Life of Pi by Yann Martel

872 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The life of a pi

Want Some Pi?

A piece of cake? This story is more like a slice of pie. To make this pie you will need ingredients that aren’t usually in pie. The ingredients you will need include a multi-religious 16 year old Indian boy, an adult male Bengal tiger, a Zebra, and a hyena. You will then mix all of the ingredients up in the middle of the Pacific Ocean all in the confines of a 26 foot lifeboat and then you will let it sit for 227 days. The tremendous survival story is called Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Although Martel’s story may be confusing at times, when Pi comes upon the island, he manages to capture the reader's mind with his intricate details and his almost too real imagery.

Piscine Molitor Patel, the protagonist, grew up in the city of Pondicherry, India. In Pondicherry, Piscine’s father owned, founded and directed the Pondicherry zoo, “To me, it was paradise on earth,” Piscine is mentioned this because he found that the zoo was a place of peacefulness (Martel 14). Piscine Molitor Patel received his name from a swimming pool that Mamaji taught Piscine to swim in. Later on in the novel Piscine starts having people refer to him as Pi Patel. He chose this nickname because the kids at his school would call him pissing instead of Piscine, “”Where's Pissing? I've got to go." Or: "You're facing the wall. Are you Pissing?" Or something of the sort.” This is one of the examples of the kids making fun of his name. (Martel 20).

Prior to part II of the story Pi learns that his family will be moving to Canada to avoid the political turmoil in India. Pi’s family takes a Japanese cargo ship, the Tsimtsum, with select animals that Pi’s father will be selling to American and Canadian zoos.

On the first few pages of part II the ship Pi’s fam...

... middle of paper ...

...ssed themselves most indelibly on my mind. I saw in one look what I would conservatively estimate to be hundreds of thousands of meerkats. The landscape was covered in meerkats,” I found this confusing because it didn’t make sense why there would be hundreds of thousands of meerkats on an island (Martel 265).

Yann Martel’s Life of Pi is one of the greatest books of all time. The story helps the reader realize how wonderful all the usual everyday things you have truly are. It helps the reader believe that anything can be accomplished if hope is never given up, whether in yourself or in God. This is what Martel wants us to understand. I recommend this book to everyone who loves animals, religion, or culture. Many could enjoy this outstanding book.

Work Cited

Martel, Yann. Life of Pi. Boston: Mariner Books, 2003

Show More
Related

  • Use of Literary Devices in Yann Martel’s Life of Pi

    556 Words  | 2 Pages

    Stranded for 227 days at sea in a lifeboat, with no one else except an adult Bengal tiger. This is exactly what the main character Pi, in "The Life of Pi" went through. "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel is a story about a boy named Piscine Molitor Patel, an Indian boy who survives more than seven months floating on a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean, with no one else but a 450-pound tiger (Cooper). Yann Martel was born on June 25, 1963, in Salamanca, Spain. His parents, Emile Martel and Nicole Perron, were both born in Canada. He spent his childhood in several different countries, including France, Mexico, the United States, Canada, and Costa Rica. As an adult, he lived in many other places but one of them was India, which may be where he got inspiration for writing “Life of Pi”. Yann Martel uses the literary elements similes and foreshadowing, to express the theme that believing in religion can give you the faith to want to survive.

    Read More

  • A Comparison of Life of Pi by Yann Martel, and A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor

    1056 Words  | 3 Pages

    Piscine Molitor Patel, widely known as Pi throughout the riveting novel, strives himself to handle instances in a manner opposite to his previous beliefs in his time on the open ocean. Encountering a sea of distresses that alter him completely, Pi’s ability to extensively grasp situations aid him in his time of need. Ultimately, Pi’s aptitude reaches its brink. Initially, Pi professes his vegetarianism, but given his predicament he applies new logic. Moreover, with consideration of his survival, he recognizes that he must consume fish. As the novel progresses,...

    Read More

  • Yann Martel’s Life of Pi

    852 Words  | 2 Pages

    Pi Patel in Yann Martel’s Life of Pi is a young Indian boy who is put through a tremendous traumatic experience; he gets lost at sea! Not only does he lose all his family, but he is forced to survive 227 days at sea with very limited resources. This ordeal causes great psychological pressure on Pi and causes his mind to find ways to cope with all the stress. When asked to describe what happened, Pi tells two stories: one with him surviving with animals including an adult Bengal tiger named Richard Parker, and a parallel story with humans in which Pi is forced to bend morality. Pi’s story of his survival with Richard Parker is a fiction that he creates to cope with a reality that is too difficult to face.

    Read More

  • Storytelling as a Survival Tactic: Comparing 'Life of Pi' and 'Big Fish'

    537 Words  | 2 Pages

    The reader is meant to think Pi manages to survive about a year at sea with an adult bengal tiger, and considering the reader's knowledge so far in the novel that makes sense. Amazed by this idea, the reader continues, each chapter becoming more, and more intriguing. Until just about the last chapter this novel seems almost logical, despite its unrealistic premise. Yann Martel does such a good job of conveying such convincing information about Pi’s journey with Richard Parker that there is not a thought in the reader's mind that this could just be a story. When the Japanese officials from the Ministry of Transport come, Pi tells them his unbelievable story, and to them it is too unbelievable. They ask him to tell a new story, a more realistic one. And Pi does, one that doesn’t have tigers, zebras, orangoutangs, or hyenas. Instead it is a story of Pi, his mother, the cook from the boat, and the sailor. In this new story Pi is represented as the tiger, his mother is the orangoutang, the cook is the hyena, and the sailor is the injured zebra. As it turns out Pi’s unbelievable story might not be as unbelievable as the reader originally thinks. Pi, as said in the quote above, is twisting his story to bring out its essence whether that is on purpose or

    Read More

  • A Hero: S Journey In Yann Martel's Life Of Pi

    982 Words  | 2 Pages

    Two men come along to meet him to see how the Tsimtsum actually sank. Pi shares his knowledge with the two men, but the information he gives them does not involve the Tsimtsum because he doesn’t know how it sanked in the first place. Pi now has this information and facts that will be forever in his heart, never ever to leave.

