Humanity In Life Of Pi, By Yann Martel
Yann Martel’s novel Life of Pi calls attention to a human’s need to survive despite obstacles and tremendous odds. As expressed throughout the story, when in survival mode, basic human needs can outweigh morality. Martel stresses this idea through the struggle of the protagonist Pi as he attempts to survive aboard the lifeboat accompanied by a ferocious tiger.
At the end of the novel, when Pi reaches land, the authorities questioning him find his story unbelievable. An evident idea here is that it is hard for people to accept anything out of the ordinary because of their expectations of humanity. Pi responds to their skepticism by saying, “So tell me, since it makes no factual difference to you and you can't prove the question either way, which story do you prefer?” (352). By this he is saying that in order to receive his basic human needs, he did what was necessary and therefore there was no reason for these men to doubt him. Advocating the grounds for basic human needs, which in the case of the authorities would be a story that equated to their idea of humanity, Pi gave them …show more content…
Pi states that “A house is a compressed territory where our basic needs can be fulfilled close by and safely,” (252). This belief is repressing a person from viewing their life as a whole and therefore would restrict survival. When survival is principal, the things that are important to a civilized person become trivial, a person’s human needs are revealed depending on the person and their circumstance. An example of this in the novel is when Pi says, “I did not count the days or the weeks or the months. Time is an illusion that only makes us pant. I survived because I forgot even the very notion of time” (192). In this way, Pi adapted in order to make his chance of survival possible yet simultaneously impossible. Through the journey and struggles of Pi, Martel enforces the idea that a person’s needs are relative to their
At the end of the novel, when Pi reaches land, the authorities questioning him find his story unbelievable. An evident idea here is that it is hard for people to accept anything out of the ordinary because of their expectations of humanity. Pi responds to their skepticism by saying, “So tell me, since it makes no factual difference to you and you can't prove the question either way, which story do you prefer?” (352). By this he is saying that in order to receive his basic human needs, he did what was necessary and therefore there was no reason for these men to doubt him. Advocating the grounds for basic human needs, which in the case of the authorities would be a story that equated to their idea of humanity, Pi gave them …show more content…
Pi states that “A house is a compressed territory where our basic needs can be fulfilled close by and safely,” (252). This belief is repressing a person from viewing their life as a whole and therefore would restrict survival. When survival is principal, the things that are important to a civilized person become trivial, a person’s human needs are revealed depending on the person and their circumstance. An example of this in the novel is when Pi says, “I did not count the days or the weeks or the months. Time is an illusion that only makes us pant. I survived because I forgot even the very notion of time” (192). In this way, Pi adapted in order to make his chance of survival possible yet simultaneously impossible. Through the journey and struggles of Pi, Martel enforces the idea that a person’s needs are relative to their