In Martel’s novel, “Life of Pi” the castaway Pi witnessed the horrible death of a fellow castaway within the confines of a lifeboat adrift at sea. This death was brought about by another companion from a shipwreck, but this one was not the human type of castaway. This shipwreck survivor was a tiger that went by the name of Richard Parker. By comparison in O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried,” Kiowa, a soldier in Vietnam, sees Lavender, a man in his platoon, suddenly get shot and killed by a random sniper.
Despite the fact that they both witnessed a murder that happened with no warning, they each reacted to their run in with death very differently. While Kiowa the soldier didn’t feel much “except surprise” and pleasure in still being alive, Pi became a complete mess on the inside, to the point that a piece of him died with the ill-fated castaway (O’Brien 88). The reason that Kiowa wasn’t as upset as Pi was by the deaths they witnessed was because he wasn’t as emotionally exhausted as Pi was at the time, and his body could handle the sudden emotion better.
Pi, in Yann Martel’s story, had just resigned himself so completely to death that he had actually “resolved to die“(Martel 241). He had for months on the edge of starvation while he floated in the middle of the Pacific Ocean on a small lifeboat. The boy had come to this dreary place of mind because of his recently acquired blindness. His lack of vision resulted from the malnutrition that he was undergoing. Pi’s lack of nutrients during his stay in the lifeboat had already robbed the majority of the boy’s strength from his body. His blindness, combined with his steadily increasingly weakened state that was so bad that he “could no longer stand,” left him complet...
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... had Pi’s as a result. How Ted Lavender looked afterwards wasn’t very bad at all compared to the shape of the man Pi ran into in the Pacific either. Lavender had merely been shot in the head, and the only part of him that was really messed up were his teeth and cheekbone. He hadn’t been ripped apart by an animal, and the sight of his remains didn’t stir up a sickened horror inside of Kiowa as the stranger’s torn body had in Pi.
Many things affected how Kiowa and Pi reacted, including the shape the dead bodies were in, how callused they, the survivors were, and how stressful the events leading up to the deaths were. All of these elements contributed to the two young men’s emotions. those elements indirectly controlled how Pi and Kiowa reacted to the deaths of Lavender and the castaway, deaths that were “Boom-down’ fast and very unexpected (O’Brien 88).
Personally, I think O’brien’s emotions hit hard. You can’t just let go of something and someone like that. It’s something that will always be there in your mind. He said, “I’d wanted to take my daughter to the places I’d seen as a soldier. I wanted to show her the Vietnam that kept me awake at night.”He decided to show her his past, the important things in his life. If those things didn’t matter to him, would he still have took the time to show her? He not only showed her the field he fought on. He also showed her where his friend Kiowa had died. “Now, looking out at the field, I wondered if it was all a mistake. Everything was too ordinary. A quiet sunny day, and the field was not the I remembered”, he remembers it different. I picture he remembers it as a dark, dreary, noisy place. During their time at the field O’brien took his friends Kiowa’s moccasin’s and put them in some sort of “mush” where he passed away. He wanted to tell Kiowa that “he’d been a great friend, the very best”. “In a way, maybe I’d gone under with Kiowa, and now after two decades I’d finally worked my way
In Craig Lesley’s novel The Sky Fisherman, he illustrates the full desire of direction and the constant flow of life. A boy experiences a chain of life changing series of events that cause him to mature faster than a boy should. Death is an obstacle that can break down any man, a crucial role in the circle of life. It’s something that builds up your past and no direction for your future. No matter how hard life got, Culver fought through the pain and came out as a different person. Physical pain gives experience, emotional pain makes men.
... dog, in "To Build a Fire" had instincts to know that something was wrong. Paragraph 16, in "To Build a Fire" But the dog knew; all its ancestry knew, and it had inherited the knowledge. Kiowa's instincts told him that the platoon's situation at Than Khe was not good. There were no clouds, birds, or people. It was hot and there was no wind. There was no movement. He must have felt something deep down just like the dog in "To Build a Fire." I think that this is why Kiowa did not have any feelings toward Lavender when he got shot.
The death of Kiowa is the point in this story, and arguably the entire novel, where the true nature of war becomes evident. His death in any situation would have been tragic, and camping in that “shit field” alone would have been an emotionally scarring experience; however, that these events had to coincide in time only multiplies the gravity of the situation. Interestingly, every soldier has his own way of grappling with such overwhelming feelings of grief for his highly-esteemed comrade. Yet what every man has in common is that in the end he concludes that he alone is the one ultimately responsible for Kiowa’s death.
