...In Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, and Isabel Allende’s The House of Spirits, both employ magic realism in their novels. Isabel Allende, a Chilean writer, is well known for writing in this style. Many of her books incorporate this genre. Yann Martel, a novelist born in Spain, only uses this style of writing in this one book. Both authors are able to integrate this unique style of writing into these novels to help express their themes. Magic Realism is a “chiefly Latin-American narrative strategy that is characterized by the matter-of-fact inclusion of fantastic or mythical elements into seemingly realistic fiction”. It is a unique style of writing most commonly used by Latin American authors. This genre is also being applied to art. The term now can apply to paintings. It was created in the early 1900’s by a German writer but shifted to Latin America where it is still most commonly found today. In Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, magic realism is present throughout Pi’s long journey in the Pacific Ocean. The ship, Tsimtsum, that he and his family are traveling on sank and he was the lone survivor. He was tossed onto a lifeboat with some animals from his family’s zoo. Two and a half days into his adventure, Pi discovered that he was not the only one on it. “How I had failed to notice for two and a half days a 450-pound Bengal tiger in a lifeboat twenty-six feet long was a conundrum I would have to try to crack later, when I had more energy. The feet surely made Richard Parker the largest...
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...away, belongings stolen, friends and family killed. Two such accounts of this immense tragedy are Elie Wiesel's autobiographical story, Night, and Yann Martel’s fictional tale, Life of Pi. Faced with grief, the main characters of both books overcome their hardships through a beacon of hope, a tremendous determination, and a courage that nobody should ever need to possess. In Night, the main character and author of the book, Elie Wiesel, is taken from his home and put into a concentration camp run by Hitler’s Nazi party, along with his family and his fellow passengers. When they first arrive, his mother and sister are taken away to be slaughtered, and his father succumbs to dysentery later on. Toward the very end of the story, the camp is liberated, and he is taken to a hospital to have the injuries he suffered at the camp treated. He has the opportunity to look into a mirror for the first...
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...Yann Martel’s novel, ‘Life of Pi’ is about the protagonist Piscine Molitor Patel, a 16 year old boy who has been stranded in the Pacific Ocean for 227 days with only the company of animals. A zebra, hyena, orangutan and a Bengal tiger, all which are trying to survive on a lifeboat. In ‘Life of Pi’ survival is a key theme and along with survival goes hope. Pi evolves into a different person by the end of the novel as he has adapted to the unfortunate circumstance. Pi’s family had made the decision to move to Canada with various animals from their zoo in Pondicherry, aboard the Tsimtsum. The Tsimtsum sinks leaving Pi to be the lone survivor, spare the mentioned animals. Having the presence of animals adds to the stress of survival, as Pi does not only need to keep himself alive he feels the need to keep all the animals alive and from harming him. To Pi, at...
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...Even though the act of surviving and living can share common factors, In Life of Pi, Pi tells a story of survival compared to Big Fish where Edward Bloom tells a story of life and is conveyed as two completely different lifestyles. Pi tells his story as he has to do anything to be alive, and overcoming many obstacles such as staying alive with all the animals on the raft with him and changing his beliefs, developing as a character mentally and physically, in order to survive. Edward Bloom tells his story as how he makes his life better by chasing the girl of his dreams just so he can be happy, Edward does not develop as character, he continues his beliefs of storytelling and maintains his emotions as a joyful and positive man. In many situations...
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...Thrive Throughout the book, Life of Pi, the main character Pi is placed in an extremely precarious situation which requires tremendous ingenuity, intuitiveness and responsive to higher guidance. This in turn, requires the growth of his person and faith. Pi undergoes a marked transformation in maturity, discernment and faith, all of which procure his survival. As time and situations continue to present themselves, it is in the becoming of Pi’s highest self which inevitability secures his existence. Pi undergoes a tremendous development and maturity of his character. Pi learns to fully accept and overcome his situation. The death of Pi’s family has a huge impact on how his character develops acceptance. “…It was not only the day that died and the poor zebra, but my family as well. With that second sunset, disbelief gave way to pain and grief. They were dead; I could no longer deny it”(Martel 160). Pi’s overwhelming grief leads him to a place of being striped of all external support. He must first accept how he will respond and grow through it. Without this situation thrust upon him, he would not have been forced or “gifted” with the opportunity to develop into full maturity as an individual separate from his family. Pi is placed in a horrific situation, which actually “gifts” him with the opportunity to grow in the midst of challenge, choose for himself who he will become and how he will respond, and subsequently experience transformation. Pi moves beyond his grief so that...
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...Hui-Fen Hsu The Heroic Pattern in Life of Pi 95 The Heroic Pattern in Life of Pi Hui-Fen Hsu Applied English Department National Taichung University of Science and Technology Lecturer Abstract This paper examines the universal structure of a mythological hero’s adventure in Life of Pi. The theory is based on Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces, which illustrated and distilled heroic patterns from various cultures. The hero’s journey has three stages: separation, initiation, and return. Answering a call to adventure, the hero departs from his familiar world and ventures into a region of supernatural wonder. Miraculous forces are encountered there and a decisive victory is won. He then returns from this mysterious land, bringing an elixir to bene¿t his fellow men. Through this journey of trials, the hero transforms his former self and achieves spiritual growth. Such heroes range from monster slayers to spiritual leaders such as the Buddha and Christ. Life of Pi is a fantasy adventure novel about an Indian boy who survives a shipwreck by drifting on a lifeboat with a tiger. His adventure ¿ts Joseph Campbell’s hero archetype. Similar to the mythological hero, Pi departs from his familiar land of India, answering the call for adventure to a new country. Protected by the supernatural powers of Hinduism, Catholicism, and Islam, he penetrates the dangerous and mysterious realm of the Pacific Ocean. After experiencing harsh ordeals, he returns...
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...Acclaim for Yann Martel's Life of Pi "Life of Pi is not just a readable and engaging novel, it's a finely twisted length of yarn— yarn implying a far-fetched story you can't quite swallow whole, but can't dismiss outright. Life of Pi is in this tradition—a story of uncertain veracity, made credible by the art of the yarn-spinner. Like its noteworthy ancestors, among which I take to be Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver's Travels, the Ancient Mariner, Moby Dick and Pincher Martin, it's a tale of disaster at sea coupled with miraculous survival—a boys' adventure for grownups." —Margaret Atwood, The Sunday Times (London) "A fabulous romp through an imagination by turns ecstatic, cunning, despairing and resilient, this novel is an impressive achievement. . . . Martel displays the clever voice and tremendous storytelling skills of an emerging master." —Publisher's Weekly (starred review) "[Life of Pi] has a buoyant, exotic, insistence reminiscent of Edgar Allen Poe's most Gothic fiction. . . . Oddities abound and the storytelling is first-rate. Yann Martel has written a novel full of grisly reality, outlandish plot, inventive setting and thought-provoking questions about the value and purpose of fiction." —The Edmonton journal "Martel's ceaselessly clever writing . . . [and] artful, occasionally hilarious, internal dialogue . . . make a fine argument for the divinity of good art." —The Gazette "Astounding and beautiful. . . . The book is a pleasure not only for the subtleties of its philosophy...
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