Life Of Pi Passage Analysis

767 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Themes of life of pi

This section of chapters, Pi becomes desperate. In my opinion, this was the closest Pi came to dying, he is broken both physically and mentally. Chapter 77 (page 214) “The taste was acrid, but it wasn’t that. It was rather my mouth’s conclusion, immediate and obvious: there’s nothing to be had here. It was truly waste matter, with no nutrients in it. I spat it out and was bitter at the loss of precious water.” This part of the book, Pi tries eating Richard Parker’s feces. Pi becomes so desperate that he is willing to eat a tiger’s feces, this part of the book, Pi is certain that death is coming soon. This shows how Pi is willing to literally anything to survive and he has no limits. This passage characterizes Pi as a very determined character, he will do …show more content…

When Pi cries, this shows deep down inside just how scared Pi is. He has not shown emotion or even made remarks about being scared or dying. This point in the book really tests Pi and makes him stronger than he ever was. This passage also shows just how loyal Richard Parker is to Pi. The moment he put his hands on Pi he killed him. Maybe Pi’s techniques of eating feces, staring at him, making noises at him, feeding Richard Parker, has been working and Richard Parker will protect and look after him at all causes. This probably makes Pi feel a connection with Richard Parker now. In this chapter he also has a conversation with a man with a French accent. It makes you think, was it Richard Parker or the man who tried to kill Pi who Pi was talking to. This passage shows that maybe Pi has gone crazy and is starting to have hallucinations. No matter what was the answer, it was a little odd that Pi was having a conversation with an unknown voice. In my opinion I think Pi was hallucinating and that whole conversation did not even happen. Both of these passages seems like Pi has finally gone crazy and is getting closer and closer to

Show More
Related

  • Comparing Yann Martel’s Life of Pi and Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya

    720 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...o face our fears, looking them dead in the eye. He notes that tigers only attack when you are not looking straight in the eye. When Pi tries to tame Richard Parker by blowing the whistle, while Richard Parker is seasick. Pi faces his fears instead of letting it sit there and control him. We need to ‘blow the whistle’ on our own fears and admit we do have a fear, so they become easier to control in our lives. Richard Parker also teaches Pi his inner strength even though Pi does not display it himself. "This was the terrible cost of Richard Parker. He gave me a life, my own, but at the expense of taking one. He ripped the flesh off the man's frame and cracked his bones. The smell of blood filled my nose. Something in me died then that has never come back to life. (Martel 139)”

    Read More

  • A Hero: S Journey In Yann Martel's Life Of Pi

    982 Words  | 2 Pages

    In conclusion, this is why I believe the book “Life of PI” is a story about a hero’s journey in the book. Pi is thrown into the situation without doing anything wrong. Pi doesn’t deserve this, infact he is a bright and smart kid as mentioned in earlier pages from the book. You want Pi to live, mainly because Pi doesn’t deserve to die. This, in the end, is why I believe Pi’s journey of survival in the harsh Pacific Ocean is a hero’s journey type of

    Read More

  • The Role of Richard Parker in Yann Martel’s Life of Pi

    1248 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...knowledge his shadow self. He was able to survive his plight on the lifeboat because of the characteristics of his shadow self, Richard Parker. Even at the loss of his shadow self, Pi remains connected and constantly misses this part of his persona. After his ordeal on the lifeboat, Pi becomes rational and humane; however his experiences has scarred him, and will forever remain with him. Readers can definitely learn from Pi’s experience with his shadow self. The more we refute our shadow, the more it weighs us down. However, if we are willing to come to terms with the reality of our shadow, learn how it works, “tame” it so that it does not control us, we would be more literate and enlightened.

    Read More

  • A Freudian Examination of Yann Martel’s Life of Pi

    1764 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Role of Richard Parker in Yann Martel’s Life of Pi

    1150 Words  | 3 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • A Freudian Examination of Yann Martel’s Life of Pi

    2074 Words  | 5 Pages

    ... how it has a connection to Freud’s idea of psychoanalysis. When Pi reveals an alternate story of the events that unraveled and led him to the Mexican beach it brings his story to a halt. The reader has to decide for themselves which story is to be believed. When looking at both stories it is easy to match up the connections on the characters being switched. It also makes it very clear that Richard Parker could have been a disguised idea of Pi’s actual id, the reason for his survival. Meanwhile Pi stood for his own ego and somewhat managed to answer to both his id and super ego to some extent. By the ending of the novel the readers come to conclude Mr. Patel does come full circle and carries all three aspects, the id, ego, and super ego and is a functioning member of society once again.

    Read More

  • The Power of Imagination in Life of Pi, by Yann Martel

    818 Words  | 2 Pages

    Imagination played a large role behind the scenes in the book Life of Pi. “This was the terrible cost of Richard Parker” As the reader, this passage makes you think that Richard Parker was a burden for Pi, that there was nothing positive that came from this tremendous creature. Richard Parker was more than just an idea that Pi thought up, Richard Parker was Pi’s Conscience/himself. The first line of this passage represents imagination, since Richard Parker is Pi’s imagination it would translate to this was the terrible cost of my imagination. When Pi witnesses Richard Parker attack the cannibal he says “Something in me died then that has never come back to life” This has a more spiritual meaning than a literal meaning in the way Pi says it. This means that when he “imagines” this man being killed this shows how cruel life can be even when he looks to god for answers. The reason that Richard Parker is Pi’s imagination is because during the course of this book Richard Parker mimicked exactly what Pi did. For example the moment that they bot...

