Preview

How Does Life Of Pi Relate To Human Life

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
739 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Does Life Of Pi Relate To Human Life
The world’s natural resources are balanced by the humans need for survival. Martel suggests this theory in his book “The life of Pi” because it can relate to how humans today go in a balance life relationship with the world’s natural resources. Although humans currently comprise only a minuscule proportion of the total living biomass on Earth, the human effect on nature is disproportionately large. Because of the extent of human influence, the boundaries between what humans regard as nature and "made environments" is not clear cut except at the extremes. Even at the extremes, the amount of natural environment that is free of discernible human influence is presently diminishing at an increasingly rapid pace. Pi the main character shares a life boat with Richard Parker (the tiger) when their ship sank to the bottom of ocean. The fear Pi grows starts to increase every moment he shares with the tiger because of being eaten or attacked. Martel shows how when things go out of balance in the world then the way of life starts to cooperate for benefit of surviving. Clearly, the development of technology by …show more content…
Today, humans employ nature for both leisure and economic activities. The acquisition of natural resources for industrial use remains the primary component of the world's economic system. We build economic system to build a relationship of exchange and balance. Nature has always worked one way while humans continue to find new ways to change the force of life by missing with nature by control it, but in a situation where survival is the key to life then the rules are changed. Martel has built zoomorphic ambiguity right into their names, pointing out quite strongly the gray area between humanity and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Yann Martel's Life Of Pi

    • 595 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The book Life of Pi by Yann Martel was published in 2001. The story is primarily about an Indian boy named Piscine Molitor Patel, who survives a shipwreck with a Bengal tiger. Unfortunately, this book is not a part of a series; the characters in the book do however, have an interesting relationship with the author. Yann Martel is from Canada, as stated in the book. The Patel family was moving to Canada, this is also the place Piscine “lives” currently. Martel got the inspiration from his story in Pondicherry, the originally home of the Patel family. Although the meeting of the two was in a sense ironic, it is still the perfect commencement for this realistic fiction.…

    • 595 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Darwin's theory—the survival of the fittest, emphasizes the fierce and somewhat ruthless struggle of survival among the species and the individuals. It is indeed true in most cases. But in Life of Pi, it describes a picture of human and animal's co-existence in a more harmonious way and proves that their struggle and contradiction are not so irreconcilable. In this movie, Pi was taught at his childhood by his father, that the animals, esp, the tiger, etc are not his friends. So at the first of the drift, Pi didn't intend to co-exist with the tiger. He had had the chance to kill it. But his virtuous nature didn't allow himself to do so. So he made the final decision to co-exist with this ferocious animal. He supplied the tiger with food and fresh water to survive so that he himself would not become the dinner of it. The threat to each other and the certain kind of peaceful co-existence helped them persevere to be saved at last. Even Pi himself admitted that "the fear of Richard Parker kept me alert. I wouldn't survive without Richard…

    • 990 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, Piscine Molitor Patel illustrates the suffering of a survivor following a major traumatic event. After a cargo ship carrying a full zoo and all of Pi’s family sinks, Pi is left with a few animals and his thoughts to keep him company. While at sea, his supplies dwindle and he has to resort to extreme measures. These measures come into full effect when Pi’s boat leads him to another survivor. The characters of Pi and the other survivor, a French man, portray how the need to survive can force these survivors to resort to savage actions.…

    • 598 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Life of Pi ESSAY

    • 702 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Ramifications create portholes to discovery. Such portholes transfer individuals to new and differing worlds. When Ang Lee’s 2012 feature film Life of Pi is compared with Maurice Sendak’s 1963 children’s book Where the Wild Things Are we visualise the strong links both texts have with one another. Both texts represent how composers create portholes for people to new places, which represent emotional and spiritual discoveries.…

    • 702 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The most important task in human history has been to find a way of extracting from the ecosystems in which people have lived, enough resources for maintaining life … the problem has been to balance their various demands against the ability of the ecosystems to withstand the resulting pressures. [Ponting 1991, p17]…

    • 3271 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Everyone can pick an animal that they believe describes themselves or symbolizes themselves, but in Yann Martel’s Life of Pi he takes those characteristics to a new level. The symbolism of a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan, and a tiger all contribute to the characteristics of Pi and his journey through the sea, together, on a life boat.…

