Argumentative Writing: Life Of Pi By Yann Martel

Pi is alone with Richard Parker on the lifeboat and they both starve and suffer with dehydration. Pi starts catching fishes for both of them. He always gives the biggest share to Richard Parker as he is the strongest. One day, he decides to eat the largest part. He wants to calm his desire for hunger. He does not want to share anything with Richard Parker. Pi starts eating like an animal. Pi tells, “It came as an unmistakable indication to me of how I had sunk the day I noticed, with a pinching of the heart, that I ate like an animal” (Martel 183). The innocent boy is now as dangerous as an animal that can do anything for the food. His yearning for food makes him selfish. It is in pi’s hand not to sacrifices his integrity, but he chooses to sacrifice because he knows that at this critical situation it is right to do. Even though Pi loses his integrity, he gains the power of being the strongest one on the

This text allowed me to write a summary of the novel in a way that I felt would do it justice. By using imagery I was able to create a unifying voice. This text shows how making the wrong move due to ones selfishness could eventually ruin their life and attempting to fix it would be very hard and they would have to sacrifice a lot. Hosseini has developed the essential question of choice influencing direction of life through the use of Amir. Amir sacrifices his friend for his own selfish desire to not get beat up but in the end he redeems himself by going out of his way and saving Sohrab. Hossieni has showed us how Amir not helping Hassan in the alley and Amir helping Sohrab, as an act of redemption, has changed his life.

Life of Pi was a well written novel with an interesting story line. The authors syntax and use of metaphors make the book a great read. Of all the books that we have read this year, Life of Pi sparked the most conversation outside of school on what the book meant, and which story was true. The novel provides two stories. The story that the majority of the book follows has Pi stranded with Richard Parker, a hyena, an orangutan, and a zebra. At the end of the book, Pi provides an alternate story after the men interviewing him state their disbelief of his original story. This second version equates each animal to a human that had been aboard the Tsimtsum. The hyena was the cook aboard the ship, the orangutan was the mother,

Pi kills a fish for the first time and that experience has changed him. At first, Pi was upset about his actions but sees that one must do what they must to survive. Pi desperately will do whatever is needed in order to survive even if that means doing things he never imagined himself doing.

Freedom: the state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint. This is the most common definition of freedom which accentuates that freedom is solely based on boundaries. However, throughout the novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel, this definition is constantly being changed and revised by the main character, Pi. Throughout the book, this theme of freedom occurs often in different shapes and forms. At first, Pi emphasizes that freedom for animals is not always defined by barriers and that there are many other restrictions even when an animal is in the wild. However, as the novel advances, he unknowingly has to alter his definition to accommodate himself as well.

Everybody has their own opinions. Everybody has their own perspectives. Martel uses symbolism to effectively explain how everybody has a unique perspective. There are three main symbols that Martel uses to explain his idea. The first is that two people can be completely different but both can see the beauty in things.

“It is simple and brutal: a person can get used to anything, even to killing.” (Martel 205) This quote describes how even though Pi despaired his first killing of the fish because he took a life, he now becomes delighted at the idea of killing fish; he even has hunter’s pride now. This displays how Pi loses a part of his morality because of the decisions that he had to make in order to survive because he did not have anyone to confide in or talk to in order to stay grounded to who he is. “He gave me life, my own, but at the expense of taking one. He ripped the flesh off the man’s frame and cracked his bones. The smell of blood filled my nose. Something in me died then that has never come back to life.” (Martel 283) This is a dark moment for Pi as he experiences an awful event, which causes him to lose the morality that he had during his

In this article the meaning of Existentialism is explained as the author, Randall Niles, describes how existentialism is a 20th century philosophy that centers itself on the analysis of human existence. He explains the popular slogan “existence precedes essence” by the very first founders of Existentialism, Jean Paul Sartre. The notion of the slogan is described by explaining how humans come into existence when they are first born, and spend their lifetime changing their essence and nature so it satisfies them. The philosophy of Existentialism is further analysed by explaining how humans find themselves and the ultimate meaning of their life by acknowledging their responsibility and making decisions accordingly. Moreover, it also explains

