Life Of Pi Isolation Quotes

Loss of Values Through Isolation

Isolation is a foe that many face. In Life of Pi, the author, Yann Martel, describes a long, isolated journey where the main character, Pi, is stranded on a lifeboat adrift in the Pacific Ocean. With no human companions and only the company of a Bengal tiger, Pi is constantly surrounded by isolation. Martel illustrates the idea that isolation causes the loss of a person’s values through Pi’s loss in religion, family, and humanity.

Isolation causes Pi to lose religious aspects of himself because part of his religious belonging dies when he commits acts that his religions look down upon. During Pi’s days on the lifeboat, he becomes extremely hungry and emaciated. Just to survive, he has to fish for food.

After he kills his first fish, he describes himself, “I was now as guilty as Cain. I was sixteen years old, a harmless boy, bookish and religious, and now I had blood on my hands” (231). Since Pi is isolated in the ocean with a shortage of food, he is forced to commit murder, the worst sin. He can no longer be as holy as before. Although none as religiously offensive as murder, he also breaks other religious customs such as animal consumption. After slaughtering more fish, he catches a turtle. He then devours its meat and blood. To himself, he thinks, “Lord, to think that I’m a strict vegetarian. To think that when I was a child I always shuddered when I snapped open a banana because it sounded to me like the breaking of an animal’s neck” (249). By eating meat, Pi is no longer following the rules of his religion. He is no longer as pious as his younger self.
Additionally, being at sea for so long causes Pi to lose connection to his family. In both versions of Pi’s story, his entire family dies. After he arrives in Mexico, he is interviewed by Mr. Okamoto, who works for the Maritime Department in the Japanese Ministry of Transport, Pi recounts the tale of his mother’s death. “He killed her. The cook killed my mother” (389). Because of his mother’s murder, he will never see her again because death is a permanent disconnection. Many years after his trial at sea, Pi settles in Scarborough where he recounts his story to an author interested in his tale. As Pi shows the author pictures of his family, he says, “...I can hardly remember what my mother looks like any more. I can see her in my mind, but it’s fleeting. As soon as I try to have a good look at her, she fades. It’s the same with her voice” (110). A repercussion of Pi’s solitary trip is that he can no longer see his family. As time passes, he begins to forget them.
Moreover, as Pi is trapped alone on the lifeboat, his value of humanity begins to fade.

When the food supply on the lifeboat runs out, Pi considers eating Richard Parker’s feces. As Richard Parker’s excrement plops into Pi’s awaiting cup, Pi thinks, “...I will be considered to have abandoned the last vestiges of humanness by those who do not understand the degree of my suffering when I say that it sounded to my ears like the music of a five-rupee coin dropped into a beggar’s cup” (270). Due to his lonesome voyage at sea, Pi sinks low enough to eat the waste product of another animal. This is an act that many view as inhumane. Pi later goes on to carry out a worse offense. Pi tells Mr. Okamoto the second version of his story and describes how the cook dies. “I stabbed him repeatedly. His blood soothed my chapped hands. His heart was a struggle--all those tubes that connected it. I managed to get it out. It tasted delicious, far better than turtle. I ate his liver. I cut off great pieces of his flesh” (391). Numerous solitary days on the lifeboat depreciate the value of human life for Pi to the point where he has no qualms about murder and cannibalism. Pi seems to even enjoy the death when he describes the blood as

soothing.
In the end, people who live in solitude will lose themselves. Yann Martel shows the effects of isolation through his book, Life of Pi, by showing Pi’s change from his pious self, his loss of family relations, and his devalue of human life. Whenever facing isolation, proceed with caution because it’s a dangerous road to travel and a person can lose more than they expect.