Life of Pi Analysis with How to Read Literature Like a Professor
Life of Pi Analysis
With How to Read Literature Like a Professor
1. Chapter 12: Is That a Symbol?
A. Example one
In the early stages of Life of Pi, Martel mentions a place that Pi and Ravi had gone to visit while on vacation. While looking aimlessly through the window, they noticed three hills. On top of one hill was a catholic church, another a Hindu temple, and the other a Muslim mosque. Each hill portrays each of the religions in Pi’s complex faith. The hills represent Pi’s struggles to understand each religion. Later on, we find out that Pi is caught in between these three religions. He couldn’t completely disregard any of the religions, so each one kept warring for a place in his life. In How to Read Literature like a Professor, Foster repeatedly says how symbols usually have more than one possible meaning. So another possible meaning for the three hills is that each of the warring religions has a different part in his life. The religions are separated by being on each hill, but they live simultaneously in the same general area. Just as, in Pi’s life, each religion has its separate area of his mind, but they all partake in his life.
B. Example 2 In How to Read Literature like a Professor, Foster also talks about allegories. The relationship between the tiger and Pi can be considered an allegory. A lot of the time spent on the boat is the classic fight of good vs. evil. Pi, seen as a naive child who could do no wrong, takes the role of the good character. Richard Parker represents the savage “dark side” and takes the role of evil. As the story progresses you see that each could not survive without the other. Richard Parker showed Pi that he could not have survived by being the sweet faultless boy who could not kill and eat a fish. Pi showed Richard Parker that he is inferior to Pi by training him and getting him food. The battle between the two at the beginning digressed to a mutual realization that good cannot always conquer evil and evil
With How to Read Literature Like a Professor
1. Chapter 12: Is That a Symbol?
A. Example one
In the early stages of Life of Pi, Martel mentions a place that Pi and Ravi had gone to visit while on vacation. While looking aimlessly through the window, they noticed three hills. On top of one hill was a catholic church, another a Hindu temple, and the other a Muslim mosque. Each hill portrays each of the religions in Pi’s complex faith. The hills represent Pi’s struggles to understand each religion. Later on, we find out that Pi is caught in between these three religions. He couldn’t completely disregard any of the religions, so each one kept warring for a place in his life. In How to Read Literature like a Professor, Foster repeatedly says how symbols usually have more than one possible meaning. So another possible meaning for the three hills is that each of the warring religions has a different part in his life. The religions are separated by being on each hill, but they live simultaneously in the same general area. Just as, in Pi’s life, each religion has its separate area of his mind, but they all partake in his life.
B. Example 2 In How to Read Literature like a Professor, Foster also talks about allegories. The relationship between the tiger and Pi can be considered an allegory. A lot of the time spent on the boat is the classic fight of good vs. evil. Pi, seen as a naive child who could do no wrong, takes the role of the good character. Richard Parker represents the savage “dark side” and takes the role of evil. As the story progresses you see that each could not survive without the other. Richard Parker showed Pi that he could not have survived by being the sweet faultless boy who could not kill and eat a fish. Pi showed Richard Parker that he is inferior to Pi by training him and getting him food. The battle between the two at the beginning digressed to a mutual realization that good cannot always conquer evil and evil