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Struggle For Dominance In Yann Martel's Life Of Pi

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Struggles for Dominance in Life of Pi

The struggle for dominance is often used in fiction. In Life of Pi, Pi had a struggle for dominance with Richard Parker. Pi had to fight with Richard Parker to gain control of the lifeboat. If Pi did not become dominant over Richard Parker, he would have been killed. Yann Martel uses this struggle to show that both Pi and Richard Parker had to rely on each other to survive.
If Pi did not become dominant over Richard Parker, he probably would have been killed. Pi realizes that he needs to train Richard Parker so that he can have control of the lifeboat. “I needed safe access to the locker and the top of the tarpaulin, no matter the time of day or the weather, no matter his mood.” In order to become dominant over Richard Parker, Pi associated the sound of a whistle to seasickness. Therefore whenever …show more content…

Once Richard Parker was on the boat, Pi realized what he just did. However, Pi did not know that this action actually saved his life and he would not have survived out in the ocean alone without Richard Parker. Richard Parker caused Pi to think of the present, and not dwell on the past and all that he had lost. Having Richard Parker on the boat forced Pi to think of how he could outlast the tiger. Pi came up with multiple ways on how he was going to get rid of Richard Parker. “I started thinking seriously about how I was going to deal with Richard Parker.” None of his ideas were good and he gave up on himself and said he was going to die. Then, Pi realized that he should keep Richard Parker alive and try to force his dominance over the tiger. “It was time to impose myself and carve out my territory.”The author uses the territorial struggle between Pi and Richard Parker to show that Pi is as strong as the tiger is mentally, and when Pi establishes mental dominance, he is able to use Richard Parker to his advantage to help him

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Exp1: During Pi’s and Richard Parkers struggle after huge storm they went through, the both suffered through hunger, blindness, and more painful protection. However, they both survived in the movie and in the book because Richard Parker inspired Pi by not be afraid, and to go against his fears. Pi inspired Richard Parker by surviving with him and doing what is right not by killing Pi.

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Phillip wisley decides to keep his opinion quiet to avoid further trouble from his parents. After Phillip and Timothy get stranded on the island, Phillip because he is blind is very scared that something will happen

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Billy Pilgrim and Piscine Patel are two incredibly different people, who were both put in extreme situations out of their control. They both had to decide how much they wanted to live and how much they were willing to fight for it, but they ended up having very different ways of coping with and handling their respective conflicts. Despite the apparent similarities in their stories, Pi showed great willingness to fight for his survival, while Billy seemed to simply take things as they came. Despite being incredibly different stories, Slaughterhouse Five and the Life of Pi have many similarities in the way they play with the idea of what is real, and the possibility of the protagonists’ coming up with alternative, more unbelievable scenarios to justify what has happened to them as something aside from human cruelty. In both cases we are left wondering what really happened, thinking perhaps the conflicts they claim to have dealt with are really figments of their own mind that they’ve convinced themselves were real so they would have something to blame the nature of their problems on.

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Richard Parker 's Enlightenment A key moments in the book happens during the flying fish "plague." Pi watches fish jump aboard the lifeboat. As he unsuccessfully tries to collect them, he looks up to see Richard Parker eating with ease or even grace: "Actually, it was not so much the speed that was impressive as the pure animal confidence, the total absorption in the moment. Such a mix of ease and concentration, such a being-in-the-present, would be the envy of the highest yogis" (2.61.19) If Pi learns anything from Richard Parker, it 's how to engage with the actual, physical world.

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Most would think one was crazy if one thought there was a bengal tiger lying dormant in a lifeboat. In fact, one would probably think oneself was crazy for the very same claim! Either way, the threat was real, and the two dangers, Richard Parker and al-Qaeda, are both incredibly deadly. When Pi and his brother were younger, their father had decided to show them the true dangers of the zoo they owned. The pure aggressiveness and predatory nature of many of the animals in the zoo absolutely shocked Pi, who lived a pacifist, vegetarian life.

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Pi encounters a French castaway; the castaway foolishly enters Pi’s lifeboat and is eaten by Richard Parker. After Richard Parker kills the French castaway, Pi starts using the leftover flesh for his own uses, such as fishing: “I will confess that I caught one of his arms with the gaff and used his flesh as bait” (322). In his isolated state, he thinks of nothing but survival and how he will receive his next meal. Soon after, Pi even goes to the extremity of eating the flesh of the mangled dead castaway. This deed of cannibalism barely registers in his mind as he admits, “... I ate some of his flesh.

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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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