    Read More

  • Dialectical Journal For Life Of Pi

    141 Words  | 1 Pages

    Pi was afraid and surprised that Richard Parker was in the boat once he had lifted the blanket. Then Richard Parker had roared at him and tried to attack by his claws ,but pi had gotten away as soon as he did. Pi and Richard Parker started to roamed slowly around the boat in the middle of the ocean. Pi didn't trust Richard Parker because he knows that he only wanted to kill and eat pi. Pi tried to get rid of the tiger and then he tried avoiding the tiger, but as time goes on he got tired of trying get rid of Richard Parker. So then he began tame the tiger by using his whistle he had gotten from his locker. As he and Richard Parker started to get along through the past days,they have become really close friends.

    Read More

  • Lord Of The Flies Chapter 7 Analysis

    825 Words  | 2 Pages

    Christianity, over time, has provided a loose ethical base for the judicial system of the western world. Chapter 7 begins with introducing the concept of a faultless judge. Jesus explains that only a being that has no fault can judge one with fault because otherwise the one who judges would be a hypocrite. For this reason, a corrupt judge, or a judge convicted of a crime, is dismissed from his position. Just like most people, all three men had a character flaw that drew criticism. Gandhi treated his wife in an authoritative manner and occasionally became violent. Bonheoffer conspired to kill Adolf Hitler. King, a Baptist minister, was caught by the FBI cheating on his wife multiple times. This establishes that even the best men can be wrong.

    Read More

  • Life of Pi (Unabridged) by Yann Martel

    1326 Words  | 3 Pages

    Soon after, at long last, he reaches land. He attains Enlightenment. The tiger bounds off into the jungle-- Pi's suffering is released completely. He is nursed back to health and lives a relative normal life, with the distinction that his experience has fully awakened him. He walks as a true adult among the many spiritual children of the world. He still has the normal problems, challenges, and disappointments of life; Enlightenment does not mean everything is perfect. But Pi can bring forth what is needed in each moment, and does not suffer from the pains, failures, and sorrows of being human. He lives through them without getting caught in them. (Similarly, he is fully awake for all the wonderful pleasures and intimacies of life. And in all occurrences, he brings a deep compassion and love for all beings).

    Read More

  • Life of Pi, by Yann Martel

    1144 Words  | 3 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • Religion In Yann Martel's The Life Of Pi

    880 Words  | 2 Pages

    Pi turns to God and says aloud, “‘Yes, so long as God is with me, I will not die.’” (Martel, 148). Instead of giving up, he used a miracle that God gives him and turns it into a routine. His belief of God watching over him gave him a lot of motivation Pi explains his struggles when he says “You might think I lost all hope at one point. I did. And as a result, I perked up and felt much better. We see it in sports all the time don’t we?” (Martel 134). At this moment, Pi decides to disregard Richard Parker and focus on his thirst. He thinks back to how when Jesus was crucified, that his only complaint was thirst. This gave Pi a reason to help himself by letting go of his worrying. As he slowly becomes more depressed, Pi comes to the realization that “God’s hat was always unraveling. God’s pants were falling apart. God’s cat was a constant danger. God’s ark was a jail. God’s wide acres were slowly killing me. God’s ear didn’t seem to be listening.” (Martel, 209). Whenever Pi starts to upset about his situation, he yells about how everything symbolizes God. Although sometimes it did not help, Pi says that he will continue to hope and love

    Read More

  • Pi's Two-Fold Journey

    453 Words  | 1 Pages

    When he catches a fish and needs to kill it he states, “Several times I started bringing the hatchet down, but I couldn’t complete the action.” But Pi matures from someone who is in a panic to someone who uses rational thinking and common sense to survive the elements and the dangers of being lost at sea. So, Pi evolves into a boy that has to take on the responsibilities of a man to survive by doing whatever it takes, even if it involves violence against an enemy. Pi found that physical strength in himself. Pi also utilizes whatever it takes to mentally overcome the savage acts he has witnessed. If he has to live in a fantasy world where he conjures up images of wild animals in order to avoid his bleak reality, then that is what he does. It takes Pi a while but step by step he leans on himself (and his faith as well) to construct the answers, the practical solutions, the strategies, the wit to outthink others, and the mental stability to persevere through the horror. The pain is unfathomable but he finds it in himself to do it, to make it through to the other side. In a way, his survival did completely depend on his faith in himself because in reality, all he had was what was

    Read More

  • Life of Pi

    359 Words  | 1 Pages

    Having just experienced the sinking of his family’s ship, and being put onto a life boat with only a hyena, Pi felt completely lost and alone. When he sees Richard Parker, the Bengal tiger from his family’s zoo, it is a familiar face to him. His initial reaction is to save the life of his familiar friend so that he may have a companion, and a protector aboard the lifeboat. Suddenly Pi realizes just what he is doing. He is saving the life of Richard Parker, by welcoming him, a 450 pound Bengal tiger, onto the small lifeboat. He experiences a change of heart when helping the tiger onto the boat. Pi realizes that he is now posing a threat on his own life. With Richard Parker on the boat, Pi is faced with not only the fight to survive stranded in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, but the fight to survive living with a meat eating tiger. The change of heart that Pi experiences might possibly mean that he is an impulsive thinker. It may mean that he often does something on impulse without thinking it through, and then later regrets his actions.

    Read More

  • The Life of Pi Reflection

    1083 Words  | 3 Pages

    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...

    Read More

More about Life Of Pi Passage Analysis

Open Document