Savagery In Life Of Pi

Life of Pi is a thrilling novel by Yann Martel, telling the story of a two hundred and twenty-seven day journey on a lifeboat between a religious boy and an adult bengal tiger. After losing his family in a shipwreck, Pi Patel is stuck on a lifeboat with a 450 pound Richard Parker. Together, they sail aimlessly, using the boat’s limited resources to survive. Throughout the novel Pi uses God as a way to cope with the multiple tragedies and obstacles he faces. In times of great difficulty, humans can lose their morals and values in exchange for survival.

Yann Martel offers two accounts of Pi’s survival story so that Pi is able to personify animals and also give animalistic qualities to humans. This exchange is only seen after both accounts are read. The reader is able to determine which he or she accepts as reality, but since the facts of the story go unchanged and both tales are primarily the same, the sole purpose is to highlight the traits humans and animals posses. Yann Martel exemplifies human traits in animals and animal traits in people through his claim in passage A by telling the two stories of Pi’s survival.

1. Reason One of the most enjoyable aspects of the novel was the way Pi presents his point of view in his telling of the story. In the earlier stages of the book Pi tells us of his discovery of religion which he turns to for hope later on when the cargo ship him and his family travel on sinks, leaving him orphaned and lost. Throughout the novel he retells the story of his survival with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker and the situation of their survival.

William Goulding's first novel, The Lord of Flies, has been praised for decades for its interesting take on the thin line between civilization and savagery. The story revolves around a group of English schoolboys who crash land onto a deserted island during a nuclear war in an unknown time period. After finding out that none of the adults survived, the boys elect the oldest of the group, a fair haired 12 year old named Ralph, as their leader. The children face many challenges, including survival, choosing sides, and even the commitence of murder. The story uses a wide array of symbolism, Ralph being the representation of good and civilization, Jack being chaos and savagery, and Simon being lost innocence.

Throughout Yann Martel’s Life of Pi many elements of the novel blur the lines of reality and fantasy. This leaves multiple facets of perspectives in his readers. Patel is thrust to the forefront of a catastrophic ordeal resulting in the loss of everything he knows and loves. As this occurs, we begin to see the total brutality of survival in both stories. Martel’s phenomenal use of symbolism, dualism, and religious allegory eloquently convey this imaginative world of brutality, savagery, and thirst for survival.

Faith is not the absence of doubt; faith is the belief that surpasses doubt. Faith is believing in what is unseen and something impossible to prove. Martel’s novel Life of Pi presents the reader with different versions of a tale of survival, and suggests that the reader choose which version to believe in, which to have faith in. We navigate our way through the doubts in our minds based on the choice of belief that we have chosen to follow, and embrace the valid conclusions of that choice. Some may argue that nature is proof of the existence of God.

The Intelligent use of Animals in Yann Martel’s Life of Pi On the Pacific Ocean, stranded, with only a tiger and a few other animals as company, is how Pi Patel spent 227 days. Life of Pi is written as a fable which M. H. Abrams defines as, “a short narrative, in prose or verse, that exemplifies an abstract moral thesis or principle of human behaviour”. Its association with animals makes it a beast fable, “In which animals talk and act like the human types they represent” (Abrams). In the novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel, the function of the zebra, orangutang, hyena and tiger are to help associate what Pi goes through to survive the harsh, isolated, and terrifying events he faces during his extensively long period on the Pacific Ocean.

