The archetypal quest requires a quester, a mission for a journey, and several perilous obstacles and dangers that ultimately lead the individual towards self-discovery and spiritual peace. In the film Life of Pi, a young Indian boy named Piscine Molitor Patel embarks on a journey from the peaceful, colorful nation of India across the vast Pacific Ocean towards new opportunities and future success in Canada. Pi’s family owned a popular zoo in India but decided to move in search of new beginnings and financial rewards, so they loaded all their belongings and animals on a cargo ship and set sail. After only a few days aboard the ship, he awoke in the middle of the night to a loud siren and after ascending to the top deck he discovered the boat was sinking. He tried desperately to return to the cabins and save his family but the crew members threw him aboard a lifeboat which prematurely descended as a zebra jumped in after him. All he could do …show more content…
was watch as the boat slowly sank beneath the monumental waves and the lights finally faltered and his world went dark. Pi was then left stranded, alone and helpless in the incredibly vast sea, with nothing but a small collection of provisions and a large Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.
Not only did he have to learn how to survive in one of the most impossible landscapes, he also had to train and avoid one of nature’s most ferocious predators in a confined space. As their food and water supply began to deplete, he had to learn how to catch fish and collect rainwater to satiate both his and his beast’s hunger and thirst. Pi experienced a spiritual dilemma because as a Hindu, Christian, and Muslim he abstains from eating meat but while out upon that aquatic battlefield he had to decide between his religious morals and his earthly survival. He eventually succumbed to eating strips of dried fish and drinking the nutritious blood of sea turtles, but in return for this gift of sustenance, he traded part of who he had been. Pi faced many dangerous obstacles as he struggled to convince himself that to continue living was still a fight worth
fighting. Through his perilous journey on a laughably small lifeboat in the middle of the ocean Pi discovered himself and his relationship with God. In Pi’s own words, “even when God seemed to have abandoned me, he was watching. Even when he seemed indifferent to my suffering, he was watching. And when I was beyond all hope of saving, he gave me rest. Then he gave me a sign to continue my journey.” He learned the essence of his belief in a benevolent higher power and learned about himself through his love for Richard Parker. Pi discovered the greatest mistake one can make which is never taking a moment to say goodbye. Through his aimless, desolate floating across the Pacific Ocean Pi discovered not only his love for God but also his own spirit, courage, and love of life.
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 ...
His love and understanding of zoology was the reason he survived on the life raft. Even though Pi went against his morals and ate meat, Pi saw it as necessary to survive. His will to survive and to eliminate all personal boundaries allowed him to do what ever deed needed to survive. And finally using his knowledge of animals as a means of maintaining a psychological level of sanity, which kept him motivated and sane throughout his time at sea. With the extreme circumstances that Pi lived through, and the means he used to cope with them, it is obvious that his choices were
He lives in a zoo, and is surrounded and influenced by animals daily. His knowledge of animals grows as he does, and he learns and sees new things year after year at the zoo. One peculiar, yet crucial thing that Pi learns while living in the zoo, is the concept of zoomorphism. Zoomorphism, “is where an animal takes a human being or another animal, to be one of its kind”(84). He explains that within the zoo that he spent his childhood, there were many cases of zoomorphism, from the strange friendly relationship between the goats and the rhinoceroses, to the even stranger friendly predator-prey relationship between a viper and a mouse. Pi then says that the only explanation for zoomorphism is that the “measure of madness moves life in strange but saving ways”(85). The rhinoceros and goats get along because the rhinoceros, “[is] in need of companionship”(85), and without the goats, the rhinoceros would become depressed and die. This explanation of zoomorphism is major foreshadowing and background on why Richard Parker and Pi can live together on the lifeboat. Like the rhinoceros, both Pi and Richard Parker would have died without the company of another being. The “madness” that is the relationship between Richard Parker and Pi, scares Pi and causes him stress. However, this stress and fear keeps Pi alive, and ultimately saves his life. Therefore, the story with the animals is true, because
On the lifeboat, Pi is exposed to situations in which most men would die, and almost all would have to sacrifice some of their morals and beliefs. Pi is not immune to this, and although he does survive, he does so through allowing a hitherto unseen part of him come free. This part of him is evident in when he eats meat (That part of him even craves it, as we see when they have their conversation about food,) is willing to kill someone, and t...