Pi is forced to give up his compassion for all of earth’s creatures and in doing so gives up part of his humanity too. The existence of Richard Parker gives Pi a way to transfer his guilt for the acts he’s committed unto another being, an animal, it’s okay for Richard Parker to be savage because it is his nature he only cares about survival, therefore, it’s okay for him to commit acts that Pi would consider morally repugnant such as murdering the blind French sailor they come upon at sea. (cite) The French sailor Pi randomly comes upon in the middle of the ocean is most likely a version of the French sailor Pi refers to in his second telling of his survival story (cite) in this version of Pi’s story he recalls brutally murdering the Frenchman and even resorting to cannibalism. Pi himself cannot admit to committing such a heinous act because it goes against his core beliefs so he chooses to shift the blame to Richard Parker who is merely acting of instinct and eliminating a threat as well as providing himself with enough sustenance to continue

Pi (and by extension, the author, Yann Martel) seems to think that what should compel one to believe a story is whether the story is a good one – whether it helps readers “see higher or further or differently”. Story and narrative automatically cause viewpoint, or perspective. Perspective as a literary device is a result of stories with framed narration. Is this narrator trustworthy, asks the reader in that ageless dilemma, can I believe what is written? As a form of narration, it both enriches and challenges perspectives on truth. Truth, it seems to say, can also be multi-faceted, appearing in many viewpoints.

He is most likely frighted by this idea because he lived with animals and woke up with them every single day throughout his childhood. However when he is put in a situation where he needs to fight for survival, he needs to change his eating habits. Pi tried for a very long time to stay away from consuming animals, but at one point he realized in order to stay alive, he needed to eat his first ever animal. When reminiscing about the event he said, “You may be astonished that in such a short period of time I could go from weeping over the muffled killing of a flying fish to gleefully bludgeoning to death a dorado. I could explain it by arguing that profiting from a pitiful flying fish's navigational mistake made me shy and sorrowful, while the excitement of actively capturing a great dorado made me sanguinary and self-assured. But in point of fact the explanation lies elsewhere. It is simple and brutal: a person can get used to anything, even to killing” (185). This line is so powerful because he truly does feel bad for the animal. Even through all of the tough times that he is enduring on the boat, he still feels really bad about

When writing, authors need to think of their audience and involve an element of surprise. Authors use plot twists in their writing to help them accomplish surprising the audience, allowing them to keep their audience’s interest. Not only do plot twists help keep the audience’s attention, they also make the audience question their beliefs about what they think of the story. Authors can use this tool to advance their themes. Yann Martel uses a crazy plot twist in his book, the Life of Pi, to suggest to readers that truth is relative.

As he identifies with the probable pain that the fish he has caught is going to suffer, he cannot bring himself to slaughter it, “I imagined what it would feel like if I were wrapped in a blanket and someone were trying to break my neck. I was appalled. I gave up a number of times” (183). This identification clearly makes Pi hesitate in killing the fish, as he puts himself in the place of the fish and what it might feel like to have someone “trying to break” his neck. It is an imaginative act, as Pi must have the capacity to imagine how another being will feel, in a situation which he has not

Even after he kills a fish in a seemingly careless fashion, in his sleep “[his] mind lit up by the…flickering of the dying [fish]” seems to haunt him with resentment (Martel 186). This subconscious image is a product of Pi’s internal conflict with his new methods of survival. Therefore, Pi is unable to completely eliminate his feelings while trying to survive due to his torn thoughts between morality and necessity.

Many writers use literary elements to intrigue their readers into reading their novel or short story and making them feel a certain type of emotion, they could either feel scared, happy, angry, or just plain silly. In the story " The Fall of the House of Usher" Edgar Allen Poe uses suspense, symbolism, and Gothic elements to draw the reader into the story and make the feel like they are a part of it. In the story, Poe uses suspense to trigger the readers sense of fear and suspicion on wanting to know what happens next . "As if in superhuman energy of his uttering...the huge antique panels to which the speaker pointed threw slowly back"(Poe 309).