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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.