The Battle Of The Wolves

The Battle of the Wolves
There is a Native American story in which an old Cherokee leader teaches his grandson an important life lesson; “A fight is going on inside me, It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil-he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other is good- he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you- and inside every other person, too.” The grandson pondered it for a minute then continued to asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?” He simply replied, “The one you feed.” This life lesson is
Those small moments are perhaps the most important scenes in Pi’s journey because of how violent Martel makes them. Violence is extremely important in Life of Pi because it changes Pi as a person. For example when Orange Juice, the orangutan, died “she looked like a simian on a cross” (Martel 165). In this part of the Orange Juice who “...came floating on an island of bananas in a halo of light, as lovely as the Virgin Mary..” (Martel 139). Martel compares the dead Orange Juice to Jesus Christ by using such descriptions of “on a cross”. Jesus Christ is a figure in Christianity, in a religion that Pi is in.Pi has three different religion that he turns to in his time of need, however, Christianity is the more evident during the death of Orange Juice. Since the Orangutan is compared to a major figure of one of Pi’s religion it show his internal struggle of religion. Pi finds religion in the violent death but also he compares a simple being to a higher power as if he is lowering his expectations of Jesus. Martel is using the death of Orange Juice to symbolize Christ of Christianity to show how Pi struggles with religion as well as
Karma struck back at the hyena when Richard Parker took the hyena’s life away by landing his massive paws upon the hyena’s shoulders and suddenly “there was a noise of organic crushing as windpipe and spinal cord were crushed.” (Martel 189). Once again Martel is using a death of an animal, the hyena, to show the internal struggle through the details of how the hyena’s spinal cord was crushed which equates to how the spinal cord is what holds every vertebrate up. That, when it was crushed symbolizing what takes away his hope but then is returned to know that he is safe because of the death of the hyena. It shows Pi’s internal struggle by how his hope versus