Life Of Pi Quote Analysis

"I must say a word about fear. It is life’s only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know. It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy. It goes for your weakest spot, which it finds with unerring ease. It begins in your mind, always. One moment you are feeling calm, self-possessed, happy. Then fear, disguised in the grab of mild-mannered doubt, slips into your mind like a spy." (Martel 163) Pi was someone who you may never have thought could survive 227 days on a lifeboat with a tiger, but he did. He was able to overcome fear and use his beliefs to help him. He did this by using the beliefs that he learned in India and bringing them onto the lifeboat to help save
Pi, when he was young, owned a zoo called the Pondicherry, when he was in the zoo he noticed how structured and repetitive the zoo’s feeding and cleaning systems were, so it was only natural that he seemed to pick up some of these habits himself. When animals were getting accustomed to the new environment, Pi noted that the animals had to have everything a certain way and at a certain time for the animal to feel comfortable and happy. They needed for these things to happen consistently so that they feel like they understand what was going to happen and when, they needed repetition to feel safe. This knowledge of repetition came in handy when he was moving to a new school. "Repetition is important in training not only animals but also humans" (Martel 23). So when Pi wanted to get rid of his old nickname "Pissing" he knew exactly how to make sure that everyone called him by the correct name and that was by repetition. Pi decided to create a ritual that he would do over in every class to make sure his point got across. "Before the teacher could say a word, I picked up the piece of chalk and said as I wrote: My name is Piscine Molitor Patel known to all as - I double underlined the first two letters of my given name - Pi Patel For good measure I