How Did Pi Survive

Is there a point at which someone’s survival needs take over what is right in their religious beliefs? That is exactly what Pi is going to find out on a lifeboat with four animals. His family was on a boat headed to Canada when is sank do to a engine failure. Pi is the only human alive along with a Hyena, Zebra, Orangutan and a Tiger. There is a huge fight for survival in a little lifeboat. Pi's actions are justified in the case of survival. Pi was pushed to the edge and would do anything to survive. Even though some of his beliefs ruled against it, he had to eat and kill in order to survive. It is best said in the book, “When your own life is threatened, your sense of empathy is blunted by a terrible, selfish hunger for survival” (Martel 120). This shows that if pushed to the limits, anyone will do anything to survive. "In its wild state, life is a constant struggle for survival, a perpetual race for food and safety in which death is a constant possibility" (Milne). Pi will not live unless he kills or eats, that is the harsh reality. He has to live with that fact and decides to eat in order for him to survive.
Pi never gives up even if it is looking bad for him.
He knows that survival it a top priority. In The Life of Pi, it states that, “You must take life the way it comes at you and make the best of it” (Martel 91). Never once did Pi lose hope. He always tried to find a way to survive with some dangerous animals on board and live. “Even when God seemed to have abandoned me," the older Pi says, "he was actually watching” (Cooper). The religious beliefs that Pi has do not just leave him in the dark either. He is always taken care of. When he feels like there is no way of surviving he always talks to God and asks for help and he
provides. Lastly in the novel it explains that death is a certainty in life. Pi is willing to take a risk of surviving than to give up. He knows that is is better off to live life and kill in order to survive than to die and not kill anything. “We fight no matter the cost of battle, the losses we take, the improbability of success. We fight to the very end. It is not the question of courage. It is something constitutional, an ability to let go. It maybe nothing more than life-hungry stupidity” (Martel 136). This shows that people will fight because they know it is right and Pi knows he is right to survive on that boat. “It is simple and brutal: a person can get used to anything, even to killing” (Martel 117). People only think they can not do these things because of the environment they are in right now. In Pi’s situation, anyone would do the same thing he did. In order for Pi to survive he has to do things that he is uncomfortable with. Pi was pushed to the edge of survival that he would do anything to survive. He also never gave up on this fact even if the odds were against him. Lastly, everyone will eventually die, that is a certainty in life. He had to decide to either be killed or kill. That is why Pi's actions are justified in the case of survival.