Freebie

Economical and Political Influence of the Novel “Life of Pi”        

Life of Pi is set against the lawless period of Indian history known as the Emergency. In 1975, Prime Minister Gandhi was found guilty of charges related to her 1971 election campaign and was ordered to resign. Instead, Gandhi, in response to an intensifying strikes and protests against the government system, declared a state of emergency. During the period of Emergency, she suspended every constitutional right and gave herself an absolute power. The Emergency lasted for 18 months from September 1975 and was officially declared ending in March 1977, when Gandhi called for a new round of elections. The historical legacy of this even has been highly controversial. Many people in India, especially Gandhi’s political opponents were jailed, abused, and tortured. By the end of Emergency, India’s economy experienced a much-needed stabilization and growth. In Life of Pi, the protagonist Pi Molitor Patel’s father, a zookeeper in Pondicherry, India, grew anxious about the current political situation. Simultaneously, faced with the depressing economic conditions, Pi’s father decided to sell off his zoo and animals and move his family to Canada. Consequently, the economical and political circumstances at the time in India set the main action of the novel into motion.

Symbols

Some symbols in Life of Pi include: the mathematical symbol and the protagonist’s nickname Pi (~3.14), and the Bengal tiger, Richard Parker.

Although the protagonist’s real name is Piscine Molitor Patel, he created and told others his new nickname on the first day in secondary school. Because Pi was tired of others mispronouncing his name as “Pissing Molitor Patel” he shortened his first name to Pi, instead of Piscine. The word Pi carries a series of significant associations throughout the novel. In terms of mathematical symbol, Pi is a letter in the Greek alphabet p, which also contains the meaning alpha and omega. Generally, these two terms signify independence and endurance. Pi is also an irrational mathematical number associating with circles. Often shortened to 3.14, Pi has many decimal places that we can’t accurately grasp it. In Life of Pi, the author Martel implies that some realities are too difficult or too troubling to face. The associations with the mathematical symbol p and the events in Life of Pi establish the character Pi Patel with multiple layers of meaning.

The Royal Bengal tiger Richard Parker symbolizes Pi’s most animalistic instincts. Out on the lifeboat, Pi must perform many actions to stay alive that he would have found unimaginable in his normal life. He abandoned vegetarian life style and had to kill fish to sustain his life. As the time progressed, Pi became more ruthless about killing, tearing apart birds and greedily stuffing them in his mouth, the way Richard Parker did. 

Characterization

In the novel "Life of Pi", the main character is a 16-year-old boy, Piscine Molitor Patel who is named after a swimming pool in Paris. However, when he goes into secondary school, he claims the people call him by the name "Pi", due to the teasing he got from his classmates and even teachers in elementary school. From this incident, Pi develops his personality and identity as a pre-teen. Later on, he receives his BA in zoology as well as religious studies.
Weirdly enough, Pi has not one, but three religions- Christianity, Hinduism and Muslim. He loves God and this influences he view and perspectives of life and the experiences he goes through. However, after facing the tragic death of his family with the sunken boat, he starts to think that God is not there help him, and that He takes away from Pi. Later on, he gets enlightened by God many times which extricate him from a difficult situation.

 At the beginning of the story, Pi is naïve,humorous inexperienced.  However, after the 227 days of survival in the wild, he becomes more thoughtful, wise and brave. He learns to survive in the ocean by himself with Richard Parker the tiger. He also learns to avoid other animals or even humans from devouring him. No matter how dangerous and ferocious of a beast Richard Parker is, and the high possibility of facing a painful death of getting eaten by the tiger, he uses his wisdom to conquer and tame the tiger. During his journey, he sees various things that no one has seen before. This gives him a wider perspective of life and helps him to see things in a view that many people don't understand. 

Richard Parker the Tiger is another main character, though he is an animal. He was raised in a zoo ever since he was a cub. He is Pi’s competitor, but also his companion. Without Richard Parker, Pi would have not survived from his journey. Which his presence, Pi is always alerted and distracted from thinking about the death of his family. He also comes to rely on Richard Parker's company. Like any other animals that are on top of the food chain, Richard Parker is dangerous and vigorous. Despite his savage-like instincts and nature, Richard Parker eventually becomes tamed by Pi and never devours Pi. 

At the end of the story, when Pi finally gets rescued, he tells people about his journey, and how he survived being on a boat with a tiger for over 7 months. When they don't believe him, Pi changes the story and makes up people to represent the animal that he was on the boat with. He makes himself represent Richard Parker the Tiger.  It is possible to consider that  Richard Parker actually represents the cruel and savage side of Pi. This huge twist at the end of the story makes that the readers rethink about t reality rather than be absorbed in the fantasy of Pi's journey,  and see the two totally different sides/personalities of Pi.

