Darren Aronofsky's Pi
Is there an answer, a key to unlocking the mystery of nature, of
life, of the universe? In the movie Pi, this question is explored
through an intriguing, intense, thought-provoking plot, which leaves the
viewer pondering its contents and ideas for hours afterwards.
The movie Pi was written and directed by the young producer Darren
Aronofsky. As his first big film, Pi won him "Best Director" at the 1998
Sundance film festival. This film was produced in an ideal time to
appeal to society's increasing interest for tapping into spirituality and
understanding the meaning and purpose of life. It pulls the audience in
by intriguing and challenging them with complex questions and ideas and
causing them to ponder their own existence.
The plot of Pi is an examination of genius and madness and how one can
spur another. The central story of Pi is the quest of one man's search
for the truth, the answer to the universe. Through his years of study,
Max Cohen comes to believe that this answer to the mysteries of the
universe is found in a 216-digit number, which he will be able to find in
terms of the mathematical value pi (the ratio of the circumference of a
circle to its diameter). Driven by his belief that mathematics is a
universal language and that the number theory represents everything in
nature, he sets out trying to find this number in the stock market with
the aid of his homegrown supercomputer Euclid. Analyzing the stock
market, he comes upon a bug that crashes his computer and spits out a
seemingly random number.
Each scene where Max is found working on his computer, there is always an
ant crawling on it or near it. The ants possibly symbolize ...
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... but instead took
a unique, artistic approach to technology. Unlike most science fiction
films, Pi does not have stunning special effects and poorly developed
characters. The main character Max Cohen is very complex, and Aronofsky
slowly peels away layer after layer of this fascinating character,
portraying him as a recluse. His obsessive quest depicts him as a nearly
deranged, insane man entirely obsessed with uncovering the cosmic
secrets. This film has a very deep, intense script shaped to slowly
bring the audience into Max's mind.
As a universal idea, the theme of this film applies to all viewers. All
have wondered about the secrets of the universe, and all have sought for
understanding in this huge world. Through Max's discoveries, this film
brings up an interesting question: Does one really want to know and
understand all?
The technological advances since WW1 introduced such things as the atomic bomb and new and improved sea and air warfare. The atom bomb was a big part of WW2 as people could be killed from a bomb from a long distance. This bomb also covered a long area killing more people and people of the area bombed could still be feeling the effects in the form of cancer. New air warfare such as fighter jets were introduced in WW2. These planes carried deadly bombs and could take out a large number of people. New sea warfare was introduced, such ships as the corvette were popular, and the corvette was mostly used for shipping ammunition to Europe from North America. Also, submarines proved deadly as they were out of radar and carried deadly bombs such as the torpedo.
In his first voyage in 1492, when Christopher Columbus set out to search for Asia, he ended up landing in America on a small island in the Caribbean Sea, which he confidently thought was Asia. He then made several other voyages to the New World in search for riches, thinking that he was exploring an already explored land, but he had found the greatest riches of them all, undiscovered land, America. This shows that when one sets out on a mission, they face different challenges on the journey but in the end, achieve more than what they planned on achieving. The novel The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho, and the novel Life of Pi, by Yann Martel, both describe two journeys where the characters achieve more when they learn about life, survival and patience, by understanding religion, tackling their fears, associating with nature, and encountering other characters from whom they learn something. The former is about a young shepherd named Santiago, who has a recurring dream of a treasure in Egypt, for which he makes a journey to achieve his “Personal Legend” by the help of a man who claims to be...
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.
The World Health Organization (WHO) classifies Hodgkin’s lymphoma into two different groups: nodular lymphocyte predominant (NLPHL) and classical HL (cHL). NLPHL develops slowly, is found predominantly in males, and accounts for about 5% of all HL cases. It is characterized by L&H cells and a different antigenic profile (Roddle, Peggs, 2009, p. 208). In contrast, cHL, the most common subtype, comprises nearly 80% of diagnosed cases. Classical HL is divided into four subtypes. “The diagnosis is dependent on the pathological finding of H...
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.
In drastic situations, human psychology uses coping mechanisms to help them through it. In the novel, Life of Pi by Yann Martel, Pi’s coping mechanism is his religions and his projection of Richard Parker. Martel’s Life of Pi shows how the projection of Richard Parker played a greater role in keeping Pi alive in comparison to his beliefs in his religions. During the period in which Pi was stranded on the lifeboat, Richard Parker kept Pi aware, helped Pi make the right decisions, and was Pi’s sub-consciousness.
The Holocaust was the great plan to make Jews to become instinct and other people that Hitler considered inferior to him. Adolf Hitler and the Nazis in Germany led this great plan from 1933 to 1945. Approximately twelve million people had their lives taken, half being Jews. Everything changed and became impacted all around the world when Hitler took over Germany, he had a strong prejudice against the Jews. His goal was to create the perfect race of human, blonde hair, blue eyed Germans. The soldiers in Hitler’s camp was his followers, the Nazis, which did all of his dirty work for him. There were also many other people that contributed to his massive event. There became different clans and groups of people going out on their own and doing the killing also, not only Jews. For example, the doctors that ran test on people and experimented on the people didn’t care about their patients wellbeing or health
A quick glance at Life of Pi and a reader may take away the idea that it is an easy read and a novel full of imagination, but take a Freudian view of the work and it transforms into a representation of the human psyche. Martel’s novel takes the reader on a journey with Pi as he struggles for his own survival. Pi experiences a breakdown of each component that makes up one's personality, according to Freud throughout the novel. One by one, ego and super ego both express a huge factor in Pi’s choices and emotions throughout his story. Readers are also introduced to an alternate ending to choose from.
