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The importance of being a learner
The importance of being a learner
The importance of being a learner
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Repetition is important in the training of not only animals but also of humans.(25)” The significance of this quotation is that our brains find it easy to learn things when it is constantly repeated. This quote goes with the character development of Pi, because it tells us how both animals and humans need to be constantly reminded of things in order to stay in line and help themselves remember it. This quote goes with the character development of Pi because as he had spent 227 days on a lifeboat he had to train himself on how to be able to live in those harsh conditions and teach himself how to find the proper nutrients his body needed to survive. This quote shows us that if we are constantly having to teach ourselves how we should act and
treat others like how when training our pets we are constantly repeating things so they can remember it better. It will just become a habit of acting that way. For example when we were younger and our parents are trying to teach us our first word they just constantly repeat it so that your brain can remember it. When you are teaching an animal to sit you spend months making the animal repeat “Sit, come here, stay“. And so when things get repeated over and over they finally stick. The start of Pi’s character development is when Pi wanted to start his new life with his new name getting used to this new name he repeated the same stunt in each of his classrooms.
Stranded for 227 days at sea in a lifeboat, with no one else except an adult Bengal tiger. This is exactly what the main character Pi, in "The Life of Pi" went through. "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel is a story about a boy named Piscine Molitor Patel, an Indian boy who survives more than seven months floating on a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean, with no one else but a 450-pound tiger (Cooper). Yann Martel was born on June 25, 1963, in Salamanca, Spain. His parents, Emile Martel and Nicole Perron, were both born in Canada. He spent his childhood in several different countries, including France, Mexico, the United States, Canada, and Costa Rica. As an adult, he lived in many other places but one of them was India, which may be where he got inspiration for writing “Life of Pi”. Yann Martel uses the literary elements similes and foreshadowing, to express the theme that believing in religion can give you the faith to want to survive.
Despite not agreeing with his biology teacher, Mr. Kumar’s beliefs, as he stated “There are no grounds for going beyond a scientific explanation of reality and no sound reason for believing anything but our sense experience.” (Life or Pi, p.34.), and “religion is darkness” (Life of Pi, pg.34.), Pi stated that Mr. Kumar went on to become his favorite teacher and the reason he studied zoology. Kumar was a critical person in his life that enabled Pi to see life through a different lense. He impacted Pi in a another, more abstract way. Mr. Kumar represents Pi’s logical aspect, which in the end impacts Pi in life saving way. Adding logic and reason to Pi’s spiritual wheel empowered him to solve problems that came his way on the lifeboat, and also taught him to develop a relationship with someone who thinks noticeably different than him. Pi’s view on truth and belief is consummated as Pi tells the story in the concluding portion of the novel. Each version contains a different genus of truth. As one story is supported by facts, and the other has an emotional truth that cannot be proven right nor wrong. This moment culminates Pi’s outlook on the concept of truth and the way he relates it to his spiritual aspect of his
...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.
In the book Life of Pi Yann Martel tells the story of a man, Pi Patel, who survives a shipwreck and has to live on a lifeboat for months with a wild tiger named Richard Parker. Throughout the book, Pi struggles to survive on the lifeboat in the middle of the ocean. He had limited resources and had to deal with challenges, such as bad weather, and Richard Parker. Pi survived in the end, but it was because of his determination to survive throughout the whole journey. Yann Martel displays the theme that people must have the will to survive by his use of figurative language, such as similes, metaphor, and personification.
In the novel Life of Pi, the author Yann Martel does state that the novel will have a happy ending but when looking more deeply into this idea, it shows that the novel did not in fact have a happy ending for Pi. This can be proven from the fact that all his loved ones left him, from his suffering and the experience traumatized him.
Society is known to put everyone and everything into roles that, if or when the role assigned is changed, all hell breaks loose. Through Freud’s theory, he explains the behaviors that are associated with the id, the ego, and the superego. Being that Pi was someone who had been relatively well-off prior to embarking on his trip to Canada and then thrown into a new scenario that involves him becoming a starving survivor of a boat wreck stuck in a boat with a tiger that is threatening to eat him, it can be seen that Freud’s theory is displayed. When observing the events that take place throughout Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, it is observable that he creates an impressive relationship between Freud’s theory of the id, ego, and superego and Pi’s mental facade while using a paradox within the specific animals, as well as his strive for survival.
