas. When considering the two novels, Life of Pi and Robinson Crusoe; one adheres to the concept of faith whilst the other disconnects. Robinson Crusoe has demonstrated a transformation from being a terrified survivor to a self-sufficient master of his island, whilst Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel tells the story about struggling to survive through overwhelming scenarios which takes him a vast amount of courage to endure. The sufferings that both protagonists experience enhance the narratives as they illustrate how religion aids them through their dangers rather than jeopardising their spiritual attitudes.