The novel Life of Pi, by Yann Martel, chronicles the life of Piscine Molitor Patel, a Indian boy living in Pondicherry in the 1970’s.Piscine Patel also known as Pi Patel, strangely practises three religions at the same time; Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity. Piscine’s father is a hard working individual who runs a zoo, and owns a large variety of animals. In the beginning of the novel, Piscine’s father must sell his zoo to a company in America, so they can move to Canada. The ship that carried the zoo animals has capsized, and Piscine emerges as the sole human survivor. The rest of the story is about Pi and his strenuous ordeals on a lifeboat, with an orang-utan, a hyena, a zebra, and a 450-pound Bengal Tiger. The novel Life of Pi is sometimes compared to the film The Old Man and the Sea, directed by John Sturges. I can see why, as there are similar elements that are present in both stories. The Old man and the Sea, is about a Cuban fisherman’s lone struggle with a gigantic Marlin. There are some similarities in Martel’s novel and Sturges’s film, including the loneliness that both main characters feel during the journey. Both stories also depict the feelings of hate experienced by the protagonists towards the animal they were with; and indeed both Life of Pi and The Old Man and the Sea, emphasize the importance of perseverance and show that without perseverance one’s life will surely end in defeat.
As the sole human survivor, Piscine Patel experienced a great sense of loneliness. Pi was on his way to Canada with his family members when the ship he was on, the Tsimtsum, capsized and left Pi stranded on a lifeboat with zoo animals to accompany him. As Pi himself said “I was alone and orphaned, in the middle of the pacific, han...
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...victorious at the end.
Literary critics have found similarities between the novel Life of Pi, and the film The Old Man and the sea. These notions have proved to be true as I have also found three key elements that are present in both novel and film. Loneliness, Perseverance, and feelings of hate that quickly turn to feelings of respect, are all very important elements that can be found in either stories. Pi and the Cuban fisherman face very similar ordeals and it is not surprising that they also have similar elements that are present in their characteristics. Yann Martel and John Sturges have done a superb job in presenting these elements in their stories, as I believe that they have improved the quality of the stories overall.
Works Cited
1 Martel, Yann. Life of Pi. United States: Wheeler, 2003
2 Sturges, John. The Old Man and the Sea. 1958
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.
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,...
Fear is one of human's emotions that sometimes prevent humans to be successful. The other acceptable definitions for fear is an unpleasant emotion caused by the nearness danger or expectation of pain. The main character in the novel that called Life of Pi written by Yann Martel is Pi who challenges with many issues in his journey from India to Canada. One of the issues is living alone on the lifeboat in the middle of ocean with a Bengal tiger for while. One can learn to deal with fear as Pi deals with the tiger that called Richard Parker. Pi faces his fears, takes practical steps, persevere, and acknowledge his fears.
With the lifeboat symbolising faith and Richard Parker as Pi’s primal instinct, Martel depicts Pi’s prolonged fight for survival as assuming the behaviour of a tiger allows him to endure the voyage. By foreshadowing Pi’s tense relationship with a tiger and the tragic sinking of the ship, the audience speculates that Pi will persevere, despite his unfortunate circumstances. Lastly, the recurring motif of food, water and territory requires both castaways to respect and depend on each other for their survival. Through the literary techniques of symbolism, foreshadowing and motifs, Martel enables the audience to explore the central theme of survival as they too experience being a castaway in the Pacific Ocean through Pi’s life
Religion is and always has been a sensitive topic. Some choose to acknowledge that there is a God and some choose to deny this fact to the death. For those who deny the presence of a higher being, “Life of Pi” will most likely change your thought process concerning this issue. Yann Martel’s, “Life of Pi”, is a compelling story that shows the importance of obtaining religion and faith. Piscine (Pi) Patel is both the protagonist and the narrator of Martell’s religious eye-opener who undergoes a chain effect of unbelievable catastrophes. Each of these catastrophic events leaving him religiously stronger because he knows that in order to endure what he has endured, there has got to be a God somewhere.
“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.
The ship sinks and Pi finds himself the only human survivor onboard a life raft that contains, rather remarkably, a zebra, a large motherly orangutan, a frenzied hyena and a 450-pound Bengal tiger.
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.”
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.
A human has a strong desire to survive and ready to transgress his inner borders and break his principles to save his life. There are three aspects of survival: psychological, emotional and physical survival. They are all related to each other and in order to sustain one has to go through all three stages. A person has to struggle with themselves: they have to breakdown their internal principles such as high morality and deep religious commitment in order to come through Psychological, Emotional and Physical survival.
This alternate ending plays a key role in understanding how to view the novel through Freudian lenses. Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis clarifies many troubling issues raised in the novel Life of Pi. Martel’s novel is about the journey of a young man being forced to test his limits in order to survive the unthinkable predicament of being lost at sea alongside an adult Bengal tiger. Life of Pi starts out by introducing an anonymous author on a quest to find his next big story and goes to a man by the name of Piscine Molitor Patel who supposedly has a story worth hearing. Patel begins his story talking about his childhood and the main events that shaped him such as his family’s zoo, the constant curiosity in religion he sought as a young boy and also how he got his nickname Pi.
To begin with, the animal story is the true story because it shows how Pi’s faith in religions and God helped him survive the tough circumstances on the lifeboat. Martel dexterously prepares the reader for the seafaring section in the first part of the book, which describes Pi’s sunny childhood in the Pondicherry zoo and his triple conversion to Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. Pi’s faith in god helped him survive on the boat. Pi started to become animal like in a way that he has to give up his vegetarianism and learn to fish. Hi encounter with the vast sea can be read as an encounter with the numinous. Pi does see the immensity of the sea and sky as divine. He calls the thunderbolt a ‘miracle’ and ‘an outbreak of divinity’, praising Allah. In moments of desolation, he tries to seek comfort in the divinity of that which is around him, ”I would point to the lifeboat and say aloud, “THIS IS GOD’S ARK!”...
Thesis 2: Imagination allowed Pi to survive by keeping him sane, protecting him and lastly to acquire the traits of telling a beautiful story.
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.
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.