Yann Martel's Life Of Pi

Julian Kraidelman
Mrs. Ghya
01/22/14
Period: 1
Language Arts

Life of Pi is a deep read with a lot of important conflicts inside of it, a fantastic book for the future to read. It shows a lot of different aspects of life, the will to survive, symbolism, and humanity/ religion powers and struggles are displayed. Good things and negative things can come out of being a survivor from a shipwreck. A struggle for survival, faith in humanity and religion, and the power of symbolism are huge parts of this book but more importantly life, and the future should be aware of that so they can study these very topics with better understanding.
While at sea, Pi was very lonely and had a rough time, but he changed as a person (for the better) because of it.
Without any symbolism, Life of Pi isn’t nearly as meaningful. One of the most involved characters, Richard Parker was an orange bengal tiger who was part of Pi’s dad’s zoo. He only revealed himself on the lifeboat after the zebra, orangutang, and hyena fought it out. This gives us the idea that Richard Parker isn’t real since a normal tiger would’ve at least attempt to kill all the other animals on the boat. And is only a mere projection of Pi, or Pi’s animal side. The book never reveals who was Richard Parker is and leaves it up to the reader. Without Richard Parker,
Pi would have most likely died. Richard displayed all of Pi’s fears, death and being a Bengal tiger. As Pi’s life extends at sea, he overcomes those fears thanks to Richard Parker. When Pi finally reached the shores of an island that was claimed by Mexico, Richard Parker got off the

boat and just walked away, he didn’t even look back at Pi to give a look saying “thank you” Who
Richard Parker was is up to you, but it seems as if he was on the boat to keep Pi alive.
Before Pi reaches land, he comes across an Algae Island. There was no solid ground, Pi’s feet sunk a little bit into the algae. He said that it was helpful to have that type of ground so he could learn to walk again. The island had food on it so Pi decided it wouldn’t be a bad idea to stay on the island for a little bit. On the island Pi discovered that the only other animal on the island were Meerkats, and then there were trees almost everywhere, with what seemed to be big fruits with a lot of food or juice inside of them.
Before the day ended and Pi had his bed laid out in the trees, Pi got ahold of one. He kept on peeling and peeling the what he thought was fruit leaf after leaf. Eventually there was nothing left but one leaf, and a tooth inside of it. This meant that there had been someone else on this island in the middle of nowhere that died, and that the island was carnivorous. During that night the algae was glowing, Pi wanted to know what was going on so he threw one of the meerkats on the ground, and once it touched the floor it scurried back on the tree. There were ponds on the island where there were fish swimming in it during the day. At night fish bones rose to the surface of the ponds, the island was alive. At this moment Pi knew that he couldn’t stay on this island much longer. After restoring his health to the best of his ability, eating all the food he could find, he was ready to leave the island. Richard Parker followed the path of Pi. Just like Richard Parker this island symbolizes something. The island is a religion with the followers being the meerkats. Pi’s life boat represents faith and the
sea represents harsh reality. Now this is only one interpretation of the island, like Richard Parker, the island can be interpreted differently. This is exactly why the future should read this book, there are so many perspectives of this book. And all this time reading about Richard Parker and the

island, there is a small detail that Yaan Martel writes about that I never noticed before, the color orange. Yaan Martel uses the color orange a lot, and makes it into a symbol. Richard Parker is orange, and so was Pi’s previous cat. The orangutang that was originally on the life boat was also orange, the orangutang named Orange Juice defended a hurting zebra and protected Pi from the
Hyena. Pi had a life vest on that had an orange whistle. The color was orange was involved with many things, all of the things that it was involved with had to do something with hope. Orange
Juice and Richard Parker saving him, and a whistle attached to a life jacket has to bring hope to be rescued too. The sun sets every night leaving a beautiful orange sunset followed by darkness, but the next day the sun rises putting a bright orange sun over our heads telling us there will always be a tomorrow.
Pi lived in India, and his family was moving their zoo to Canada. Because they lived in
India Pi was Hindu, but he believed in more than just that. He learned Christian and Islamic ways. He prayed to all the Gods he knew while stranded at sea. He was a very spiritual person, but luck wasn’t the only thing that got him to shore. When not being in contact with other humans for about two thirds of year I wouldn’t say it’s abnormal to go at least a little bit crazy.
You could even say that Pi lost his human nature and turned into Richard Parker, who was more focused on survival more than anything else. Pi hallucinated talking to imaginary people too throughout his journey at sea. This is just a humans conscious going out of place when not in a social environment.
Pi does and becomes all of these for one goal, to survive. Humans have a phycological power to survive when in abnormal situations, such as being stranded at sea. When Pi speaks to

workers for the Tsimtsum (the boat that sank) about what had happened he tells two versions of the story. One where everyone is an animal except him, and then one where there are all humans.
The version with all humans there is a sailor (zebra) who jumped on the lifeboat and broke his leg, a ruthless cook who uses his leg as bait and later kills him for food. Pi and his mom are horrified and his mom tries to stop him. The cook then kills Pi’s mother, and Pi says, “Solitude began. I turned to God. I survived” (He killed the cook)
During Pi’s journey at sea, he had to overcome being so alone and stranded, which is very hard to do. But while at sea, Pi witnessed amazing things. He saw a huge whale change the color of the sea at night, comforting sunsets, and luckily a group of flying fish so he had sufficient amount of food to eat for a period of time. All the amazing things that happened to Pi, whether true or hallucination, is a story.
The book was split into three sections, Pi’s life before the shipwreck, Pi’s life while stranded at sea, and the last part being Pi interacting with workers from the Tsimtsum, and telling his story.
Pi tells the workers his story about how he was at sea with a tiger named Richard
Parker, a hyena, orangutang, and a dying zebra, and some how survived. Pi spoke about the island he encountered and how it came to life at night. The workers left the room after and spoke a bit and then came back. When they got back they said they do not believe the story, and don’t believe that bananas can float. (Pi presented the question if bananas can float earlier) Pi then gave the workers two bananas and said to fill up the sink and make them float. The workers did as told and were curiously thinking if bananas could actually float. Bananas in fact do float, and the workers were in aw. This was a metaphor saying you can never know what is true or not, unless you were there (or in the banana metaphor, experiment it) The workers enjoyed the story

but asked again, for what really happened because there were so many parts of the story that were “impossible” Pie responded with saying that the only reason why you think my story
is
“impossible” is because you don’t see thinks by cities and towns, but Pi says that he will tell them another story. The new story he said was different from the first, but yet entirely the same.
His new story had all humans instead of animals, but their personalities stayed consistent. (Same story as in the last paragraph) It’s up to you to choose whether the first or second story was true.
This book teaches a lot of things to us. What we’ll end up doing to survive an uncertain situation and that anything is possible. But I would say, the biggest thing of all that Life of Pi teaches us is, we can choose in what we believe in. All the symbols in the book can be interpretated differently, and there is no wrong way to look at things. This book’ll be great for the future to read so they understand the importance of symbolism and belief, for all we know the future will need a lot of belief. “The world isn't just the way it is. It is how we understand it, no?
And in understanding something, we bring something to it, no?
Doesn't that make life a story?”
― Yann Martel, Life of Pi

“You must take life the way it comes at you and make the best of it.”
― Yann Martel, Life of Pi