The Life of Pi is a fictional novel about a faithful young man having to be able to survive on a lifeboat with a tiger named Richard Parker. The young man, or the main protagonist is Piscine Molitor Patel. Piscine is named after his Uncle’s, Mamaji, favorite pool. Piscine decided to change his name to Pi the Greek letter instead of always being called Piscine. But this Greek letter also takes the form of a formula used to find the circumference of a circle. Pi is rounded to 3.14 but this number has no ending, no pattern, no consistency. But this has significance with Piscine’s life in this book. Pi is an irrational number. Piscine’s life relates to this by what Piscine believes in. In the novel we learn he worships 3 religions. He is born
Yann Martel is conveying readers that love is also another important key for survival. Exp1: All throughout the movie and the book of Life of Pi, Pi loves his family, and Richard Parker. However during his survival, he had forget his family and only think about Richard Parker and taking care of him.
Pi continues his journey by learning how to live in a small space with these animals and even training one of them. In the end Pi reveals another story with people replacing the animals that were on the lifeboat before. Pi had initially used animals which best represented the people who were really in the boat. This showed how throughout the story, since these people were put into a life threatening situation, they had revealed a more primal side. Life of Pi is accompanied with various symbols, with each
Pi’s life changing traumatic event came while aboard a ship with his family. The ship sank and all but himself and few zoo animals survived. Pi lost his family and had to survive under the worst of circumstances. He was without a great supply of food and water. Also, Pi was without a family.
Throughout the story, Piscine, or Pi, gave up many things to be who he was and to stay alive. Whether it was his happiness he was giving away, or his faith, he was always losing something throughout the story. However, even through these moments where any normal individual would have given up, he still pushed himself to keep having faith in himself. Because of these facts, the central theme of the story is about sacrifice. The development of the story is based on sacrifice, and the specific details of the film show how the theme is about sacrifice.
(New PDF 103) At first, Pi is deathly afraid and wants to kill him, but reading further into the book, Pi starts to depend on Richard Parker and cling to him as his only companion and friend, similarly to aid from the supernatural. In other words, Pi’s frailty along with his ingenuity will truly shine as he finally has begun his
Piscine must persevere, and his plan comes into full effect when he realizes that “Either he (I) tames (ed) him or dies(ed) the next day” (Martel 206). When Pi gains ample courage, his fifth turtle shell lasts the rest of his training after “Richard Parker made his point with him (me) four times” (Martel 207). Often Pi states that he would not be alive without Richard Parker’s presence and he thanks Richard Parker for saving his life. This may seem like a bizarre thing for him to say, but the tiger’s presence on the boat keeps Piscine somewhat sane. He speaks to Richard Parker and sometimes, not always, he nonverbally communicates in return.
Life of Pi is a movie about Pi, a shipwreck survivor, and his epic journey of discovery and faith. It is based on Yann Martel’s novel with the same name, and the movie, directed by Ang Lee, makes use of magical realism to convey many themes related to life and spirituality. Many significant symbols are also used to showcase the characteristics of magical realism. In particular, water and the carnivorous island were two important symbols that represented the theme of spirituality in Life of Pi.
The Quest of Pi The Life of Pi a quest with an strong influence of religion that is apparent throughout the story. “We are all born like Catholics, aren't we--in limbo without religion, until some figure introduces us to god” (Martel 58). Piscine Molitor Patel a young Indian teen has a unique infatuation with religion. Yann Martel, the author of Life of Pi, Gave Pi or Piscine an interesting life that is different from others.
The theme in Life of Pi is without a doubt the hardships in order to survive. The whole novel is about enduring pain, hardships, starvation, dehydration and more. I believe the author wrote this novel to reveal the hardships one has to proceed through in order to keep living. Pi certainly shows how quick life can change from ordinary to a long lasting nightmare. Surely this can happen to anyone, but not everyone can survive the long lasting nightmare.
When Pi’s life is put in serious danger, he has to adjust his wants and needs of many different aspects of his life. Pi was living what he called a perfect life. From spending most of his days with animals to practicing swimming, he learned to love everything about his life. However, things changed when a ship that his entire family on sank in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Yet I knew it had to be done... Tears flowing down my cheeks, I egged myself on until I heard a cracking sound and I no longer felt any life” The killing of this fish really hurt Pi because he is very religious and believes that all lives are sacred. Pi’s fishing ability strengthened over time which helped his ability to survive for 227 days in the Pacific
Pi allied with Richard Parker, the tiger, towards the cusp of the story because he said that Richard Parker was the only reason he stayed alive. “Truly, I do. I love you, Richard Parker. I don’t think I would make it.
With the combination of magical realistic events and Pi’s religious beliefs, Pi along with the reader a contemplates life’s concepts. From the very beginning, Pi makes his love and yearning for religion clear. As Life of Pi progresses, the protagonist picks up multiple religions as he travels through the novel. With the addition of first Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity, Pi gains attention from leaders and priests of these faiths. Conflict commences with the religious leaders of these individual faiths.
He is unable to understand why the Lord isn’t listening to his prayers and why everything is detrimental to him. Keeping his religious beliefs at sea is very challenging for Pi, this leads him to experience feelings of disbelief towards God. Despite his doubts, Pi continues to pray and practice his religions. He eventually comes to the conclusion that once everything is taken away from him and he is in complete darkness, he will always have his faith. He admits that loving God is difficult, but it’s something he must do if he is to survive his journey across the ocean.