Yann Martel's Unconscious Mind

This book presents the relationship between human and animal behaviors and the behavior that is now created by our modern day society. The mind has two main parts. There is the conscious mind and the unconscious mind. The unconscious mind is the better half, yet it is potentially threatening; therefore, the conscious mind is aware at all times. The unconscious mind influences your behavior in many ways. Pi experiences both of these minds. Pi is consciously planning his survival and how he was going to spend his food, so he didn’t run out. His conscious mind contributed to Pi surviving at sea. Consequently, when Pi`s father fed a goat to a tiger to prove a point, he was unaware that this event changed his personality brutally. He became more

ferocious, and Pi unconsciously turned into someone else when he was food deprived. He was unaware of this, because he was trying to keep himself alive. By saying this, throughout this psychoanalytic approach of Life of Pi, we will be talking about the Iceberg Theory and how it relates to Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, Abraham Maslow’s Human Motivation Theory with its own hierarchy, and the Pavlov Theory consists of conditioning.
The Iceberg Theory states that the soul of an individual is shaped like an iceberg.

The mind is divided into three parts, the id, the ego, and the superego. The part of the mind which is visible for all to see is the superego and the ego. Both the ego and the superego are rational parts of the mind. The id is said to be the only part of the mind that we are born with. Martel used the iceberg theory to depict the real survival struggle Pi had to go through. “Tears flowing down my cheeks, I egged myself on until I heard a cracking sound and I no longer felt any life fighting in my hands. I pulled back the folds of the blanket. The flying fish was dead. It was split open and bloody on one side of its head, at the level of the gills.” (231) In this moment it is Pi’s superego, his conscience fighting his id. His superego is wanting so badly not to kill an innocent animal, but his id is saying you need to do this to survive. This is the point where Pi’s superego is being used less and less until it is not used whatsoever. Pi’s ego is reality, it is rational thinking and his true personality. “I had to stop hoping so much that a ship would rescue me. I should not count on outside help. Survival had to start with me. In my experience, a castaway’s worst mistake is to hope too much and do too little. Survival starts by paying attention to what is close at hand and immediate. To look out with idle hope is tantamount to dreaming one’s life away.” (212) The last part of

the Iceberg Theory is the id. Richard Parker is essentially the id in the Life of Pi. “I held on to one thought: Richard Parker. I hatched several plans to get rid of him so that the lifeboat might be mine.” (198) Pi wants to get rid of the feeling of being animalistic. His superego is coming out in this quote, attempting to fight the primitive behavior, although his ego knows that this is what is best for him. Richard Parker is Pi’s instincts, he symbolizes the animal inside Pi, that needed to come out in order for him to survive being stranded in the ocean. Richard Parker--the id--took complete control over Pi’s mine, pushing the superego and ego away. Pi’s moral values and strict upbringing was disregarded and Pi became a wild beast. I find the way Yann Martel uses the Iceberg Theory in the Life of Pi is interesting.
The next theory, we will be discussing is the theory of human motivation.

Abraham Maslow proposed this theory with its own hierarchy. The hierarchy has a pyramid made of five levels. The five levels are physiological needs, safety, love, esteem, and self-actualization. Once you have satisfied the physiological needs you move on to safety. Pi was motivated to stay alive by fear of dying or being killed. Richard Parker had a big impact on this. “I must say a word about fear. It is life’s only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life.” (203) Pi did not want to give up on his life so easily. He wanted to survive this painful

tragedy.
The last and final theory, we will be discussing is the Pavlov theory. Pavlov’s theory was based on conditioning. His theory suggests that the association with the unconditioned stimulus is made with the conditioned stimulus within the brain, but without the conscious part of the mind. Pi represents this theory by training Richard Parker. He used the whistle to condition Richard. Pi gives Richard the impression that he needs, Pi in order to survive. Therefore, he manipulated Richard’s mind by sharing his food and water. Pi came up with a training program with just using a whistle, food, and water. Furthermore, he commanded him to drink from a pail and do tricks by jumping through a hoop. Pi let Richard Parker know that he was the alpha, with doing this he was able to survive on a lifeboat with Richard. Pi also conditioned Richard by messing with his feces. Richard Parker started relying on Pi to survive. With saying this, the Palvol theory is clearly shown in Life of Pi.
In conclusion, Pi’s soul is shaped like an iceberg. He struggles throughout the book to deal with his ego, superego, and id. The superego and ego part of his mind was fighting against the id part of his mind. He had a hard fight to survive and made it through it. Throughout this story Pi became more ferocious. As stated in Maslow’s Human Motivation, Pi was motivated to live by fear. Pi also consciously manipulated Richard’s mind. He gained the courage to step up and show Richard Parker, who the alpha of the boat was. In doing this, he survived 217 days lost at sea, and was only sixteen-years-old. This is why we think Pi went border line insane while being stranded at sea.