By examining the novel Life of Pi, the three part novel by Yann Martel, one can observe the psyche of a man who has gone through a horrendous tragedy that has affected his life dramatically.\u00a0 Martel chose the differing setting of India, Canada, the Pacific Ocean, and briefly in Mexico during the nineteen seventies.\u00a0 From the conflicting cultures of the setting, the protagonist, Pi must deal with many adversities, yet he has survived all of them.\u00a0 The novel is narrated in first person with Pi taking on the role of narrator.
\nThis gives an insight into the working of Pi\u2019s mind.\u00a0 A privileged glimpse of how an individual responds to the task of survival makes one wonder how he\/she would respond in a similar situation.\u00a0 It also shows what an individual will do to deal with the events that are just too horrible to accept.
\nThe plot is told in flashback and as a framed story.\u00a0 The exposition is established early in the novel.\u00a0 We learn that Pi is a man from India who now resides in Canada.\u00a0 It is obvious that there has been some tragedy in his life, but it is not revealed until later.\u00a0 Pi is married with a son and daughter.\u00a0 The author discovers that he has a passion for cooking with lots of spices.<\/p>\n
This could be a way for him to connect with his past in India.\u00a0 He uses so many layers of spices that it is just too intense for the author.\u00a0 His overly spicy food is symbolic of his past.\u00a0 Pi has tolerated his circumstances, but it is just too tragic for others to be able to identify.\u00a0 As part one unfolds, Pi relates the history of his childhood in India.\u00a0 His father had run the Pondicherry Zoo, and that is where he learns about the nature of animals as well as how human nature can parallel animals.\u00a0 Pi is convinced that the animals are better off in the zoo that in the wild because some one must take care of them.\u00a0 He also learns the way a human can achieve dominance over them.
\nThe conflict of the novel is established in the trip to his new home and the completely different culture he will encounter.\u00a0 Pi\u2019s family is killed in a shipwreck and he is the lone survivor.\u00a0 He must now fight the forces of nature to stay alive.\u00a0 Then he must learn how to deal the events that he has endured.\u00a0 Another conflict in the story deals with religion.
\nPi was born into a Hindu family and throughout the novel he states that he considers himself primarily a Hindu.\u00a0 Along the way, he discovered Christianity and a priest convinced him that he needed to become a Christian and Pi agrees.\u00a0 His parents attend his baptism even though they do not accept the religion.\u00a0 Finally Pi meets a Muslim and is persuaded to convert to Islam.\u00a0 Again he embraces another religion.\u00a0 Pi decides that he can be all of the religions.
\nThe rising action of the novel quickly becomes evident when Pi begins to relate his voyage to Canada.\u00a0 His father decides that the family must move because of political unrest in their homeland.\u00a0 Most of the animals are sold and the ones that couldn\u2019t be sold are taken of the boat with the family.\u00a0 After an accident, the boat sinks.\u00a0 Pi, however, is the only one from his family to survive the shipwreck.\u00a0 He and a zebra escape on a lifeboat, but the zebra is injured in the fall.
\nShortly after the life boat falls into the water, Pi spots his father\u2019s tiger, Richard Parker.\u00a0 The human name of the tiger is symbolic of the animalistic instinct of man.\u00a0 The three survivors are soon joined by a hyena and an Orangutan.\u00a0 At first all of the animals coexist with each other.\u00a0 It is not long before the hyena chews the leg of zebra for a meal.\u00a0 He then basically eats the animal alive.\u00a0 The symbolism of the savagery of survival is evident in this incident.
\nThe hyena soon turns on the Orangutan and kills her as she is looking for her two sons.\u00a0 Pi is amazed how human like she behaves.\u00a0 Pi and Richard Parker become weary and dehydrated.\u00a0 Pi learns how to fish and make drinking water out of sea water.\u00a0 He uses his basic instincts for his survival.\u00a0 The tiger finally kills the hyena, and even though Pi is glad that the hyena is gone, he becomes fearful of the tiger.\u00a0 He realizes that he must gain dominance of the animal.
\nHe resorts back to the knowledge he gained at his father\u2019s zoo.\u00a0 Pi and Richard Parker are joined by another man and while Pi is suffering temporary blindness due to dehydration.\u00a0 After battling hunger, lack of water, and the elements of nature, Pi\u2019s lifeboat comes ashore in Mexico.\u00a0 Richard Parker escapes into a wooded area and Pi is taken to the hospital.
\nTwo Japanese officials come to the hospital to interview Pi to gain information about the sinking of their ship.\u00a0 He recounts the whole story of the sinking and his survival on the lifeboat.\u00a0 After they listen to the story they leave to discuss the information they have just received.\u00a0 They return after a short while and inform Pi that they do not believe his story.
\nHe then relates the story of his survival only substitutes humans for the animals.\u00a0 They are horrified and he then asked them which story they prefer.\u00a0 The men admit that the one with the animals was easier to accept.\u00a0 It is then that the climax becomes evident.\u00a0 The whole story of the animals was made up by Pi so that he could deal with the events that had happened to him.\u00a0 The zebra had been a sailor, the hyena was an insane cook, and the orangutan was Pi\u2019s mother.\u00a0 Richard Parker is symbolic of\u00a0 Pi\u2019s animal instincts.\u00a0 He finally gains dominance over them and it is his animal instincts that can alone help him survive.
\nThe falling action comes about when the two Japanese officials write their report.\u00a0 They realize that Pi has no knowledge that can actually help them understand the wreck of their vessel.\u00a0 They resolve that Pi\u2019s survival with a ferocious tiger was unique story.\u00a0 They, along with Pi, did what they had to do in their mind to be able to accept what had actually happened.
\nPi is a character that embodies the whole idea of survival.\u00a0 All people go through adversity, and all have to learn to survive.\u00a0 Many times it is painful.\u00a0 An individual must come to grips in his\/her own mind with what they must accept to continue on with daily life.\u00a0 Martel takes this into consideration when writing this story.\u00a0 Not only does he engage the reader by using suspense and the element of surprise, but he teaches mankind that we do what we have to do to cope.
\nHe 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.\u00a0 He could have set the story in the distant past, but instead he set it in the recent past.\u00a0 There was an immense amount of technological and scientific knowledge in the nineteen seventies. \u00a0If our society were to lose our modern conveniences in a natural disaster, people would still revert to their instincts for continued existence.
\nWorks Cited
\nMartel, Yann.\u00a0 Life of Pi.\u00a0 Canada: Random House of Canada, 2001.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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