...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...
Words: 2302 - Pages: 10
...in these crucial situations would flow from their desires and needs and their emotions and psychological state of mind. A concern is raised when we try to find a positive correlation between following one’s moral compass and the success of survival; which there is none. If one does not succumb to their survival instincts – that kick in to aid in an unfamiliar situation – you cannot survive. In Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, Pi Patel is faced with despairing hardship when the ship he has boarded sinks and he is led astray on a lifeboat with four wild animals along with him. Furthermore, Pi faces the issue of morality versus survival which is especially difficult for him because of his religious nature, the usage of Richard Parker as an emotional and psychological crutch to get through this chaotic circumstance and also, the constant fixation on food and the lack of it. Being lost at sea gives the story a perspective very different from the normal life of Pi Patel. Pi’s will to survive coordinates with his loss of spiritual purity – though those acts of survival are needed for Pi to thrive, in which societal norms of behavior are irrelevant when ones sole priority is to survive in a circumstance that is nearly impossible to overcome. Morality and survival do not go hand and hand in dire circumstances. In order to survive, you must lose your morality and do things to survive that are far from your usual behavior. In Pi’s case he was forced to eat feces and walk around naked to accommodate...
Words: 1626 - Pages: 7
...Everything Is Best “One day a disciple was walking through the marketplace. He overheard a customer say to the butcher, ‘Give me the best piece of meat you have.’ The butcher replied, ‘Everything in my shop is the best. You cannot find any piece of meat that is not the best.’ At these words, the disciple received enlightenment.” — Zen koan Reviewing Yann Martel’s astounding Life of Pi is a great deal like trying to solve Zen koans, the ancient conundrums used by Buddhist teachers to facilitate their disciples in reaching a state of enlightenment. The trick of the koan is that there really isn’t one correct solution. There may be many—as many different ones as there are students seeking enlightenment—or there may be none. Who knows. The koans are simply tools to promote non-linear, out-of-the-box type thinking which will, according to the Eastern mystics, lead a seeker to a sense of oneness and harmony with the universe.Likewise, there is no one answer to the question, “What is Life of Pi about?” There will be probably be as many answers to that question as there are people who read the book. A perusal of online booksellers reveals that this book can be categorized as a survival story, a tall tale, an action piece, a work about human/animal relationships, and a fiction about (1) India, (2) adolescence, (3) zoos and zoology, and (4) the Pacific Ocean, which indicates to this reviewer that book dealers are grasping at anything they can find to define what essentially defies...
Words: 279 - Pages: 2
...Seminar Life of Pi Introduction We are all the hero of our own lives, and we are given the opportunity to make choices and decisions that ultimately affect our own personal stories. Carol Pearson, in the Hero Within says the “Heroes take journeys, confront dragons, and discover the treasure of their true selves. Although they may feel very alone during the quest, at its end their reward is a sense of community: with themselves, with other people, and with the earth.” The Life of Pi is a wonderful story about the voyage of life and learning for Piscine Molitor Patel, a boy from Southern India we come to know as Pi. Pi’s journey has many classic elements of a monomyth quest. The values and beliefs that create the framework we follow can shape our experiences and just as importantly how we perceive our experiences. As significant as Pi’s life challenges and experiences are, the real learning for those who travel with him is how he approaches them, endures them and ultimately survives them. Our belief in Pi’s authenticity is grounded in his beliefs and perceptions of life. Thesis Statement The Life of Pi is a classic study of the Monomyth Quest. Through discussion I will prove this claim by drawing from Joseph Campbell’s description of the essential elements of the “Hero’s Journey”. The story of Pi is broken into three parts and within these distinct parts there are elements of the Call to Adventure, the Initiation and The Return will be evident supporting the claim...
Words: 1788 - Pages: 8
...After finishing the novel Life of Pi, there is one quote from the second half of the novel that has continued to circulate in my mind. For multiple chapters, the main character Pi recognizes the fear he encounters every day while stranded at sea, and contemplates how it hinders his ability to survive. During this inner monologue, he concludes that, “if your fear becomes a wordless darkness that you avoid…you open yourself to further attacks of fear because you never truly fought the opponent who defeated you” (Martel, 179). Pi has realized that in order to conquer his fear he cannot continue to hide from it. He must be brave and face what he is afraid of if he wishes to survive, or else this fear will build until it is too difficult for him to overcome. This quote is so memorable to me because this is something I learned when I was struggling with social anxiety. In grade eight, I used to skip as much school as possible in order to avoid any and all situations that could possibly strike my anxiety. However, I quickly discovered that this was not a good idea. Every class that I did not attend for fear of my anxiety, I missed a chance to grasp and control it, effectively allowing it to snowball out of control. I think that Pi’s thoughts on the topic of fear are of vital importance to everybody. When one avoids their fear, they are essentially feeding the fire. One must try their best in this internal battle, as when they do nothing they are giving fear what it needs to grow stronger...
Words: 1306 - Pages: 6
...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...
