...|Life of Pi|Real World| When? (Perspectual)| At the age of 14 he studied Islam and Christianity. 1977 was when the family decided to emigrate to Canada (Age 16)| Life of Pi was published in 2001, believed to be written late 1990’s. “Now it looks like Life of Pi was this big monumental work, but when I was writing it, I was a poor writer living in Montreal.” – (Martel Yann)Yann started writing at the age of 27. | Where? (Locational)| Pondicherry India. (Hometown.) They also own the zoo. Due to new Government policies, Pi’s father decided to sell the zoo and emigrate his family into Canada. Also, Piscine Martel, when older, was speaking of the story in Toronto.|High school- Port Hope Ontario.University- Trent University (1981) Montreal is where he wrote the fantastic novel “Life Of Pi”This problem faced can happen anywhere in this world. | Who? (Charactural)| Piscine Patel, “Pi” an Indian boy, from Pondicherry.(Brought up as a Hindu, discovers Christianity and Islam) (Has a mom, brother and father, who die in the ship wreck while traveling the Pacific Ocean) Father:Santosh Patel| Yann Martel is a Spanish born Canadian writer. (Bachelor degree for Philosophy). It affected him spiritually, but I believe the whole word was struck by his imaginative yet true journey to believe in god. | What? (Thematic)| Pi’s father is emphatic about his kids being aware of the true nature of wild life (animals). Which then lead him to believe that Pi didn’t truly understand that the animals...
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...Humility and Pi In Life of Pi, Yann Martel uses the journey of Pi out in the ocean to show us the transformation Pi goes through from a boy who is angry about the situation he is currently in to a survivor trying to survive while taking care of Richard Parker. The article Miraculous Survivors: Why they live while others die, lists humility and humbleness as a trait of a survivor. The article applies to Life of Pi because of the transformation Pi goes through in which, humbleness allows Pi to learn to appreciate Richard Parker in helping him survive while also becoming his care taker. The reason Yann Martel displays such a transformation is to make us believe in God through showing how humbleness can allow people to appreciate what they have in any situation, and that people should just take what they get because it is all in the hands of God. Pi goes...
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...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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...Reading between the lines The second story Pi was the truth leaving the first story as Pi’s way of coping with the traumatic events that happened in the life boat. Pi’s unique background gives life to all the symbolizing and double meanings, explain why the second story is true. Life of Pi is book with deep detail and description, giving a very full pictures. I think Martel uses this to his own advantage. Giving us such a layered story, makes the ending even more of a crash. With such realistic details, it seems impossible for anything other to be true. Pi also seems like a whole and true character, it makes no sense for him imagine it (Shmoop 1). Not only until I sat back ran through my notes did I realise it was staring me in the face the whole story. Almost the whole first part is about the abstraction of religion. The fact that he believes and worships three religions just screams imagination. Pi’s beliefs run wild throughout the entire book, giving his character flesh and blood. In part one, Pi tells us about his childhood. His father owned and ran a zoo, giving Pi a deep...
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...The Algae Island which is made entirely out of seaweed is extremely strange, there are freshwater ponds and at night dead fish float to the surface but disappear in the morning. The strangeness of the island made Pi believe that it was a delusion “I was getting used to the mental delusion”(Martel 257). Pi describes the island too thoroughly and spends too much time for it to be a delusion. Richard Parker is one of the most important symbolisms in the story he represents God, he protects Pi from any danger that comes his way. Richard kills the hyena, the blind man who both intended to eat him and he doesn’t harm Pi even when there is nothing else to...
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...“The color orange is the midpoint between yellow and red and is said to signify a point of balance between a person’s libido and their spirit” (Signology) In the novel The Life of Pi, the colour orange is a symbol of hope and survival. It is present through the whistle, lifebuoy, OJ, who is the orangutan and Richard Parker, who is the tiger. Orange is a symbolic colour in Hinduism. This why I believe the author used this colour because Pi is a Hindu. “If there hadn't been the lifebuoy I wouldn't have lasted a minute.” (Martel, 117) The lifebuoy saved Pi from the sinking of the Tsimstum ship. I believe Yann Martel did this because the colour orange represents survival and it shows that Secondly, the whistle is another representation of the...
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...Anthony Pulicicchio Mr. Cook ENG4U Tuesday, January 12th, 2016 Pi and his Religious Survival Throughout many novels such as, The Lord of the Flies, The Road, and Then We Were None, there were many instances where God and the values of religion came into play, as the characters had to subdue their loneliness. Many of these novels had characters whom survived solely on the life skills they were taught as a kid, or they were given assistance from God. This ideology of God relates to the novel The Life of Pi. The novel incorporates and explains the central theme of the nature of faith, and how faith is one. This is shown as the novel’s protagonist, Piscine ‘Pi’ Patel, a character that dedicates himself and practices many different types of religions such as Islam, Christianity, and Hinduism. Yann Martel makes a clear indication on how faith brings a person together and how faith and religion brought Pi to the person he is today. These 3 religions play an important role in Pi’s life as Pi refers to God many times throughout his devastating journey on the lifeboat. The novel, The Life of Pi, by Yann Martel offers and gives the reader the most accurate definition of religion, which is incorporated by simply and basically having faith. At the beginning of the novel Francis Adirubasamy states that Pi’s story of survival is “…a story that will make you believe in God” (Martel. 21). This story makes you believe the ideology of religion and notion of God due to the fact that Pi’s devotion...
