Fear Motivators: Life of Pi
Carter Clift
Honors English, 4B
Argument/Research Paper
May 29, 2014
Fear Motivators
Does the unknowing fear of doing something push you to be the hero, or does it keep you chained down keeping you restrained from doing anything about it. In the novel Life of Pi, fear could technically be portrayed as either one. When Piscine Patel, better known as Pi, discovers his life becomes completely turned upside down after his family tries to find a better life and a new place to call home. He gradually discovers what the true meaning of fear is. After losing his family in a storm, he becomes shipwrecked on a lifeboat with an adult Bengal tiger, struggling to stay alive. As mentioned before, fear could be portrayed as either a motivator or a difficulty to survive, but the fear of doing something mainly motivates one to succeed because it gives faith through religion that everything will get better, it makes room for hope when moments seem darkest, and because courage will always triumph in the face of fear.
First of all, fear can give faith through religion to show that everything will get better. When Pi was sitting down with his family at the dinner table, and his father was making fun of him by saying, “You only need to convert to convert to three more religions and you’ll spend your life on holiday.” (Martel 89) His father also mentions that, “Believing in everything is the same as believing in nothing.” (Martel 90) This just proves that there are many people out there that will try and scare you out of your religion just because yours doesn’t seem like the ethical one. Luckily, Pi has a strong heart along with strong faith in the gods that helped him get through these types of hard times. Also, while Pi is floating in the ocean with Richard Parker, it must have been comforting to know that God was there to keep him company and give him faith that there is a better tomorrow… He would just have to make it happen himself. Furthermore, in the article Overcoming
Honors English, 4B
Argument/Research Paper
May 29, 2014
Fear Motivators
Does the unknowing fear of doing something push you to be the hero, or does it keep you chained down keeping you restrained from doing anything about it. In the novel Life of Pi, fear could technically be portrayed as either one. When Piscine Patel, better known as Pi, discovers his life becomes completely turned upside down after his family tries to find a better life and a new place to call home. He gradually discovers what the true meaning of fear is. After losing his family in a storm, he becomes shipwrecked on a lifeboat with an adult Bengal tiger, struggling to stay alive. As mentioned before, fear could be portrayed as either a motivator or a difficulty to survive, but the fear of doing something mainly motivates one to succeed because it gives faith through religion that everything will get better, it makes room for hope when moments seem darkest, and because courage will always triumph in the face of fear.
First of all, fear can give faith through religion to show that everything will get better. When Pi was sitting down with his family at the dinner table, and his father was making fun of him by saying, “You only need to convert to convert to three more religions and you’ll spend your life on holiday.” (Martel 89) His father also mentions that, “Believing in everything is the same as believing in nothing.” (Martel 90) This just proves that there are many people out there that will try and scare you out of your religion just because yours doesn’t seem like the ethical one. Luckily, Pi has a strong heart along with strong faith in the gods that helped him get through these types of hard times. Also, while Pi is floating in the ocean with Richard Parker, it must have been comforting to know that God was there to keep him company and give him faith that there is a better tomorrow… He would just have to make it happen himself. Furthermore, in the article Overcoming