Words: 104639 - Pages: 419
...VISUAL ESSAY: LIFE OF PI To quote Pi Patel, "I will not die. I refuse it. I will make it through this nightmare", cites that when Pi is on the verge of giving up his inner monologue fuels his determination to live. The general argument made by Mr. Yann Martel in his work "Life of Pi" is that determination keeps you alive. More specifically, Martel argues that determination is significant in everyone's life to overcome challenges and achieve one's goal. Determination helps overcome one’s fear. As for Pi, fear is "life's only true opponent" that shakes your foundation which needs to be faced. Living in a lifeboat for 227 days in the middle of the ocean with a vicious Bengal tiger, one can learn to deal with fear in determination to survive. At the moment when Pi acknowledges his thirst he desperately looked for supplies in Richard Parker's den, "Thirst pushed me". Realizing that in order for him to survive he needs to live with Richard Parker in the boat. Pi took practical steps to deal with Richard Parker, “I had to tame him. It was at that moment that I realized this necessity”. Pi established his dominance to Richard Parker Pi and uses a whistle to serve as his taming device to Richard Parker. Pi doesn't just overcome his fear of Richard Parker but he unexpectedly made Richard Parker his sole companion, he "who brought me peace,purpose, I dare I say even wholeness". Religious faith gives strength to an individual’s determination to live. Pi was a very devout person who just...
Words: 613 - Pages: 3
...The novel that I chose to read was Life of Pi by Yann Martel. The story is centered around the life of an Indian boy named Piscine Molitor Patel who grew up living the life of a zookeeper’s son. During his teenage years “Pi” Patel has many contemplations of the existence of God and eventually, in order to get closer to God, becomes devout Christian and Muslim on top of being a devout Hindu. Before Pi reaches adulthood his parents decide to sell the zoo and its animals and use the money to start a new life in Canada. The cargo ship that his family—a father, mother, and a teasing older brother named Ravi—is traveling on sinks during a storm and he is thrown on a lifeboat which is soon occupied by a hyena, zebra, orangutan, and a Bengal tiger...
Words: 289 - Pages: 2
...Madison Jordan Phil 101 The life of pie Based on the best-selling novel by Yann Martel, this remarkable film is an adventure set in the land of magical realism, and centers on an Indian boy named Pi Patel, the son of a cautious zoo keeper. The family decides to move from India to Canada, bringing many of the animals with them. When the vessel carrying the family hits a storm, Pi is left adrift on a lifeboat, lost in the Pacific Ocean, in the company of a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan and a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker – all striving in a ugly competition for survival. Some of the animals kill and eat each other, and Pi himself goes from being a vegetarian to eating meat in desperation. At the end, Pi and the tiger are the only survivors and they both go their own way to living life. Pi is later questioned by Japanese investigators and when he gives them the animal story, they don’t quite take it as realistic. The boy then gives them alternative story, without the tiger and the other animals; instead…with a sailor with a broken leg, a French cook, Pi, and Pi’s mother. This story seem to be unsatisfying but acceptable to the investigators as they leave Pi alone. Later in life Pi is visited by an author who wants to write about Pi’s journey in the ocean. Pi shares with him both stories and then simply asks the author, “Which story do you prefer?” The author clearly chooses the story with the tiger, and Pi’s response to that is “And so it goes with God.” ...
Words: 922 - Pages: 4
...quote Pi Patel, "I will not die. I refuse it. I will make it through this nightmare", cites that when Pi is on the verge of giving up his inner monologue fuels his determination to live. The general argument made by Mr. Yann Martel in his work "Life of Pi" is that determination keeps you alive. More specifically, Martel argues that determination is significant in everyone's life to overcome challenges and achieve one's goal. Determination helps overcome one’s fear. As for Pi, fear is "life's only true opponent" that shakes your foundation which needs to be faced. Living in a lifeboat for 227 days in the middle of the ocean with a vicious Bengal tiger, one can learn to deal with fear in determination to survive. At the moment when Pi acknowledges his thirst he desperately looked for supplies in Richard Parker's den, "Thirst pushed me". Realizing that in order for him to survive he needs to live with Richard Parker in the boat. Pi took practical steps to deal with Richard Parker, “I had to tame him. It was at that moment that I realized this necessity”. Pi established his dominance to Richard Parker Pi and uses a whistle to serve as his taming device to Richard Parker. Pi doesn't just overcome his fear of Richard Parker but he unexpectedly made Richard Parker his sole companion, he "who brought me peace,purpose, I dare I say even wholeness". Religious faith gives strength to an individual’s determination to live. Pi was a very devout person who just loves God. Pi told his...
Words: 608 - Pages: 3
...The Life of Pi, by Yann Martel, is about a 16-year old boy who is stranded in the Pacific Ocean for 227 days. He is accompanied by a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena and a Bengal tiger, all fighting for survival on a tiny raft. Yann Martel uses characters to show that the absence of hope can either weaken a character or allow the character to realize that perseverance is needed to make him/her stronger. Pi’s evolution as a character is portrayed throughout his journey at sea: at first he is scared, fearful and is mourning the painful loss of his family. Though, as days pass, he learns to adapt with his surroundings and becomes courageous and intelligent with his lifestyle at sea. His relationship with the tiger, Richard Parker, also evolves from fear and hate to admiration and love. When Pi’s family decides to make a life in Canada, this leads Pi and his family to take aboard the Tsimtsum along with the many animals from their family zoo. One night the ship sinks and Pi is forced to take aboard a rescue boat, and later realizes that he is to share it with multiple animals. The presence of animals adds to the amount of trouble Pi must handle now that he is stranded at sea. All hope seems lost based on his situation, as Pi explains, “I was alone and orphaned, in the middle of the pacific… had I considered my prospects in the light of reason, I surely would have given up and let go of the oar, hoping that I might drown before being eaten” (Yann 118). Pi has already accepted the fact...
