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Yann Martel's Life Of Pi

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Yann Martel portrays human nature through symbolism, using animals to effectively illustrate human characteristics and adversity. In many ways, the animals on the boat have more than one meaning which highlight aspects of humanity. The Life of Pi, is a social allegory of human nature - the mental qualities, feelings, and behavior humankind - as told from the perspective of Pi Patel. The zebra symbolizes the most vulnerable people in a society, Richard Parker, the tiger is used to represent Pi’s primal self, and the hyena shows the evil and competitive side of human reality.

The zebra is embodies the weakest people in society. Throughout Pi Patel’s journey, the main character in Life of Pi, he has gone through a lot hardships and witnessed …show more content…

"The hyena feels no disgust at this mistake... A hyena's catholicity of taste is so indiscriminate it nearly forces admiration." (pg.129). This quotes is significant because it is reinforcing how the hyena is very atrocious animal."I realized something else: the hyena was the reason those sailors had thrown me into a lifeboat. They weren't trying to save my life. That was the last of their concerns. They were using me as a fodder. They were hoping that the hyena would attack me and that somehow I would get rid of it and make the boat safe for them, no matter if it cost me my life. Now I knew what they were pointing at so furiously just before the zebra appeared.(pg 40) .This quotes is important because the fact that the hyena exists is enough to make Pi fear a lot through the first few nights on the boat. “It has been left behind. The pet does not understand. It is as unprepared for this jungle as its human siblings are. It waits around for their return, trying to quell the panic rising in it. They do not return. “(2.47.8). This quotes is powerful is because really, this is a sad in the novel. Pi discusses the stupidity of returning pets to the wilderness . How can the creature survive in a habitat that is has to adapt to eventually thrive in? But Pi also reflects loss of his brother Ravi because he was abandoned. The author uses many different methods to reinforce how the hyena is a evil animal throughout the

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480 Words | 2 Pages

The hyena stands above my head growling foaming at the mouth about to lunge, the hyena takes irs first leap and I jump out with my razor sharp teeth killing the hyena in a single bite. Pi does get extremely scared and falls backwards almost going overboard. I did not want the hurt him so I take a step back and sit. He got in a fighting pose and I just sat.

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723 Words | 3 Pages

As a result of the comparison of likeness of humans and animals, the audience is compelled to sympathize with the animals, augmenting the persuasiveness of the author's

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1444 Words | 6 Pages

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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1246 Words | 5 Pages

Pi’s mother is displayed as the typical housewife in India as she takes on the stereotypical domestic roles of a woman by cooking, cleaning and looking after her children in their household. In addition, “Before moving to Pondicherry zoo, father ran a large hotel in madras” (Martel 14). Evidently, Pi’s father takes on the role of the breadwinner in the novel by going to work everyday and by controlling the household. Furthermore, as being the dominant figure in the household, Pi’s father (Santosh Patel) has made the major decisions in the household, for instance like moving to Canada and selling the Podicherry zoo. On the Patel’s moving day, Pi’s mother seemed “sad.

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1382 Words | 6 Pages

Yann Martel is an award-winning Canadian author with many notable works, including Life of Pi. In this novel, Trent University alumnus depicts a story of a young Indian boy, Piscine Patel, who is stranded on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger after a shipwreck. In Life of Pi, Yann Martel presents two stories to leave the reader conflicted as to what story is true, which emphasizes the reader’s subjective ideology and the realization that there is no absolute truth. Most readers presume that the relativity of truth isn’t introduced until the end of the novel, but the beginning of the novel also postulates that there is no absolute truth. The author’s note blurs the border amid fact and fiction.

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455 Words | 2 Pages

The overall objective of this experiment was to observe natural selection, like genetic drift, of Drosophilas and how it contributes to the changes in allele frequencies over time. The lab was performed by starting with 10 wild-type males, 10 white-eyed amles, 10 wild-type females, and 10 white-eyed females into a population cage with 4 food bottles and their phenotypes were counted to observe the changes in the populations. Population genetics is a branch of biology that investigates the genetic makeup of biological populations as well as changes in genetic composition caused by different variables such as natural selection (Okasha, 2022). It investigates genetic diversity within or across groups by detecting and simulating changes in the frequency of genes and alleles in groups through time (Okasha, 2022).

