Yann Martel's Survival

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Having strong mental health is a key to one's survival. Life of Pi by Yann Martel features a character named Pi Patel who is fighting for survival in the Pacific Ocean. He is faced with the challenge of meeting his physical, spiritual, and emotional needs. For Pi, meeting emotional needs is more important for survival than meeting physical and spiritual needs because when his emotional needs are met, he is able to maintain purpose and sanity and his survival is lengthened. Pi meeting his emotional needs brings him the ability to make logical and intelligent decisions regarding his survival. One way he meets his emotional needs is by identifying what motivates him and what gives him reasons to keep living. One motivation Pi has to keep living

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    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.

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  • Life Of Pi And Unbroken Essay

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    The demand to survive in an extreme environment encourages certain individuals to proceed to live their life despite the hardships they may face. In the novels, Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, and Life of Pi by Yann Martel, the individuals must discover what it takes to obtain the will to survive in these extreme environments they are presented with. Thus, resulting in comparisons between their mental states (internal challenges), and contrasts between their physical states (external challenges) by Louie Zamperini and Piscine Molitor Patel (Pi).

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

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    ...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.

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

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    In drastic situations, human psychology uses coping mechanisms to help them through it. In the novel, Life of Pi by Yann Martel, Pi’s coping mechanism is his religions and his projection of Richard Parker. Martel’s Life of Pi shows how the projection of Richard Parker played a greater role in keeping Pi alive in comparison to his beliefs in his religions. During the period in which Pi was stranded on the lifeboat, Richard Parker kept Pi aware, helped Pi make the right decisions, and was Pi’s sub-consciousness.

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

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    A quick glance at Life of Pi and a reader may take away the idea that it is an easy read and a novel full of imagination, but take a Freudian view of the work and it transforms into a representation of the human psyche. Martel’s novel takes the reader on a journey with Pi as he struggles for his own survival. Pi experiences a breakdown of each component that makes up one's personality, according to Freud throughout the novel. One by one, ego and super ego both express a huge factor in Pi’s choices and emotions throughout his story. Readers are also introduced to an alternate ending to choose from.

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  • In Order to Survive; One Must Give Up their Morals

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    “All living things contain a measure of madness that moves them in strange, sometimes inexplicable ways. This madness can be saving; it is part and parcel of the ability to adapt. Without it, no species would survive” (Martel 44-45). Inside every human being, there is an extremely primal and animalistic trait that can surface when the will to survive becomes greater than the morals of the person. This trait allows humans to overcome their fear to do things which they wouldn’t normally be able to do in order to survive when they’re in extreme peril and in a do or die situation. Throughout the book, Life of Pi, survival is a dominant and central theme. The will to survive changes people and this includes the main character of the story, Piscine Molitor Patel. Survival will even change the most timid, religious, and law-abiding people. Yann Martel, using Pi as an example, tries to explain that all humans must do three things in order to survive a life threatening event: one must give up their morals, one must find a way to keep sane, and one must be ready to compromise and sacrifice.

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  • Life Of Pi Adversity Analysis

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    To overcome adversity is a part of life. Havelock Ellis wrote once “Pain and death are a part of life. To reject them is to reject life itself.” Throughout life one faces many challenges; psychological, emotional and physical. These challenges have the power to strengthen a person or to break them down completely. In Life of Pi Yann Martel illustrates exceeding one’s physical limitations and overcoming the greatest adversity of all; the fight against one’s mind and heart. Pi’s outlook on life is greatly shaped by the time he spent at sea combating the forces of unforgiving nature and the forces of his own relentless mind.

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  • Life of Pi, by Yann Martel

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    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...

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  • Adaptation In Life Of Pi

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    “You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” Adapting to a new situation or experience like violent crashing waves can be difficult. Nevertheless, a person needs to learn how to surf in order to outlast the pounding waves. In a similar fashion, individuals need to learn how to adapt to a challenging situation in order to survive. This idea of the significance of adapting to new situations is often explored in literature. In the novel, Life of Pi, Yann Martel makes powerful use of character development to suggest that individuals may be able to adapt to situations in life through a sense of determination, or through denying reality and using their imagination instead.

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  • The Human Struggle in Yann Martel's Life of Pi

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    Humans generally face struggles in their lifetime. Such struggles could be within themselves or with someone or something else but commonly stem from some sort of opposition in lifestyle. In Yann Martel’s novel, Life of Pi, Pi’s passion for personal survival conflicts with his moral obligations to himself internally, morphing his external character.

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  • Theme Of Dualism In Life Of Pi

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    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.

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  • Trauma In Life Of Pi

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    There are sure occasions in life that can change a man. At the point when a man experiences traumatic occasions, their intuitive has a strategy to deceive them into envisioning occasions that have not transpired. In Life of Pi, Yann Martel develops two stories about the primary character Pi. One included creatures and other involved people. The two stories that Pi tells are alike, Pi just supplanted creatures with people. This gives us a more profound knowledge into Pi's subconscious and his strategy for managing Trauma and struggle caused by his excursion. This topic is clear throughout the novel since when the ship sinks, trauma causes Pi to slip into a frenzy.

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  • The Life of Pi Reflection

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    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...

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  • Symbolism and Survival in Life of Pi, Yann Martel

    940 Words  | 2 Pages

    Imagine being stranded in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in a lifeboat, not alone but with some carnivorous animals, as company. The chances of survival do not seem so high, but when one has the will to survive, they can do anything to attain it. Pi Patel and his family are on their way to Canada from Pondicherry, India, when their cargo ship the Tsimtsum sinks. Pi is not the only survivor of the ship, along with him is a hyena, an injured zebra, an orangutan and a 450-pound orange Bengal tiger. Pi travels across the Pacific Ocean in only a lifeboat, with food dwindling quickly, he needs to find land and most of all survive the voyage. In Life of Pi; Yann Martel develops the idea that having the will to survive is a crucial key to survival; this is demonstrated through symbolism of the colour orange, having religion on the protagonist’s side and the thirst and hunger experienced by the protagonist.

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