Words: 1285 - Pages: 6
...Courtney Armstrong Mr. Kerr ENG3U0-L March 30, 2014 The Journey Of Pi Patel The settings of a book determine the individualities of a character. With the journey through Pondicherry, India; the Pacific Ocean; and Tamatlan, Mexico, Pi Patel had mentally, physically and spiritually grown as a person. Each setting is a new chapter in his life, which had had an impact on new characteristics to his personality. The settings of a book are what keep the reader visually active and entertained by the use of imagery. By using specific descriptions of a setting, the reader can easily visualize what is going on in the book and why Pi has attained these characteristics through these settings. This aspect has been portrayed very well by Yann Martell as he visually interpreted the surroundings and up comings of Pi Patel and how he came to be. Pi changed important aspects of his character as he went through his undesirable adventures. Pi Patel grew up in a town named Pondicherry, located in India. He grew up with his older brother, Ravi. Ravi would much rather talk about sports to schoolwork, he was very popular in school and teased Pi continuously. Pi also grew up with his parents. His mother, Gita Patel, was a protector. His father, Santosh Patel, was very uneasy to please. Throughout the reading of part one in the novel, the audience comes to conclusion that Pi has experienced some sort of trauma in his life. However, Pi portrays himself to be a very happy kid growing up in India. He is...
Words: 270 - Pages: 2
...Life of Pi – Inquiry Essay The important thing isn’t that we can live on love alone, but that life isn’t worth living without it. In the novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel, the author shows that Richard Parker is part of Pi, and is necessary for his survival. This is shown at the end of the novel when Pi reaches Mexico with Richard Parker’s help of survival. However, there are two different versions to Pi’s story, and there is no physical proof of Richard’s existence other than his word. Life isn’t worth living without hope, Richard Parker is necessary for Pi’s survival because he gives him a reason to survive, provides companionship, keeps him from feeling hopelessness. Firstly, Richard Parker is essential for Pi’s survival. He is essential for Pi’s survival because Richard Parker has the strength and viciousness necessary to survive. In the end of the book it is revealed that Richard Parker is Pi. Richard Parker is just a figment of Pi’s imagination a creation of Pi’s mind to help him cope with seeing his mother killed and the rest of the bad experiences he had after the ship sunk. Pi created Richard in order to conjure up those traits that he needs in order to survive; Richard is strong, fierce, and terrifying, whereas Pi is complete opposite. He creates a strong fierce animal with a personality that is capable of doing things he can't, but has to in order to survive. Richard Parker is just Pi’s dark side. He keeps Pi sane, despite of his terrible deeds. In other words, he...
Words: 1658 - Pages: 7
...Life of Pi Theme of Religion At times, Life of Pi reads like a defense of religion. Has science proved religion wrong? Here's a protagonist who believes passionately in both zoology and religion. What about the fact of multiple faiths? Don't these faiths contradict each other, cause wars, and other problems? Here's a protagonist who is Muslim, Christian, and Hindu – all at the same time. The book defends not only the common spirit behind these three religions, but the rituals and ceremonies of each. It's as if all three religions find harmonious common ground in this character. Seems unlikely, but then again, the protagonist argues passionately that the miraculous happens in our darkest moments. Quote #1But I don't insist. I don't mean to defend zoos. Close them all down if you want (and let us hope that what wildlife remains can survive in what is left of the natural world). I know zoos are no longer in people's good graces. Religion faces the same problem. Certain illusions about freedom plague them both. (1.4.14) | Do zoos incarcerate animals in confined spaces and make them miserable? Pi doesn't think so: "Certain illusions about freedom" tempt us to this conclusion. In actuality, an animal's life in the wild is more circumscribed than "a knight on a chessboard" (1.4.8). Predator-prey relationships restrict the animal's movement. A zoo enclosure is actually more like a hearth for an animal: a place of comfort and rest. Likewise, most people think of religion as a restrictive...
Words: 14341 - Pages: 58
...The Life of Pi is a very fascinating fiction about a stranded boy’s voyage alone at sea with a Bengal tiger. Throughout the story the main character, Pi, is very intrigued by religion; so much that he considered himself a Hindu, Muslim, and Christian at the same time. Pi didn’t share these same views with his father who said it was all a front and science was the way to go since it was solely based on fact. In this story Pi didn’t get involved in atheism for say even though he understood it, he just stepped back and respected it because he saw himself as a believer. He has always had thought there was a God(s) there to look over him, even in his hardest hardships. Throughout this book it has seemed to me that Pi has always understood Atheism...
Words: 623 - Pages: 3