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.
... Richard Parker wants to take the zebra out of its misery.Richard Parker, along with the other animals on the lifeboat, are what truly keeps Pi alive throughout the 227 day trip out at sea.
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.
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.
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.
The book is about Pi, a boy from a zoo in India that gets stranded on a lifeboat with a tiger. Martel says that he stresses the importance of animals in the book because they are crucial to the plot, but also because they amaze him. He also says that the reason the book is so graphic and detailed is so that he will be able to cope with it if it eventually happens to him. Martel also noted that he tends to use simplistic writing in order to paint a more complex picture, like he does with the entire plot and his descriptions of religion and Pi’s feelings (Sielke 21). Because of all the attention the book and its realness were getting, it was turned into a film in 2012.
Pi maintains his religious beliefs while on the life boat through his daily prayers. He takes time aside each day to say the prayers that he always would say. In one instance, he turns where he believes Mecca is located, and prays his traditional prayers towards Mecca. Pi also often states that he will include specific animals in his prayers, such as the zebra aboard his lifeboat, and the first fish that he ever killed. With Pi keeping his ritual prayers going, it helped him to survive.
Piscine’s parents work in their family owned zoo. Piscine is very curious and observant and loves to watch the animals get trained, fed and when they sleep. Piscine knew much more about animals than just an average human. This allowed him use his knowledge that he gains from experiences at the zoo to survive on the lifeboat. An example of an important lesson he learns as a child is when his father takes the whole family to the tiger gate and his father tells him that the tiger has been starved for three days and then the zookeeper releases a got in the tiger’s cage.
Written in 2001, Yann Martel’s philosophical literature Life of Pi follows Piscine Patel, a South-Indian boy, as he embarks on an eventful journey of self-discovery and coming-of-age. When viewed through archetypal and psychoanalytical lenses though, the text changes shape dramatically, giving the audience two contrasting perspectives. Deepening the meaning of the postmodernist novel and drawing attention to the common use of heroic patterns in literature, such as the hero’s journey generally having three stages; departure, initiation, and return, the application of an archetypal lens encourages readers to consider the heroic quest Pi embarks on and the leap in which he takes from child to adulthood. Examining the text from this standpoint
The Life of Pi by Yann Martel, is a classic true story about a seventeen year old boy who finds himself in the middle of the ocean with no family and no company, except for a tiger named Richard Parker. Pi must do whatever it takes to survive, but not only off of brains or brawn, but also from the things he learned as he was growing up in India. Pi learned many things throughout his childhood, but there are three that he applies when on his journey that truly stand out and help him survive in the end. When Pi was young, he learned the importance of perseverance and endurance, things aren’t always as pleasant as they seem, and different species can find common ground and live in harmony if they try.
He’s lived with one in a lifeboat for quite sometime. Hasn’t been around humans since his parents died. So his mind has landed into survival mode. And sometimes survival mode means animal-like behavior. “I will further confess that, driven by the extremity of my need and the madness to which it pushed me, I ate some of his flesh. I mean small pieces, little strips that I meant for the gaff 's hook that, when dried by the sun, looked like ordinary animal flesh. They slipped into my mouth nearly unnoticed. You must understand, my suffering was unremitting and he was already dead” (Chapter 91). He just ate the French Chief with Richard Parker. Sure, he was dead, but this proves the more that Pi had taken on animal-like behavior to survive. Pi would not have done that on his own. Infact, the French Chief would not have been dead if Richard Parker had not been there. Pi would not have made it that far without him. He would have died in the middle of the ocean if Richard Parker had not been there to mentally make Pi fight for