Life Of Pi Fish Comparison

Animals are fascinating creatures that come in all shapes and sizes and can mean numerous different things in literature. They are everywhere, from the summits of the most mammoth mountains to the deepest of the ocean’s hadalpelagic zones. In Yann Martel’s Life of Pi there are animals as far as the eye can read. But it is not only Life of Pi that can be a great example of animals in literature, Elizabeth Bishop’s, “The Fish” and William Blake’s, “The Tyger” can too. Life of Pi is a story of a young man who lives his childhood in India with his father running the Pondicherry Zoo. Since he grows up being at the zoo everyday he gains lots of experience with the animals that he is surrounded by. While he and his family are transporting their animals on a boat across the ocean, the boat sinks and Pi is left stranded
Although the two are similar in description, they are almost opposites in reality. Martel is describing Richard Parker while Pi is being held captive and Bishop is describing the fish while being the captivator. Martel’s writing makes it clear that Pi’s description is whilst being in the presence of his captivator, “He slowly turned his head. It turned-turned-turned full round-till he was looking straight at me…. I beheld Richard Parker from the angle that showed him off to greatest effect” (Martel 151) and then goes on to write a stunning description that makes the imagination of the reader to create a crisp image of the tiger. Bishop’s writing makes it clear that she is the captivator of the fish, “I caught a tremendous fish and held him beside the boat half out of water, with my hook fast in a corner of his mouth. He didn’t fight. He hadn’t fought at all. He hung a grunting weight, battered and venerable and homely” (Bishop) and also goes on to describe it to a stunning