Life Of Pi Conflict

Every human being on Earth will be presented with numerous choices in their lives, often creating dilemmas. Humans possess the unique ability to ponder about existence and to make rational decisions. Life and death are still a mystery for scientists and normal people to wrap their heads around, and many philosophers have taken on the challenge. The main character of Life of Pi by Yann martel, Piscine Molitor, must also take on this difficult task when presented with the challenge of survival on a boat lost at sea with a Bengal tiger. Through Pi’s ordeals, he began to question himself, unbeknownst to him. In Life of Pi by Yann Martel, Martel manipulates the literary elements, character and conflict, to showcase the existential crises experienced

Near the start of his journey, Pi contemplates about life and death and what the meaning of those two concepts are to him. He arrives at the conclusion that some may not “believe in life, but I don’t believe in death” (Martel 7). Pi’s adamancy about his philosophies of life and death exhibits the anxiety present in the life around him and himself. This anxiety works to create a juxtaposition of Pi’s lack of acceptance of death and his growing fear of it while on the boat, which shows his existential dilemma. Time passes as Pi continues to progress through his ordeal, alone at sea with only Richard Parker by his side. He soon comes to the realization that he saw “my suffering for what it was, finite and insignificant” (Martel 223). The suffering of Pi on the the boat shatters his naive thoughts that, in the scope of the entire world, his torment is meaningful. His dilemma triggers the development of his character through causing him to doubt his existence. As the perpetuous, monotonous cycles of day and night progressed, Pi’s food and water rations begins to run dry and his vision deteriorated. By the time his vision was completely gone, he had “lost all fear of death, and [he] resolved to die” (Martel 305). When faced with the prospect of reaching his last breath, he forcefully accepted his fate. His breakaway from his disbelief and his succumbing to his fear of demise strongly unveils Pi’s existential crisis between reality and his beliefs. The moral predicaments that Pi experiences strongly illuminates the crises that he goes