Life Of Pi And Suffering Comparison

Victor Frankl once said, “If there is meaning in life at all, then there must be meaning in suffering.”In Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl, the novel is centered around a doctor in a Jewish concentration camp and his psychological examinations of how he and other prisoners found meaning in their lives. In his diagnosis, Frankl found that man can discover meaning amongst suffering in three different ways: by creating work or doing a deed; by experiencing something or encountering someone; and by the attitude someone takes toward unavoidable suffering.” In the Life of Pi, written by Yann Martel, a young boy named Piscine Martel finds himself stranded on a boat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with a bengal tiger, after tragically losing his family. Similar to Victor Frankl, Pi transcends his suffering in the Life of Pi by creating meaning amongst his horrendous circumstances.

He is forced to make it on his own amongst Richard Parker and the other three animals on board. At first, Pi wants to get Richard Parker off the boat in fear that he soon will be killed by him. However as the other animals dwindle away, Pi adapts to having Richard Parker on board. He instills his father's lessons to train the tiger and make the twenty-six by eight foot boat a zoo. Pi “was the source of food and water” (282). He routinely feeds and cleans up for Richard Parker. Pi says “A part of me did not want Richard parker to die at all, because if he died I would be left alone with despair, a foe even more formidable than a tiger. If I still had the will to live, it was thanks to Richard Parker.” By creating work and being zookeeper for Richard Parker, Pi is supplied with meaning in his life to continue his