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...Yann Martel: Life of Pi life of pi A NOVEL author's note This book was born as I was hungry. Let me explain. In the spring of 1996, my second book, a novel, came out in Canada. It didn't fare well. Reviewers were puzzled, or damned it with faint praise. Then readers ignored it. Despite my best efforts at playing the clown or the trapeze artist, the media circus made no difference. The book did not move. Books lined the shelves of bookstores like kids standing in a row to play baseball or soccer, and mine was the gangly, unathletic kid that no one wanted on their team. It vanished quickly and quietly. The fiasco did not affect me too much. I had already moved on to another story, a novel set in Portugal in 1939. Only I was feeling restless. And I had a little money. So I flew to Bombay. This is not so illogical if you realize three things: that a stint in India will beat the restlessness out of any living creature; that a little money can go a long way there; and that a novel set in Portugal in 1939 may have very little to do with Portugal in 1939. I had been to India before, in the north, for five months. On that first trip I had come to the subcontinent completely unprepared. Actually, I had a preparation of one word. When I told a friend who knew the country well of my travel plans, he said casually, "They speak a funny English in India. They like words like bamboozle." I remembered his words as my plane started its descent towards Delhi, so the word bamboozle ...
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... U2A3: The Hero Quotation: “Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can. But life leaps over oblivion lightly, losing only a thing or two of no importance and gloom is but the passing shadow of a cloud.” (Martel). 1) This quotation spoke to me while I was reading the book because when I put thought into it, I thought that it was a brilliant portrayal of life itself. As we grow individually, we start to learn more and develop more. There are many theories of development and it can be defined as the series of age-related changes that happen over the course of a life span. By this stage in my life I have come to realize that many people are taken too soon from us, that we lose important things in our life, and that we may be sad about it for a while but sadness and gloom are just a “…passing shadow of a cloud,” (Martel) everything is eventually going to be okay and the sun will soon shine when the shadow passes. NOTE: The variation of stage theories all share three similar characteristics: 1. People pass through stages in a specific order, with each stage building on capacities developed in the previous stage. 2. Stages are related to age. 3. Development is discontinuous, with qualitatively different capacities emerging in each stage. 2) Since development is in stages related to age I think that I have grown to learn about this through my life experiences. For example, I have lost...
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...Conflicts in Life of Pi Gary Chen Trinity Western University Teacher: Andy Casali July 25, 2011 Literary Analysis of Conflicts in Life of Pi Yann Martel (2001) reveals a story about a young boy’s conflicts in his novel, “Life of Pi”. Pi is the main character who has experiences of legendary in this story. The main plots of this story are happened in the Pacific Ocean. Pi is an Indian boy who moves from Indian to Canada with his family by boat. His father owned a zoo when their live in Indian. Pi learns a lot of knowledge about animals from his father. As political instability in India, Pi’s family decides to move to Canada. Unfortunately, their ship sank in the Pacific, and only Pi and a tiger Richard Parker survive. The story shows us that Pi how to survive with a tiger in a lifeboat through the conflicts between Pi and others, and Pi and environment. Pi has a conflict with his parents and three wise men because of he believes three religions at the same time. When he asks his father that he believes three religions, he father says, “You [cannot] be both. You must be either one or the other… They [are] separate religions! They have nothing in common” (p.91). His father thinks Pi is just an ignorant and childish boy. His father thinks only believing one god is the pious performance. Every religion is independent, because every religion has its own background and history. His mother also thinks that he must be either “a Hindu, a Christian or a Muslim” (p .93). Pi is an...
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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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...tiger in a life raft and tyrannical pigs can give readers a very strong message about their lives. Animal Farm was written as a warning about governmental collapse and tyrants taking advantage of power. Through the story of the rise of evil pigs in the hierarchy of a new system of government in the farm, it portrays a clear message about tyrannical government. Life of Pi also tries to get the reader’s attention, though it tries to urge the reader into having faith in religion rather than warn them. With animals and numbers, the story of a boy stuck at sea guides the reader into understanding the power that religion can give to those who have faith. Both Animal Farm and Life of Pi use the beast...
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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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...The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, published in 1945, and The Life of Pi, written by Yann Martel, and published in 2001, both focus on a teenage boy going on an adventure. The adventures each boy face are very different but also have many themes in common. In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield gets kicked out of school and decides to stay in New York for a few days before the end of the semester, he discovers many things and has many new experiences. In The Life of Pi, while Pi and his family are moving to Canada from India by boat, the boat sinks in a storm which leaves Pi alone on a lifeboat with a bengal tiger. After many challenges and difficulties Pi eventually does make it to Canada where he lives out his life. The thing that makes these two...
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...magazine article, Tracy reflects on the meaning of life. It’s focused towards people that spend countless hours contemplating their reason to be on this Earth. Some people believe that they were created to perform a duty, task or have an effect on something in any way. It also talks about the ideas of where religious thoughts and ideas fit into one’s search for their life quest, if in fact it does at all. The article “Quest for Meaning is about the Journey, Not the Destination” was very useful and an interesting read towards my thesis topic. I made a connection with this piece because the writer went to Pi to hear a story that will make him believe in God and faith. It was interesting because when one is on a self-seeking journey as Pi was (and we all ultimately are) sometimes you find yourself dwelling if religion plays a part in your evaluation. The people that are drawn more towards the first story told by Pi are the ones that do. I also liked this article because I felt that Pi’s literal journey was also inevitably a psychological one like this article focuses on. Cole, Stewart. "Believing in Tigers: Anthropomorphism and Incredulity in Yann Martel’s Life of Pi." Studies in Canadian Literature / Études en littérature canadienne [Online], 29.2 (2004): n. pag. Web. 6 Nov. 2013 Believing in Tigers is a thoroughly abstract review on Life of Pi and giving you information on the first story told by Pi. The narrator (Pi) who has studied multiple religions implies a difference...
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