Pi's Struggles

Pi went through many struggles through his childhood and teenage years. Pi faces most of his struggles on the time with the tiger, Richard Parker, on the lifeboat. In Life of Pi, Yann Martel shows how Pi deals with hardships by his connection to the 12 Disciples, the Three Wise Men and the Virgin Mary. Pi was named after a swimming pool in Paris, Piscine (Martel 8). This is ironic because Pi’s parents never took a liking to water or swimming. When Pi was in primary school, kids used to call him ‘pissing’ because the way it sounds when Piscine is broken up into ‘pea’ and ‘seen’ (Martel 20). When Pi attended secondary school, he took the initiative to shorten his name to Pi. Changing of his name meant Pi took control after he accepted the fact
Pi changed his named like the disciples because he recognized “those we meet can change us” (Martel 20). The twelve disciples were followers of Jesus’ teachings and "prime missionaries of Christianity" ("apostle"). Then, Pi listed an excellent amount of examples like Saul who is called Paul and Simon who became Peter. Pi is connected to the 12 disciples because “disciples display dullness, fear and pride” (Huizenga). Pi feared people bullying him but he gained pride by changing his name. Pi is also connected to the twelve disciples because Pi was willing to follow Jesus’ teachings. When Pi was on the lifeboat, he had no one to depend on beside Richard Parker and
Pi called the pandit, imam, and priest ‘the Three Wise Men’ but Pi also is connected to the three wise men. Pi is connected to the three wise men because the three wise chose their choices of gifts to Jesus, Pi choose his own three choices of religion. As a teenager, Pi went through a struggle no other teenager ever imaged. He lost his parents on a shipwrecked and has to settle living on sea for eight months with several animals. Fighting for his life on sea, Pi had a lot events that he thought were true but were not. Throughout most of Pi's struggles, Pi remained faithful and hopeful. One person Pi was devoted to God and Richard Parker the most on the lifeboat, but Pi also had imagined the Virgin Mary a plentiful amount of times as well. When Pi is stressed on the lifeboat, Pi imagined the Virgin Mary “wearing a white dress and a blue cloak” (Martel 63). The vision of Virgin Mary was Pi being comforted like if he actually had his mother around. White means purines and good morals; blue means calmness and peacefulness. Like when Pi was in the house with his Parents and the Three Wise Men, there was a picture with the Virgin Mary with flowers surrounding that picture. Virgin Mary brought the calmness and made sure everything was in