Life of Pi Critical Essay
Richard Parker Character Critical Essay:
“Life of Pi” is a novel about a sixteen year old boy named Piscine Patel who survives for 227 days on a lifeboat at sea after he loses his family in s shipwreck. Pi is interviewed at the end of the book by two men from the ships company who do not accept his first story which involves a number of animals on the lifeboat with him. He then tells a much more brutal, realistic story where the animals are now metaphor for humans. The reader is then left to decide which story is the “true” story, and in the process, understand Martel’s message about the need for us to address difficult truths through the medium of storytelling, and the positive effect that faith has in our lives, allowing us to transcend reality. The novel involves a disagreement between Pi and the men from the Japanese Ministry of Transport in Part Three. The men not believing his initial story angers Pi, which causes him to tell them that there doesn’t always have to be a rational story. Whether it is imaginative or logical, they are both stories with the same concept.
When Richard Parker first appears from under the lifeboat, he is a dangerous and aggressive creature. Pi is initially terrified of him but soon realizes that Richard Parker is essential to his survival out at sea. He has to train him and learn how to work together. Pi grows t love and care for him. Through this we can see the power that Richard Parker holds:
“I love you, Richard Parker. If I didn’t have you now, I don’t know what I would do. I don’t think I would make it. No, I wouldn’t. I would die of hopelessness. Don’t give up, Richard Parker, don’t give up.”
Pi survives. Some of the most difficult conditions imaginable, yet he endures. More than that – his spirit remains unbroken, his mind intact. Faith and companionship gave Pi the strength he needed to keep going. His love for God gave him faith that he could survive. And his love of Richard Parker gave him the reason to hope for
“Life of Pi” is a novel about a sixteen year old boy named Piscine Patel who survives for 227 days on a lifeboat at sea after he loses his family in s shipwreck. Pi is interviewed at the end of the book by two men from the ships company who do not accept his first story which involves a number of animals on the lifeboat with him. He then tells a much more brutal, realistic story where the animals are now metaphor for humans. The reader is then left to decide which story is the “true” story, and in the process, understand Martel’s message about the need for us to address difficult truths through the medium of storytelling, and the positive effect that faith has in our lives, allowing us to transcend reality. The novel involves a disagreement between Pi and the men from the Japanese Ministry of Transport in Part Three. The men not believing his initial story angers Pi, which causes him to tell them that there doesn’t always have to be a rational story. Whether it is imaginative or logical, they are both stories with the same concept.
When Richard Parker first appears from under the lifeboat, he is a dangerous and aggressive creature. Pi is initially terrified of him but soon realizes that Richard Parker is essential to his survival out at sea. He has to train him and learn how to work together. Pi grows t love and care for him. Through this we can see the power that Richard Parker holds:
“I love you, Richard Parker. If I didn’t have you now, I don’t know what I would do. I don’t think I would make it. No, I wouldn’t. I would die of hopelessness. Don’t give up, Richard Parker, don’t give up.”
Pi survives. Some of the most difficult conditions imaginable, yet he endures. More than that – his spirit remains unbroken, his mind intact. Faith and companionship gave Pi the strength he needed to keep going. His love for God gave him faith that he could survive. And his love of Richard Parker gave him the reason to hope for