Life of Pi - Conflict

The conflict of Yann Martel's story, a the Canadian novel "Life of Pi" is quite obvious. The quote, "I was alone and orphaned, in the middle of the pacific, hanging onto an oar, an adult tiger in front of me, sharks beneath me, a storm raging about me," expresses the conflict of the novel perfectly. This sentence expresses his frustration of losing everything he once had. In a blink of an eye, he goes from sleeping soundly on his bed to a devastating shipwreck that kills his parents along with Ravi, his older brother. The only thing left of his past is the Bengal tiger, the injured zebra, the orangutan  and the hyena from his zoo back in Pondicherry, which he has to share a boat with. Driven by starvation, the zebra and the orangutan is killed by the hyena, which is later killed by Richard Parker. Overcoming his fear of the ferocious beast, he dauntlessly tames the barbaric creature, eventually relying on his company to stay sane. Our inquiry question is also mentioned in this quote, as he is alone and isolated from society. While being abandoned on the life boat, Pi has to worry about the weather, the waves, the sharks in the ocean, as well as Richard Parker. Despite the devastating conditions, Pi strives to survive, being undefeated by and fighting what he cannot control, depicting the conflict known as man vs nature. Another conflict we witness from "Life of Pi" is man vs. self. During the 227 days of being isolated in Pacific ocean with Richard Parker, Pi struggles to keep himself alive. From the first day he was stranded on the life boat alone with several wild animals, he constantly doubts whether he has a change of surviving, and if it's worth it or not. His family gone with the sunk boat, he has nothing to go back to even if he survives. However, he still finds the will, fierce will to live. He says to himself, that some people give up as soon as they try. Some will try then give up. But others, like himself, will keep fighting and fighting, no matter what situation is, or how small the probability of success. Even though Pi has his doubts, bizarre and many near-death experiences, he still finds the will, courage, and desire within himself through self-struggling to continue on with his journey.

Themes of Life of Pi

 The story Life of Pi has two major themes that are: the desire to live and religion. The novel is a story about a boy nicknamed Pi struggling to survive through challenging situations and seemingly insurmountable odds.

The shipwrecked inhabitants of the little lifeboat don't simply accept their fate, but actively fight against it. Within Pi’s 277 days of disaster, he abandons his life-long vegetarianism and eats fish to sustain himself. All the animals, even the severely wounded zebra battles to stay alive. Their slow, painful struggles vividly illustrate the sheer strength of living creatures’ life force. The author makes the point that every living creature has an inborn desire and willingness to live and nobody would easily give up his/her own life. In Life of Pi, the survivors from the tragic sinking of the ship often do extraordinary, unexpected and sometimes heroic things to survive. Contrariwise, they would also accomplish shameful and vicious things if pressed. At the end of the novel, Pi raises the possibility that the fierce tiger, Richard Parker, is actually the aspect of his own personality, and that Pi himself is responsible for some of the horrific events that he has narrated, including killing and sacrificing his own family for survival, it is revealed that anything could be accomplished in a life-or-death situation.

This story begins with an old man in Pondicherry telling the narrator, “I have a story that will make you believe in God.” Storytelling and religious belief are two closely linked ideas in the novel. Life of Pi contains a story within a different story. In these separate stories, Pi’s three religions, Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam, also come with its own set of tales. In Life of Pi, the nature of religion is used to spread the teachings and illustrate the beliefs of the faith – the faith that Pi will face as the plot progresses. Pi enjoys religious tales, but he also senses that each of these fables might simply be parts of a greater, universal story about love. Surprisingly for such a religious boy, Pi admires atheists. To him, the significant thing is to believe in something, and Pi can appreciate the atheists’ abilities to believe in the absence of God with no concrete proof of that absence.

 (382 words)

Setting

   

   The book begins with a grown up Pi narrating the story. No particular background of the story is set since he is reflecting back on his life, and we are only reading his thoughts for the first few chapters. Then when Pi's real name, Piscine Molitor Patel, is introduced, the story goes way back to when he was a pre-teen. 

   The story begins in India, when it was just seven years old when it became bigger by a small territory- Pondicherry. Pondicherry entered the Union of India on November 1st, 1945. a portion of the ground of the Pondicherry Botanical garden was made available for rent-free for an exciting business opportunity. Pi’s father is the one to take this opportunity and create a brand new zoo. He ran a large hotel in Madras before, but his interest in animals led him to the zoo business and led his family to move to Pondicherry. The zoo is designed and run according to the most modern, biologically sound principles. It is huge, spread over numberless acres, big enough to have a train to explore it. It is hot, humid, bathed in sunshine and bright colors. Flowers are incessant, and there are threes, shrubs, and climbing plants and profusion. There are also a variety of animals, such as giraffes, elephants, Indian rhinoceroses, lions, lamas, flamingos, and many more. If you’re wondering why I’m describing a zoo as the setting of the story, it would be because this is where Pi grew up. This is where Pi describes as paradise on earth, and still pictures it in his head even when he’s almost 40. His childhood is practically weaved with this zoo, and it is a significant reason of why he takes zoology in university. Growing up with this zoo, Pi establishes his identity, and faces his first challenge for his religion from his teacher Mr. Kumar at this zoo. However, this setting is only for the beginning of the story, leading up to when Pi’s adventure on the boat with Richard Parker, as well as his move to Canada. 

(346 words)