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269 Words | 2 Pages

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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1502 Words | 7 Pages

All stories, whether a novel or a film, have deeper meanings than what meets the eye. Discrimination is an issue which continues to affect many people today. Individuals are judged based on their social class and economical status. Also, a human having different beliefs than others is a rising conflict, as individuals react opposingly to situations depending on their belief system. Throughout the novel, Life of Pi, written by Yann Martel three major points are discussed, that being, social status, economical status, and the idea of faith and hope.

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656 Words | 3 Pages

Life of Pi is a novel written by Yann Martel, it illustrates an Indian boy called Picine Molitor Patel from Pondicherry experienced different issues of religion and survives 227 days shipwrecked in the Pacific Ocean. Yann Martel has called chapters 21 and 22 essential to the whole book, Martel demonstrates how creating a “better story” has helped Pi to survive, allowed him to face his guilt and the two chapters reveals Pi’s understanding of science and religion. Martel goes on to explore how Pi creating a “better story” for himself can help him to combat adversity and to survive. After the sinking of Tsimtsum, Pi has faced unbearable hardships and suffering.

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699 Words | 3 Pages

In the novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel, Pi’s journey across the ocean acts as both a psychological and moral catalyst for change within himself. However, the single moment which inspires the most moral and psychological development is when the orangutan is killed and the others on the boat eat the body to survive. The moment is so altering for Pi because the orangutan represents his mother. After a shipwreck, where Pi becomes stranded on a small boat in the ocean, the emotional trauma of the ordeal lead him to begin to interpret the people around him as zoo animals so he can cope with his situation. When the orangutan, the orangutan in reality being Pi’s mother, is murdered and the body is subsequently cannibalized by the survivors, Pi is morally altered as the violent death of his mother, consumption of meat, and overall

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1296 Words | 6 Pages

The Quest of Pi The Life of Pi a quest with an strong influence of religion that is apparent throughout the story. “We are all born like Catholics, aren't we--in limbo without religion, until some figure introduces us to god” (Martel 58). Piscine Molitor Patel a young Indian teen has a unique infatuation with religion. Yann Martel, the author of Life of Pi, Gave Pi or Piscine an interesting life that is different from others.

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1479 Words | 6 Pages

But, since the man does not express any honor or respect for the natural world that the two are experiencing, the dog doesn’t contribute his natural instinct to the man as he is lost in the wilderness. The lack of connection between the natural dog and the man is expressed by, “And still later it [the dog] crept close to the man and caught the scent of death… Then it turned up and trotted up the trail in the direction of the camp it know, where there were the other food providers- and fire-providers” (1058). During the time of the man’s journey,

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1463 Words | 6 Pages

With the combination of magical realistic events and Pi’s religious beliefs, Pi along with the reader a contemplates life’s concepts. From the very beginning, Pi makes his love and yearning for religion clear. As Life of Pi progresses, the protagonist picks up multiple religions as he travels through the novel. With the addition of first Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity, Pi gains attention from leaders and priests of these faiths. Conflict commences with the religious leaders of these individual faiths.

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1124 Words | 5 Pages

Life of Pi is a movie about Pi, a shipwreck survivor, and his epic journey of discovery and faith. It is based on Yann Martel’s novel with the same name, and the movie, directed by Ang Lee, makes use of magical realism to convey many themes related to life and spirituality. Many significant symbols are also used to showcase the characteristics of magical realism. In particular, water and the carnivorous island were two important symbols that represented the theme of spirituality in Life of Pi.

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157 Words | 1 Pages

The animals thought everything was going to be perfect after Mr. Jones left, but after that a lot of bad things have happened. For example the animals

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