After spying a fruit-like looking substance in a tree, Pi grabs it and begins unpeeling. Unfortunately, he becomes enveloped in a “ feeling of horror... [he] had time to pick at the other fruit. Each contained a tooth” (Martel 280). The tooth represents Pi, who was shielded in God’s protective peel. He was relying on God to keep him assured and safe out on the sea, but now he is exposed, vulnerable, and has lost the feeling of hope. The tooth also represents God’s failure to protect another human, resulting in a lost life on the horrific island. Faith seemed promising and reliable when the island was stumbled upon, but Pi is let down by this disturbing discovery. This incident shows that counting on God to protect someone certainly does not ensure a perfect future. Another dark element of the island is revealed to Pi as he steps onto the ground at night and a searing pain shoots up his foot. The island proves to be carnivorous and eats people at night, which wreaks havoc in Pi. He has planned to stay there for possibly the rest of his life, and now is lost. Pi describes, “I spent the day in turmoil, weighing my options. They were all bad” (Martel 281). If Pi solely relies on God to solve his problems or lets God consume him, his mind will be eaten alive, similar to how the island kills humans. Pi will become even more insane. Uncovering the secret of the island makes Pi’s reason to stay nestled in its protection pointless. The truth behind this seemingly welcoming land proves that one should not rely on God to determine the future, because things can change

Religion, Tiger, Boat: these three distinct words merge together to create a tale of survival, struggle, heartbreak, and mystery. Yann Martel sets the stage of “Life of Pi” by introducing his readers to Piscine Molitor Patel, also known as Pi, who has a passion for religion and animals. He studies and worships the beliefs of a Hindu, a Muslim, and a Christian which proves to be a feat in itself. Martel uses symbolism and imagery to connect Pi’s experience in the Pacific to his life as a whole. Throughout Pi’s adventure of self-discovery, he struggles in keeping faith his ultimate priority.

In Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, Piscine “Pi” Patel goes on a journey that tests him in unimaginable ways. As Pi tells the story of his life, the reader is shown the battle that Pi faces and the settings they take place in. Martel specifically uses the setting of the lifeboat, island and Pi’s home to reflect Pi’s inner self.

Like all story’s each has an ending to it, but in Life of Pi, the investigators of the sunken ship, wanted straight facts, instead of any storytelling that would make them look like fools. Pi’s questioning of the officers led to his question “tell me, since it makes no factual difference to you and you can’t prove the question either way, which story do you prefer? Which is the better story, the story with animals or the story without animals?”(Martel, 311) Pi’s question, about which story was real was never answered, due to the ambiguity of his storytelling. Pi’s storytelling of his journey, lacked a final resolution, as it is left open for the reader to pick which story was better, regardless of which one is the actual

Human Significance Analysis in Life of Pi Human significance continues to be one of the most controversial and heavily discussed topics of science, society, and religion. Since nearly the beginning of existence, humans have strived to find ways to prove the creation and the reason behind our existence on this planet. Life of Pi by Yann Martel is a novel that explores the controversy of human existence. Pi (Piscine)

It is then when Pi asks the larger question of the novel; which story is better? Many people, including the Japanese officials, prefer the story with Richard Parker as it is a powerful yet meaningful story compared to the one of inner evil and darkness in humanity. Both stories cannot be proven true or untrue as Pi was the only human survivor. In cases like this, having belief in the better story allows for a life full of

“ My foot sank into the clear water and met the rubbery resistance of something flexible but solid. I put more weight down. The illusion would not give. I put the full weight of my foot. Still I did not sink. Still I did not believe. (289)” This island represents the time after Pi lost his faith. He becomes content on the island, there is water and plenty of food. He faces no struggles, yet he discovers that the island is poisonous. While it is nice during the day, at night it becomes deadly and is not sustainable. The teeth that Pi finds in the fruit are supposed to be teeth of someone who died on the island. This represents how dangerous the island is in the long run. You’ll become so content, but in the end it will be the death of you. It will suck you up into the soil and present you as something beautiful to fit in with the rest of the

“The more I see of what you call civilization, the more highly I think of what you call savagery!” (Howard, Robert, 1994) The constant back and forth between opposite ideals is also present in Lord of the Flies by William Golding. The novel, praised as one of the best reads for an adolescent, addresses multiple topics relevant to current society. The loss of civilization is the prime reason for mankind’s descent into savagery, according to Golding, and is portrayed clearly through multiple plot situations, main characters, and the setting the story takes place in.