...ction of Richard Parker kept Pi aware, by showing Pi the reality of the current situation, assisted him with making the right decisions, committing certain actions, and is his sub-consciousness, his id that fights for survival. In Martel’s Life of Pi, Pi’s coping mechanism has been proven more useful in his projection Richard Parker rather than his beliefs in his religions, which has done nothing for Pi and was useless at that time. Humans and animals are very alike in certain aspects. When it all comes down to survival, humans and animals are almost alike. The human mind brings back the inner id from the human consciousness while in drastic situations to help them cope with it in order to survive. The human psychology has a very interesting way of creating coping mechanisms.
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.
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
Surroundings affect how one participates in everyday life. Two settings seem entirely different, yet they create similar situations through availability of freedom offered by each setting. Life of Pi by Yann Martel possesses corresponding situations and distinct differences with “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Both compositions utilize confinement to intensify their settings, but the means of confinement have different bounds, and the things they can interact with are extremely separate. Characters of both works communicate with other beings based entirely on their setting. These stories revolve solely around the place of occurrence.
On its surface, Martel’s Life of Pi proceeds as a far-fetched yet not completely unbelievable tale about a young Indian boy named Pi who survives after two hundred twenty-seven days on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. It is an uplifting and entertaining story, with a few themes about companionship and survival sprinkled throughout. The ending, however, reveals a second story – a more realistic and dark account replacing the animals from the beginning with crude human counterparts. Suddenly, Life of Pi becomes more than an inspiring tale and transforms into a point to be made about rationality, faith, and how storytelling correlates the two. The point of the book is not for the reader to decide which story he or she thinks is true, but rather what story he or she thinks is the better story. In real life, this applies in a very similar way to common belief systems and religion. Whether or not God is real or a religion is true is not exactly the point, but rather whether someone chooses to believe so because it adds meaning and fulfillment to his or her life. Life of Pi is relevant to life in its demonstration of storytelling as a means of experiencing life through “the better story.”
It is said the a person’s process of discovery is shaped by their personality, culture, history and values, however the opposite is also true, someone’s personal, cultural, historical and social contexts and values, their personal aspects, can also be shaped by the discoveries they make, with discovery acting as the journey towards a change in one’s personal aspects. This is true of the film, “Life of Pi,” directed by Ang Lee and the illustration, “Self Help,” by Michael Leunig. The most striking features of the film is Pi’s faith to God and his connection with religion. His discovery and spirituality rely on each other, depicted as a gradual progression that spans his life, his childhood all the way to his time with Richard Parker on the life
for coming as a fish to save him. “Even when God seemed to have abandoned me … indifferent to my suffering, He was watching; and when I was beyond all of hope of saving, He gave me rest, and gave me a sign to continue my journey.” This quote portrays how Pi felt that God was with him every time, and that is why he is willing to live and not give up. He prayed and prayed as he believes that it is one of the keys to
Adversity has the effect of evoking abilities which, in booming circumstances, would have lain dormant. Through adversity we come to see ourselves grow and advance as individuals, and realize our true potential. In retrospect, we see Pi overcoming fear and loss and realizing what he is capable of and his potential as one of God's disciples. Adversity brings out the finest in people, the most magnifcant qualities and abilities that a person can possess. Yann Martel expresses through this writing that people fall victim to adversity all the time, but our understanding for different situations makes us able to determine our capabilities as individuals. Pi has many potential talents and abilities that he just hasn't uncovered yet and could use to survive. Throughout the novel Pi goes through many life changing experiences, overcomes many obstacles and pushes his limits. Like when Pi catches the fish and kills it for the first time. He's hesitant and begins to fret over it, but he soon comes to realize that in order for him to survive he has...
In conclusion, the main idea in Life of Pi is that having the will to survive is a key component to survival. The three ways this is shown is through symbolism of the colour orange, having religion on the protagonist’s side and the thirst and hunger experienced by the protagonist. Things do not always happen the way one would want them to happen: “Things didn’t turn out the way they were supposed to, but what can you do? You must take life the way it comes at you and make the best of it” (101) Faith determines ones destiny and nothing can be changed about that, one can live their life to the fullest and enjoy every moment and not regret it. No matter what faith throws at one, as long as they have the will to survive they can pull through anything.