The power of Imagination can give humans the will power to accomplish anything. In the book Life of Pi by Yann Martell Imagination helped Pi the main character get through his long journey aboard a lifeboat. Over the course of this story Pi encounters many different situations where he needs to use his imagination. Towards the end of the book you as the reader have the option to believe the story you just read or a second story, a more vulgar and less interesting story. As the reader you have to use your imagination just like how Pi needed to use his imagination. Imagination allowed Pi to survive by keeping him sane, protecting him and lastly to acquire the traits of telling a beautiful story.
The Holocaust targeted mainly Jews and also included gypsies, poles, the disabled, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, non-Aryan people, and others. Camps were set up in conquered countries and treated the prisoners like slaves, forcing them to do work for the benifit of people supporting the Nazis. About 15 thousand camps were created durring this time, including labor camps, concentration camps, and extermination camps. Stereotypes about the targeted groups supported reasons to eliminate those specific types of people so that Germany could be a strong nation again. The events in the Holocaust were made legal so that people in from other countries wouldn't suspect that something horrible was going on in Germany, for a while.
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 most significant level is psychological because it is very important to a person’s emotional and physical survival. In order for someone to survive, he or she must have a positive mind with faith and determination in every action they take, Despite the fact that having high hopes with slim chances of survival is not as easy as it seems. “In its general form such a requirement insists that important relations (survival, identity, psychological connectedness)”. (Brennan 225). Trying to survive, Pi has to struggle with himself mentally: he has to go against his ethics like rectitude and religion pledge. To do that easily Pi finds his animalistic part which he called in his story as Richard Parker. May be because of his religious grounds he would have never done things like killing people eating fish or cannibalizing humans as done with just imagining himself as a Bengal tiger and he admits that “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. He pushed me to go on living. I hated him for it, yet at the same time I was grateful.” (Martel, 219) This quote shows that he used this imagination to kill his loneliness boredom...
Leukemia is cancerous disease that starts in blood-forming tissue such as the bone marrow and causes large numbers of blood cells to be produced and enter the blood-stream (National Cancer Institute, 2008, para. 1). It is one of many complicated cancer diseases that affect all ages and have very negative outcomes if not treated properly, and on time. Within the disease are several different types that affect according to how quickly the disease develops and attacks the body. It could be classified as chronic leukemia, which has a slow progress of getting worse or acute leukemia which usually gets worse quickly. The types of leukemia also can be grouped based on the white blood cell that is affected (National Cancer Institute , 2008, p. 1). The disease could either start forming in lymphoid cells or myeloid cells. When the disease forms in lymphoid cells it is called lymphoid, lymphocytic or lymphoblastic leukemia. The disease affected by the myeloid cells is called myeloid, myelogenous or myeloblastic leukemia.
conceive of this number or anything that pertains to the infinite. There is always one more. A billion is a fairly large number, 1 with 9 zeros after it. If one counted by seconds without breaks, it would take over 32 years to reach it. A Google, is a number written as 1 with one hundred zeros after it. One couldn't even count the number of lifetimes it would take to count to this number. Yet there are even much higher numbers such as a Googleplex. This number is one with a Google zeros. It would take far far too long to even write out the number. If the entire known universe was packed with quarks, the smallest known material, the number of quarks would not add up to a Googleplex. Compared to infinity, though, this number is as far away as the number one.
The Life of Pi by Yann Martel was a fascinating and exciting narrative that described the journey of a young boys life starting with the formation of his beliefs moving all the way through an adventure that changed his life forever. I found it extremely engaging on both a philosophical level and a psychological level as I saw Pi, a young boy, curious about life, discover both religion and go through an extremely traumatic experience. I found Pi's devotion to God to be an uplifting example that many people throughout the world should see. Although I do believe that Pi was confused about how to best love God, I admire his efforts and believe that his dedication is sincere. I also found the psychological aspect of Pi to be almost as fascinating as religion. I could see from the beginning that Pi was quite thoughtful and always tried to think before he acted. However, what I found even more fascinating than his pre-planning cognitive abilities was how he thought when he was under great stress. Perhaps the best example of how he coped with stress was towards the end of the book when he tells what may be the true story, and we can see that he may have represented everyone as an animal in order to deal with the situation. This provides valuable insight into Pi's mind and opens a whole new area of possibilities when considering how Pi thinks. This ending leaves how Pi thinks open to interpreting which adds a intriguing aspect to the book. Beyond the religious and theoretical aspects of the book, the adventure seen kept me on the edge of my seat until the very end. Every time it seemed Pi was about to die or give up hope, an astounding miracle would suddenly save him. I found the effect of these suspenseful moments to cause me to want to...