    • 655 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Life of Pi Symbolism

    • 885 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Karanvir Dhami Ms. Yu ENG3U March 7, 2011 Symbolism in Life of Pi In Life of Pi there are many literary devices used to present the different themes in the novel. The main literary device used in Life of Pi is symbolism. Symbolism is often used to represent an object to something else, either by association or by resemblance. Most of the names of animals, objects and even humans in this novel have a symbolic meaning. In Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, symbolism such as pi’s name, the colour orange and the algae island, are used throughout the novel to provide Pi with protection to help him either survive or overcome his emotional pain. The mathematical pi is undefined, infinite and unable to be understood, just like Piscine Patel. Piscine’s nickname is Pi and it has a symbolic relationship with the mathematical pi. Pi is sixteen when he is shipwrecked, and pi is also the sixteenth letter of the Greek alphabet. Not only is the mathematical pi symbolic towards Pi, but it also provided him protection from school. Many of Pi’s classmates made fun of his full name and called him names such as “Pissing Patel”. When Pi transferred to a new school he took the first available opportunity to use his nick name, with “that Greek letter that looked like a shack … *Pi+ found refuge” (Martel, ). This nickname allowed him to find the protection from the bullying he would have got if he had used his actual name. The Greek letter symbolizes the roof the nickname has placed over Pi emotionally. Before the nickname was being used all his former classmates new him as only as…

    • 885 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    LIfe of Pi

    • 303 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Yann Martel uses different tones in Life of Pi to portray his opinions of Pi Patel. He uses Pi to show humor, curiosity, savage, despair, philosophy, and definitely horror throughout the novel. Pi is forced to live with a tiger in such a confined space that he must find a way to train Richard Parker. Pi comforts himself by pretending he is a tiger trainer in “THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH!” (Martel 208). This is Martel’s way of showing how Pi Patel is humorous even in troubling situations. Pi is also confronted with hunger, so to quench himself he must revert to a primitive state of eating anything he can find, including the tiger’s feces. Yann Martel shows Pi’s strong motivation to live by making him seem savage, but also letting the reader know that Pi is curious so he can survive by trying anything. After Pi Patel is rescued, he is confronted with interviewers about his journey. Yann shows Pi’s philosophical side when he explains that “Isn’t telling something—using words, English or Japanese—already something of an invention?” (380). Martel shows Pi as horrified when he copes with dangerous animals in a confined space. Yann Martel lets the reader know that Pi is still fearful of wild animals, just as anyone would, even though he works and lives with them daily. Pi’s horror evolves into despair when he becomes weak and blind. “By the next morning I had lost all fear of death and I resolved to die” (Martel 305). Yann portrays Pi as despairing, to show the immense pain and emotional desolation he has to go through. Yann Martel uses Pi Patel to express many tones throughout the novel to help the reader understand the character on a much deeper level.…

    • 303 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    This prose is an extract of the, magical realism, book “Life of PI” that was written by Yann Martel in 2001. This extract describe the sank of the ship that Piscine and his family where and Pi’s feeling and reflection of this situation, as only him and the tiger from their zoo, Richard Parker survived.…

    • 758 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Pi Conscience

    • 1181 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Because of this, Pi had to get used to the things he would normally not do, making him become numb. Pi struggles to figure out how he will feed himself, and Richard Parker, on the lifeboat. Fishing becomes an option for Pi. Pi is a vegetarian, and would never think about killing marine life. Although, Pi knows that he needs to fish. He knows that he needs to do this from listening to his conscience, and gains the courage to kill the fish. This task soon becomes as easy as ever. “It is simple and brutal: a person can get used to anything, even to killing.” (Martel 185) Pi has to listen to his conscience, and knows that if he did not kill the fish, he nor Richard Parker could not survive.“Used” in this quote, shows Pi is becoming familiar to things, he never thought he would ever do, now that he has been on the lifeboat.“Killing” is something Pi is becoming easier at, but this goes against what he believes in and what his family has taught him. The novel is affected by this, because Pi’s humane side has become damaged, and he has given into savagery. This event, has revealed how Pi can adapt to situations for the sake of his own survival, but as he does this, he is in conflict with his diet, his beliefs and his values. Sympathy is created for Pi, because we see Pi struggling to decide what's more important: his survival or his morals. The theme of survival is enhanced in this quote, as it uses language to…

