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Ralph Ellison's 'When I Am, I Ll Be Free'

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Critical/ Analytical Essay Final Exam

The trials and tribulations an individual faces entitles them to discover his or her true potential, which could succumb them to evil, however could also construct them to become enlightened. As Ralph Ellison recited “When I discover who I am, I’ll be free,” he conveyed that the day an individual discovers themselves they will have to potential to achieve any goal. Ralph Ellison’s quote directly illustrates the journey of Piscine Patel through the Pacific Ocean in Life of Pi, and how he overcomes his hardships. Although, this is not only true for Piscine, this type of self discovery is also portrayed by the depthful characters of William Golding, Simon and his companion Ralph from Lord of the Flies. The day individuals discovers themselves, they will have the potential and courage to face the world. …show more content…

Piscine in the movie is portrayed to be the symbol of humanity due to his ascertain to acknowledge the religion he wants to trail. In many situations, his family did not support his ideologies to believe in god, however, Piscine did not give up on the search for himsel. His will to survive portrays that he has realized his true potential. Being separated from the shelter of his parents makes him formulate a relationship with the animals on the boat. The orangutan allowed him to realize that in order to fight at sea he will have to go against many ideologies. Likewise, in order to survive he has to go against his beliefs and kill a fish, to keep the tiger Richard Parker fed, so he would not savagely devour Piscine. Life for Pi contained a hazardous amount of hardships, moving from India, living at sea with a tiger, etc. Although, Pi did not give up because if he did; he knew that the beginning of his wisdom would end before it

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Thomas Paine once said, “The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection.” In every young man’s life, suffering, challenges, and trials make him stronger, eventually helping him develop into a truly mature man. Similarly, kindness and respect towards others also play a part in becoming a real man. A great example of the development and progression from boyhood to manhood can be found in the book The Chosen, by Chaim Potok. The story follows a boy named Reuven, and the many challenges he face, that slowly help mold him into a true man.

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Yann Martel is conveying readers that love is also another important key for survival. Exp1: All throughout the movie and the book of Life of Pi, Pi loves his family, and Richard Parker. However during his survival, he had forget his family and only think about Richard Parker and taking care of him.

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The Will to Live React: I vividly imagine Pi as a thin man who is desperate for food and water at this moment since he is close to death. I understand that he is doing everything he can to stay alive even if it means doing something that he thinks is wrong. Explain: Pi kills the fish in order to survive since the ocean is his only food source. Pi is also a vegetarian so he demonstrates the will to live by doing whatever he has to do to stay alive even if it means

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Thus lead Pi to gather up food and head back on his voyage home. The road back to Pi’s somewhat normal life begins after he leaves the uncanny, floating island. Pi has felt many levels of fear and wanting death to come his way but this was the climax of his tolerance for life.

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This tiger can easily kill pi, but the way pi prevents this is he kills an innocent fish to feed the tiger so the it won 't kill him because it 's hungry. Pi made this choice because he wanted to survive, you might argue saying he could of done something else but he didn 't have anything else to do. In these kind of situation we all want to survive just like pi did, he did what he had to do. He shouldn 't be held accountable for what he has done because at the end of the day it 's all

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Pi continues his journey by learning how to live in a small space with these animals and even training one of them. In the end Pi reveals another story with people replacing the animals that were on the lifeboat before. Pi had initially used animals which best represented the people who were really in the boat. This showed how throughout the story, since these people were put into a life threatening situation, they had revealed a more primal side. Life of Pi is accompanied with various symbols, with each

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When Pi’s life is put in serious danger, he has to adjust his wants and needs of many different aspects of his life. Pi was living what he called a perfect life. From spending most of his days with animals to practicing swimming, he learned to love everything about his life. However, things changed when a ship that his entire family on sank in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

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Every day, people are forced to face many challenges, physically, mentally, and socially. Life of Pi by Yann Martel is a key example of the challenges a character must face in order to survive in the vast ocean with no food, water, or company. Yann Martel’s masterful use of tone creates a character whose struggles for survival are not only physical, but also psychological. In Life of Pi, the author, Yann Martel uses humorous and reflective tones to further describe the main character, Pi’s primary method of coping with the challenges he faces throughout his life.

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Life of Pi is about Pi a 16-year-old South Indian boy who follows’ three religions Hindu, Christianity, and Islam. His family owned the local zoo, but with the collapse of the Indian government, his father decided that the future of the family is in Canada. They departed on a Japanese cargo ship with all their animals towards Canada. The ship got into a shipwreck and the only survivors on its lifeboat were Pi, a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan, and a tiger. Martel astonishingly shows how the will to survive changes a person, “I was eating everything a turtle had to offer”(Martel chapter 77 e-book), in the book Pi starts eating meat even though he was a vegetarian for all his life.

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The portrayal of his character as being highly moral and religious in the beginning of the story were destroyed in his search of satisfying his basic physiological needs by turning into savagery. At many points in the story, Pi sees himself no different to Richard Parker as we are all animals looking to survive. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and the story of The Life of Pi, demonstrates that our minds are controlled in stages, in which one set of needs must be satisfied before reaching the satisfaction of another. To understand the psychology of the human mind which allows us to reach the highest of stages of achievement, one must realize the darkest depths a mind can turn to in order to

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There is one moment in the story where all his developed instincts were challenged. He was met with a school of flying fish that would jump out of the water and into the lifeboat. He had wrapped one fish in a blanket and intended to kill it with a hatchet. He could not bring himself to kill this fish with a hatchet, but ultimately cannot go through with it. Pi ends

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In Yann Martel's book Life of Pi, Pi has to make some tough decisions that will ensure his survival. He courageously decides that he can no longer be vegetarian, for the only way to survive is to get protein by way of animal meat, he stays faithful through the toughest times, and he made the brave decision to keep Richard Parker on the boat with him. Pi makes moral sacrifices, despite his devout religious beliefs, that allow him to survive. " But enough is enough.

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These realistic events are not the only examples that show Pi ignores all his morals in order to survive and over the course of the book these events can be seen to get more unbelievable. In addition, this progression could relate to the continuous loss of humanity inside of Pi. Most evidently, in Part 2 an almost direct progression to become more and more magical and unbelievable can be found. Beginning with the shipwreck, then along the way, finding another blind man on the vast ocean and finally to come across a floating island

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He is unable to understand why the Lord isn’t listening to his prayers and why everything is detrimental to him. Keeping his religious beliefs at sea is very challenging for Pi, this leads him to experience feelings of disbelief towards God. Despite his doubts, Pi continues to pray and practice his religions. He eventually comes to the conclusion that once everything is taken away from him and he is in complete darkness, he will always have his faith. He admits that loving God is difficult, but it’s something he must do if he is to survive his journey across the ocean.

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This idea may be based off of the fact that he had to kill the fish in order to survive, and to keep Richard Parker (the tiger) alive as well. Following the time of killing the flying fish (which Pi uses as bait) he catches a dorado, and explains that the food he is catching is for Richard Parker. Pi states, “It was for Richard Parker and he would have dispatched it with expert ease” (Martel 89). Through a religious aspect, it can be seen that Pi did not necessarily change is values, but had to go against his morals because of the specific scenario of survival. This may be true; however, Pi directly mentions that he is changed from the time of killing the flying fish to taking the life away from a beautiful dorado.

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