The novel, Life of Pi, by Yann Martel centers around an innocent, religious and vegetarian Indian boy, Pi Patel. However, when Pi finds himself stranded on the Pacific Ocean after the sinking of the Tsimtsum, and faces starvation and the possibility of death, he abandons his ethics in order to survive. When investigators asked Pi what happened on the lifeboat, Pi tells them a story with zoo animals that have survived the shipwreck as well, one of which is an adult Bengal tiger. When asked by the investigators to tell them what really happened, Pi describes a more realistic and far more horrid story with humans that symbolize the animals. Even though the animal story is whimsical and irrational compared to the human story, the preferred version
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This demonstrates that Pi, in his mind, is visualizing the people on the lifeboat as animals. Considering the horrific things that were going on between the people on the lifeboat, Pi does this to block out reality. An example of anthropomorphism is Orange Juice and her parallelism to Pi’s mother, Gita. Gita, is a courageous, caring and kind person. In the human account of Pi’s ordeal, Gita valiantly strikes the cook and yells at him about how he could so easily cut off the young sailor's leg for food without hesitation (Martel 305-306). Later the cook kills the mother, just like how the hyena kills the orangutan. In the animal version, Orange Juice is also sympathetic and daring especially as she fearlessly [thumps the hyena] on the head…[and it made Pi’s] heart melt with love and admiration and fear,”(Martel 129). In both stories Pi is afraid that the cook or hyena would lash back and kill everyone. Orange Juice also comforts the zebra in his dying moment just like Gita comforting the sailor. Both Orange Juice and Gita are a mother of two boys, and do not eat meat. A reader can clearly see that these two events parallel each other. Another example of anthropomorphism is the tiger, Richard Parker. Despite Pi’s great knowledge of animals and how they behave, it seems incredibly improbable that he was able to
This demonstrates that Pi, in his mind, is visualizing the people on the lifeboat as animals. Considering the horrific things that were going on between the people on the lifeboat, Pi does this to block out reality. An example of anthropomorphism is Orange Juice and her parallelism to Pi’s mother, Gita. Gita, is a courageous, caring and kind person. In the human account of Pi’s ordeal, Gita valiantly strikes the cook and yells at him about how he could so easily cut off the young sailor's leg for food without hesitation (Martel 305-306). Later the cook kills the mother, just like how the hyena kills the orangutan. In the animal version, Orange Juice is also sympathetic and daring especially as she fearlessly [thumps the hyena] on the head…[and it made Pi’s] heart melt with love and admiration and fear,”(Martel 129). In both stories Pi is afraid that the cook or hyena would lash back and kill everyone. Orange Juice also comforts the zebra in his dying moment just like Gita comforting the sailor. Both Orange Juice and Gita are a mother of two boys, and do not eat meat. A reader can clearly see that these two events parallel each other. Another example of anthropomorphism is the tiger, Richard Parker. Despite Pi’s great knowledge of animals and how they behave, it seems incredibly improbable that he was able to