Death also plays a big role in the health of a person 's mental state. It is the way a person handles death that determines how they are affected by it. The reactions that Cross and his troop have to the death of Lavender are very indicative of the psychological trauma that death in war can have on soldiers. Kiowa, a member of the troop, frequently refers to Lavender 's death with " 'boom, down '" or " 'zapped while zipping '" (108). However, he is not the only soldier who utters these two phrases. Rat Kiley, can only express the phrase " 'the guys dead '" (106) over and over again. The reactions these soldiers ' have are neither out of the ordinary nor normal for an environment and profession ravaged by death constantly. To make jokes or light of the death may seem as cruel and insensitive, yet it is a warped way of coping with death so that one does not become consumed by it like Cross does. Not only does he forgo love because of Lavender 's death, he also relives the death constantly. O 'Brien makes this very apparent in the way he presents Lavender 's death to the reader. He never tells Cross ' story in order from start to finish. Yet he intertwines the happenings before and after the occurrence of Lavender 's death with the actual day he dies. In this way the story can be viewed in the present and past. It can be read as if the events are happening as they are told, or as if the soldiers are reliving these memories years after the Vietnam war. Death can have such a lasting impact that it permanently scars a person mentally, so much that it haunts them years after the death itself took place. A memory lying dormant waiting to be awakened by a catalyst, such a balloon being popped that sounds like a gun shot. It is not only in the present that soldier deal with death, but also in future through flashbacks and night terrors. Death sticks with a person throughout their life. The
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
“Kiowa was gone. He was under the mud and water, folded in with the war…” (O’Brien, 155). Many soldiers in war may lose an extremity or get bumps and bruises, but Kiowa did not make it out so lucky. Lieutenant Cross got commands to take the route he knew was much
The protagonist, Pi is initially apprehensive to accept Richard Parker on the raft, but later comes to appreciate the tiger once he realizes this animal’s presence is crucial for his survival on the boat. First, Pi is scared and reluctant to accept his shadow self because it conflicts with his character and complicates his beliefs. This is evident when he says, “Together? We’ll be together? Have I gone mad? I woke up to what I was doing […]. Let go […] Richard Parker […] I don’t want you here […]. Get lost. Drown! Drown!!” (Martel 123). Though Pi recognizes his shadow self by encouraging Richard Parker to come on the boat, he soon realizes that he is about to accept his shadow self. He instantly regrets his decision and throws an oar at him in an effort to stop Richard Parker. His action symbolizes his denial and confusion he feels towards the extent of br...
...ust sees her dad’s strange actions. While someone that knows his story would see it as a final act of remembrance, putting Kiowa’s spirit and story to an end.
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.
During his deployment in Vietnam, Kiley experienced the dark elements of the war, indubitably changing his perspective of the war and him as a person-- from the deaths of his fellow soldiers to the unresolved issues, nightmares, and detachment from reality. What is left of Kiley is only a shell.
Kiowa is more sensible in realizing and understanding what Tim is experiencing. Tim: It’s a war. The guy wasn’t Heidi—he had a weapon, right? It’s a tough thing, for sure, but you got to cut out that staring” (126). He knows that what Tim is feeling is really hard for him to grasp because of the astonishment “Take it slow”.
The projection of Richard Parker helps Pi to be aware of this current situation, which was him being stranded in the ocean on a lifeboat in comparison to his beliefs in his religions. His fear towards Richard Parker was one of the reasons of his survival. Pi says, “Fear and reason fought over answer. Fear said yes. He was a fierce, 450-pound carnivore. Each of his claws was sharp as a knife” (Martel 108). Pi describes Richard Parker as an extremely dangerous, fearful, and vicious predator. This causes Pi keep aware because he is on a boat with a deadly carnivore. He tries to keep awake at night while being on the lifeboat with Richard Parker from the fear of being attacked and eaten by the Bengal tiger. However, since Richard Parker is Pi’s id, it was actually him keeping himself aware and alive. Pi states, “If I still had the will to live, it was thanks to Richard Parker. He kept me from thinking too much about my family and my tragic circumstances” (Martel 164). This shows how Richard Parker occupies Pi’s mind and influences his thoughts about the tragic incident that has happened. The will to live for Pi is no longer his family, but Richard Parker, his id. Richard Parker taught Pi how to survive based on his instincts an...
In the story Life Of Pi by Yann Martel it talks about a boy who is lost at sea trying to go to Canada. In the other story The Snows Of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway talks about a man who is injured and need to get to the hospital. Even though both stories seem very similar they have some differences as well. In both of the stories the authors express the idea of death as coming in the form as an animal, they also use the animals to raise or lose hope of the protagonists, and finally the animals are used to bring pain and suffering to the protagonists as well.
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.