    • 1181 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the book Life of Pi, a boy named Pi is ship wrecked and gets stranded at sea with nothing but a raft and a tiger. Pi has always sought out to have religion, but can’t ever figure out which one is the right one to follow and practice. Also, in the short story Parker’s Back, Parker is married to a woman Sarah Ruth, whom he can’t stand. He doesn’t know why he stays with her and unlike Pi he hasn’t always wanted religion in his life, until he unknowingly seeks it out. Pi and Parker both struggle to find spiritual guidance and through their journeys in life, along with unwanted yet necessary characters, both are able to fulfil their religious desires.…

    • 775 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Life of Pi

    • 758 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Several efforts from Pi were made in order to secure himself from the dangers he was faced on the lifeboat. “That made a territory of one hundred square feet for Richard Parker”(p.173). Martel establishes Pi’s motive of advocation by giving the tiger leeway to satisfy the animal and sustain its aggression…

    • 758 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Pi accepts his superego

    • 1277 Words
    • 3 Pages

    An individual has conflicts within their minds of what is morally right and wrong. In the novel, Life of Pi, by Yann Martel, there is an Indian boy named Piscine Molitor Patel, otherwise known as Pi who faces these conflicts. Pi lives at Pondicherry with his father, mother, and a brother named Ravi. Their family runs a zoo with various kinds of animal that Pi fascinates. Pi and his family decided to move to Canada due to the political problems in India. However, on their way to Canada, Pi faces a tragic disaster in which he lost his family, belongings, and his innocence. An unexplainable event caused the ship, The Tsimtsum, to sink, leaving Pi stranded on a boat with a hyena, zebra, orangutan, and a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. Living with the animals was a huge burden for Pi, who was once a strict vegetarian. Through his journey, Pi arrived upon a mysterious island with a tiger who is the only survivor on the boat. After 227 days at sea, Pi has found paradise where there is plenty of food and water to be seen. His id, Richard Parker, was distracted by all the necessities on the island that he failed to understand the secrets that lay within the island. It was Pi’s superego that has awakened Pi back to reality by alerting him that the island was carnivorous. After fleeing the island with Richard Parker, Pi was washed upon land in Mexico and was soon transferred to a hospital. Pi was heartbroken upon realizing that he lost both his family and his companion, Richard Parker. According to Sigmund Freud, a human’s personality is composed of three elements: id, ego, and the superego. The id, present in our unconscious mind, represents chaos which is driven by pleasure. In this novel, the id represents Richard Parker, who wanted to stay on the island and enjoy all the pleasures. The superego represents Pi himself and the conscious part of our mind. In contrast to…

    • 1277 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Faith In Life Of Pi

    • 837 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Piscine Mortel’s story show us the importance of having faith, but to also to see the connection in everything. Pi shows us this through his findings about the importance of faith in his three oddly interconnecting religions Hinduism, Christianity, and Muslim. The importance of faith and understanding is also in part two of his story showing through his vivid and raw emotions that allows you to see a more of who Pi is. In Part his adult life we see that he has come almost to terms with who he is The point I am trying to prove is that Pi shows not only the importance of faith but also that things connect the same connection people commonly find religion.…

    • 837 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Life of Pi Essay

    • 770 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Life of Pi was a story about a boy Indian boy named Piscine Patel was stranded at sea for 222 days after his ship which was going to Canada with his family sank. The story starts with him growing up as a child and practicing on his own accord many different cultures such as Hinduism, Islam and Christianity as this is happening the amount of money the zoo makes compared to the work they do coupled with his fathers will to stay with the times, forces his father to make the decision that they will move to Canada. They are not treated to well on boat and he is even thrown off the boat as bait for the tiger, after that it is just an everyday struggle for him to survive with no food and a Bengal tiger onboard. Pi Patel who was once a vegetarian now does everything he can do to survive including eating fish, drinking blood and whatever else he can find. My opinion is that Pi is a very smart and straightforward individual that would have been very successful in his life if the crash had not gotten in his way, I also think that his experience changed him a lot he went from being an average boy to someone who had suffered massive trauma and is now a hardened and scarred individual.…

    • 770 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays