Critical Analysis: Life of Pi

By examining the novel Life of Pi, the ternion soften novel by Yann Martel, adeptness jakes observe the psyche of a earthly concern who has g wholeness through a horrendous tragedy that has affected his life dramatic bothy. Martel chose the differing lotting of India, Canada, the Pacific Ocean, and briefly in Mexico during the nineteen s yetties. From the conflicting cultures of the setting, the protagonist, Pi mustiness deal with some(prenominal) adversities, yet he has lived completely of them. The novel is narrated in early person with Pi taking on the role of narrator.This gives an insight into the working of Pis mind. A privi degreeed glimpse of how an item-by-item responds to the task of survival exculpates one wonder how he/she would respond in a similar situation. It also shows what an individual depart do to deal with the events that atomic number 18 just too horrible to presume.The plat is told in flashback and as a close in story. The exposition is es tablished early in the novel. We learn that Pi is a man from India who now resides in Canada. It is obvious that there has been some tragedy in his life, except it is non revealed until later. Pi is married with a son and daughter. The author disc all overs that he has a passion for cooking with lots of spices.This could be a way for him to connect with his old in India. He uses so many layers of spices that it is just too intense for the author. His excessively spicy food is emblematic of his past. Pi has tolerated his circumstances, only when it is just too tragical for others to be suitable to identify. As part one unfolds, Pi relates the history of his puerility in India. His draw had run the Pondicherry Zoo, and that is where he learns about the constitution of wolfs as wellhead as how military man nature can parallel animals. Pi is convinced that the animals argon better off in the zoo that in the wild because some one must take care of them. He also learns the way a human can achieve say-so over them.The conflict of the novel is established in the trip to his new home and the exclusively different culture he will encounter. Pis family is killed in a shipwreck and he is the lone survivor. He must now fight the forces of nature to stay alive. Then he must learn how to deal the events that he has endured. another(prenominal)(prenominal) conflict in the story deals with religion.Pi was born into a Hindu family and end-to-end the novel he states that he considers himself generally a Hindu. Along the way, he notice Christianity and a priest convinced him that he needed to accommodate a Christian and Pi agrees. His parents attend his baptism even though they do not accept the religion. eventually Pi meets a Muslim and is persuaded to metamorphose to Islam. Again he embraces another religion. Pi decides that he can be all of the religions.The rising action of the novel quickly be comes evident when Pi begins to relate his journey to Can ada. His father decides that the family must move because of govern manpowertal unrest in their homeland. Most of the animals are interchange and the ones that couldnt be sold are taken of the boat with the family. laterward an accident, the boat sinks. Pi, however, is the only one from his family to survive the shipwreck. He and a zebra escape on a lifeboat, but the zebra is injured in the fall.Shortly after the life boat falls into the water, Pi spots his fathers tiger, Richard Parker. The human name of the tiger is symbolic of the animalistic instinct of man. The triplet survivors are soon joined by a hyaena and an Orangutan. At original all of the animals coexist with each other. It is not long before the hyena chews the leg of zebra for a meal. He then essentially eats the animal alive. The symbolism of the barbarity of survival is evident in this incident.The hyena soon turns on the Orangutan and kills her as she is looking for her two sons. Pi is astonish how human l ike she be shits. Pi and Richard Parker become weary and dehydrated. Pi learns how to fish and make drinking water out of sea water. He uses his basic instincts for his survival. The tiger at last kills the hyena, and even though Pi is beaming that the hyena is gone, he becomes fearful of the tiger. He realizes that he must gain dominance of the animal.He resorts back to the experience he gained at his fathers zoo. Pi and Richard Parker are joined by another man and while Pi is paroxysm temporary blindness due to dehydration. afterward battling hunger, lack of water, and the elements of nature, Pis lifeboat comes ashore in Mexico. Richard Parker escapes into a wooded battlefield and Pi is taken to the hospital.Two Japanese officials come to the hospital to interview Pi to gain entropy about the sink feeling of their ship. He recounts the whole story of the sinking and his survival on the lifeboat. After they harken to the story they leave to discuss the set forthation the y have just received. They return after a short while and inform Pi that they do not reckon his story.He then relates the story of his survival only substitutes humans for the animals. They are appal and he then asked them which story they prefer. The men admit that the one with the animals was easier to accept. It is then that the completion becomes evident. The whole story of the animals was made up by Pi so that he could deal with the events that had happened to him. The zebra had been a sailor, the hyena was an excited cook, and the orangutan was Pis mother. Richard Parker is symbolic of Pis animal instincts. He finally gains dominance over them and it is his animal instincts that can alone swear out him survive.The move action comes about when the two Japanese officials write their report. They realize that Pi has no knowledge that can actually help them understand the wreck of their vessel. They resolve that Pis survival with a uncultivated tiger was unique story. They, along with Pi, did what they had to do in their mind to be able to accept what had actually happened.Pi is a character that embodies the whole idea of survival. all(a) people go through adversity, and all have to learn to survive. Many times it is painful. An individual must come to grips in his/her own mind with what they must accept to continue on with daily life. Martel takes this into rumination when writing this story. Not only does he engage the reader by victimization suspense and the element of surprise, but he teaches mankind that we do what we have to do to cope.He also makes the point that even though humans have come so far with their scientific knowledge and technology yet they still have animalistic instincts when it comes to survival. He could have set the story in the distant past, but instead he set it in the recent past. There was an immense come up of technological and scientific knowledge in the nineteen seventies. If our society were to lose our neo conveni ences in a subjective disaster, people would still revert to their instincts for continue existence.Works CitedMartel, Yann. Life of Pi. Canada Random preindication of Canada, 2001.