Life Of Pi And Unbroken By Laura Hillenbrand: Literary Analysis

The will to survive in an extreme environment motivates individuals to endeavor and carry on, regardless of the deprivation and hindrance they face. The novels Life of Pi by Yann Martel and Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand convey this very same notion, as both individuals, Pi and Louie Zamperini possessed the will to endure through their drastic conditions. Between both these texts, there are a multitude of resemblances and distinctions that reflect both the extreme environment and mental challenges they survived through in their will to survive.

For one, both characters, Pi and Louie have physical states that mirror. For example, in Life of Pi, it states “The divining rod in my mind dipped sharply and a spring gushed water when I remembered that

Pi in Life of Pi states “What was missing here to tame Richard Parker? Time? It might be weeks before a ship sighted me. I had all the time in the world. Resolve? There’s nothing like extreme need to give you resolve. Knowledge? Was I not a zookeeper’s son? Reward? Was there any reward greater in life? Any punishment worse than death? I looked at Richard Parker. My panic was gone. My fear was dominated. Survival was at hand.” This renders how Pi isn 't lost in his thoughts. Pi knows how valuable his sanity and he is attempting to help Richard Parker and himself since he knows instead of shying away from Richard Parker he will use his presence to his advantage. This reveals that Pi wants to continue his very strong will to survive, and in doing this he must keep his sanity. This is relevant to the article “127 hours” by Alex Hannaford. According to the article, “Ralston slipped and fell down the chasm, dislodging an 800lb (360kg) chockstone boulder, which is much harder than sandstone. It crushed his arm and left Ralston pinned against the canyon wall.” Subsequently, being trapped didn 't make him abandon this quest for survival- but inspired and motivated him to have even more strength and willpower to rescue himself. Subsequently, this helps him clear his mind and organize his thoughts only to later escape from that boulder. Similarly, in Unbroken it states “To Louie, the most important aspect of Rickenbacker’s (a World War I pilot whose plane had crash landed) story was how quickly the survivors had gone insane. He remembered a college instructor telling him to think of the brain as a muscle, needing exercise to stay in shape. Louie was determined to keep himself and the others lucid.” This expressed how Louie will never give up, and he reminds himself of past experiences to keep his will to survive going. He knows that staying sane is a key factor to fulfill his will to