In the novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel, Pi’s journey across the ocean acts as both a psychological and moral catalyst for change within himself. However, the single moment which inspires the most moral and psychological development is when the orangutan is killed and the others on the boat eat the body to survive. The moment is so altering for Pi because the orangutan represents his mother. After a shipwreck, where Pi becomes stranded on a small boat in the ocean, the emotional trauma of the ordeal lead him to begin to interpret the people around him as zoo animals so he can cope with his situation. When the orangutan, the orangutan in reality being Pi’s mother, is murdered and the body is subsequently cannibalized by the survivors, Pi is morally altered as the violent death of his mother, consumption of meat, and overall …show more content…
Before he was in the boat he was a vegetarian who saw eating meat as morally wrong, however, in the boat eating meat becomes a necessity. He’s again forced to move away from his understanding of right and wrong to survive. This moment is magnified when it’s taken into account that the meat he eats is his mother’s body. The action of eating meat is evidence of the moral change within him and the seriousness of his situation. The implication that he cannibalized his mother after watching her murdered casts his moral development from innocent child to adult in a violent light. The moment of the orangutan/mother’s death forces Pi to quickly transition from child to adult and from the comfort of modern kindness and morality to a mindset of harsh survivalism. Pi is forced to embrace a full fledged attempt to survive or die. To accomplish this he has to let go of his old ideas about morality and life. And instead make the decision that he will do anything to