    Read More

  • Adaptation In Life Of Pi

    1211 Words  | 3 Pages

    The protagonist Piscine Patel is able to adapt to situations in his life through a strong sense of motivation.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Survival In Life Of Pi

    1038 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Theme Of Religion In Yann Martel's Life Of Pi

    1508 Words  | 4 Pages

    “The presence of God is the finest of rewards.” (Yann Martel, Life of Pi 63) In Yann Martel’s riveting novel “Life of Pi” The basic plot of survival unfolds, however, this essay will show how the hidden yet the dominant theme of religion throughout the story is what helped the main character Piscine Molitor Patel (Pi) survive.

    Read More

  • Life of Pi (Unabridged) by Yann Martel

    1326 Words  | 3 Pages

    Pi, short for Piscine Molitor Patel, is a young Indian boy growing up in South India in the 1970's. His father owns a zoo and, with increasing political unrest in India, decides to sell up and emigrate to Canada. They accompany the wild animals on board the ship on their journey to the new zoos in North America.

    Read More

  • The Better Story in Life of Pi by Yann Martel

    1775 Words  | 4 Pages

    On its surface, Martel’s Life of Pi proceeds as a far-fetched yet not completely unbelievable tale about a young Indian boy named Pi who survives after two hundred twenty-seven days on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. It is an uplifting and entertaining story, with a few themes about companionship and survival sprinkled throughout. The ending, however, reveals a second story – a more realistic and dark account replacing the animals from the beginning with crude human counterparts. Suddenly, Life of Pi becomes more than an inspiring tale and transforms into a point to be made about rationality, faith, and how storytelling correlates the two. The point of the book is not for the reader to decide which story he or she thinks is true, but rather what story he or she thinks is the better story. In real life, this applies in a very similar way to common belief systems and religion. Whether or not God is real or a religion is true is not exactly the point, but rather whether someone chooses to believe so because it adds meaning and fulfillment to his or her life. Life of Pi is relevant to life in its demonstration of storytelling as a means of experiencing life through “the better story.”

    Read More

  • Theme Of Dualism In Life Of Pi

    943 Words  | 2 Pages

    This unimaginable tale, is the course of events upon Pi’s journey in the Pacific ocean after the ship that Pi and his family were aboard crashes, leaving him stranded with a tiger named Richard Parker, an orangutan, a zebra, and a hyena. Pi loses everything he has and starts to question why this is happening to him. This is parallel to the story of Job. Job is left with nothing and is experiencing great suffering and he begins to demand answers from God. Both Pi and Job receive no answers, only being left with their faith and trust. To deal with this great suffering Pi begins to describe odd things which begin to get even more unbelievable and ultimately become utterly unrealistic when he reaches the cannibalistic island. Richard Parker’s companionship serves to help Pi through these events. When the reader first is intoduced to Richard Parker he emerges from the water, making this symbolic of the subconscious. Richard Parker is created to embody Pi’s alter ego. Ironically, each of these other animals that Pi is stranded with comes to symbolize another person. The orangutan represents Pi’s mother, the zebra represents the injured sailor, and the hyena represents the cook. Pi fabricated the people into animals in his mind to cope with the disillusion and trails that came upon him while stranded at the erratic and uncontrollable sea,

    Read More

  • A Freudian Examination of Yann Martel’s Life of Pi

    2074 Words  | 5 Pages

    Mr. Patel continues explaining how his father contracts a Japanese ship to transport his family, along with a number of their zoo animals, from India to Canada in order to avoid political upheaval. While traveling, the ship began sinking and Pi was the only one to manage to make it onto the lifeboat and survive the wreck. The disaster left Pi, along with a few animals, to be the only survivors all in one lifeboat.... ... middle of paper ...

    Read More

  • Religion And Religion In Life Of Pi By Yann Martel

    730 Words  | 2 Pages

    The novel, Life of Pi by Yann Martel, talks about a sixteen-year old man named Pi Patel, who unbelievably survives a dreadful shipwreck after 227 days with the animals in a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean. Different ideas and themes in the book can be found in which the readers can gain an understanding about. The author communicated to the reader by using an ample amount of symbolisms to talk about the themes. The main themes of this novel are religion and faith. His religion and him being faithful have helped him throughout the journey, and this eventually led to an incredible precedent.

    Read More

  • Similarities Between Human and Animal Characters in Life of Pi

    829 Words  | 2 Pages

    As the reader examines the novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel, the reader recognizes the similarities between the story of the animals and the factual story. The main character Piscine Molitor Patel, known as Pi, goes through many struggles once he is stuck on a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean which are shown between both of his stories. Throughout the novel, Martel describes to the readers the relationships the Pi has between the animals in the story of animals and the real people in the factual story. In Life of Pi, Pi meets many different animals on his journey on the lifeboat that influence him in many ways, including the zebra, which represents the Taiwanese sailor; the hyena, which represents the chef; Orange Juice, the orangutan, which represents Pi’s mother; and the Royal Bengal tiger, Richard Parker, which represents Pi himself.

    Read More

  • Symbolism and Survival in Life of Pi, Yann Martel

    940 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

More about Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Open Document