Life Of Pi Isolation Analysis

“All living things contain a measure of madness that moves them in strange, sometimes inexplicable ways.” Yann Martel’s Novel Life of Pi directly describes the feelings that Pi had during his stay on a lifeboat while stranded in the middle of the Pacific. Sharing that feeling of isolation is Alice from Lewis Carroll’s books Alice and Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Both individuals are isolated from the real world. Due to this isolation they become prisoners to their minds’ and create delusions that help them cope with the truth of life.
Piscine Molitor Patel or Pi, a sixteen year old Indian boy, suddenly becomes a victim of a shipwreck that kills his migrating family on their voyage to Canada. The only survivors of this crash are Pi, a tiger (named Richard Parker), an orangutan, a hyena, and a zebra, who are all now sharing one lifeboat. One by one all the survivors die, either from exposure (the zebra) or murder (the hyena, and the orangutan) until only Pi remains with Richard Parker to endure an isolated fight for survival. His isolation causes him to lose part of his mind as he fights to survive for the rest of the 227 days he is lost a sea.
Alice, a seven year old girl, first follows a rabbit

into another world when she falls asleep one morning. This world within her head is dubbed Wonderland. Once in this strange world, she finds that she is very confused. Alice stumbles into various creatures throughout the book, a few being the white rabbit, the Queen of Hearts, the Cheshire cat, the Caterpillar, and the Mad Hatter. Each one of these characters show Alice very little kindness and are often rude to her. Alice falls into this world to escape from the dull real world she lives in.
Pi, unlike Alice, is fighting for his survival, when his mind starts to give way too many delusions. Even time is altered, Pi “[forgets] even the very notion of time” in an effort to keep his sanity, nevertheless his mind breaks. The first of these delusions comes at a time of great desperation. Pi becomes very weak due to lack of food and he believes he is near death. Pi goes blind and exists in a state of semi-consciousness. At this time Pi dreams of bumping into a fellow blind castaway in the middle of the Pacific. Pi first thinks it is Richard Parker speaking, but the voice’s accent doesn’t make sense. This castaway is actually a Frenchman who went blind due to weakness in body as well. When this other castaway tries to attack Pi, Pi kills him and uses him as bait. Pi has another delusion following this first one. In this delusion, Pi encounters an island made entirely of algae. The only inhabitants of this island are meerkats. This island seems like an oasis to Pi with its lush vegetation and freshwater, both of which help relieve his spent mind and body. Soon, though, Pi discovers that the island is actually carnivorous, consuming fish and the occasional human during the night. The algae island symbolizes Pi’s inner struggle with despair. As Pi put it, the island “would not have killed him immediately had he stayed; rather, it have eaten away at his soul deadening his spirit and causing a numbing hopelessness.” Due to his weakening mental state Pi is forced to endure the creations of his own mind.
In Wonderland Alice encounters many oddities, which she would not of in the real world. In this world animals talk and wear clothes. Riddles are common language, and many things confuse Alice. Alice changes size a few times, by eating and drinking various items, out of necessity. This awkward physical change makes Alice begin to question who she is as a person. After growing large again she becomes frustrated and asks aloud to no one in particular “Who in the world am I?” Ah, that’s the great puzzle.” With the world of Wonderland not playing by the rules that Alice is used to, in the real world, she is forced to reconsider who she is in this world. Since Wonderland is a figment of Alice’s imagination, the challenges Alice face are a representation of her inner struggle to find herself and where she belongs in the world. Instead of finding the answers to her questions, she instead finds a since of childlike wonder that will remain with her for a lifetime.
Pi faces an inner struggle when the truth and his delusions collide. “So you want another story? Uhh…no we would like to know what really happened.” After coming ashore in Mexico and discussing the events of the crash with the authorities, they are not convinced of the legitimacy of Pi’s tale. The one where Pi was aboard a lifeboat with only wild animals to accompany him and managed to survive for 227 days. Pi reveals the true story, that he was accompanied by humans and not animals. In the true story, the survivors of the crash were Pi, his mother, a sailor and the cook. In Pi’s fictional story he gives the animals one of the characteristics of their human counterparts, such as the zebra with the broken leg and his counterpart, the sailor. All the events that happen to the animals actually happen to the humans, including the murder of the orragtun (Pi’s mother). Pi made up the fictional version of his story to cope. The real version was too horrific otherwise, the fact that his mother was murdered right in front of him and he was too weak to do anything about it. He changed the humans to animals to keep some of his sanity he had lost during his journey and to have the will to survive the many days he was alone at sea, without even Richard Parker for company.
The second time Alice enters into an alternate universe, she goes into the Looking-glass House.

Alice sits, bored and lonely, when she begins to talk to her cat, Kitty. Alice does this because she is lonely and is searching for companionship. Before she knows it, she is in the Looking-glass House. In this place, on the other side of the mirror, everything is backward. Alice searches for anyone who will friendly to her, but everyone she encounters is rude. Humpty Dumpty, the talking flowers, and the Red Queen all treat her rudely. Alice creates this world within her imagination in order to cope with her loneliness as she grows older. This world is an escape for Alice similarity, Pi created his fantastical story in order to escape the bitter truth that is

life.
The characters in both Life of Pi and Alice and Wonderland are both victims to their isolated settings. The imaginary worlds Alice create and the raft are settings in which their inhabitants have to fight for sanity and find the truth. Pi and Alice have trouble adapting to their settings, which they are each forced to endure. Alice and Pi have mind altering delusions that occur out of their loneliness. Alice learns who she is in her delusion. She gives into her imagination and is utterly consumed by it. Pi has a different experience. In order to cope with the horrible truth, he changes his story into one that is manageable. He manages to survive 227 days at sea without losing his mind because he convinces himself that his story involved animals and not humans. This allows Pi to become detached from his own story. Whereas Alice is engrossed in her story land and searches for the meaning of her imagination. Pi is successful in sustaining his mind long enough to be rescued.