Essay On Mercury Poisoning In Yann Martel's Life Of Pi

“When you've suffered a great deal in life, each additional pain is both unbearable and trifling,”(Martel 5) and for the protagonist in the Life of Pi, he has suffered from much pain, and while some of that is simply normal stuff life throws at people most of it is from his horrible journey at sea. In the Life of Pi, Pi Patel loses his family, his home, and at times even his hope and religion leaving him just a bare castaway. When Pi Patel is 16 his family packs up everything they have and put it on a boat to go to Canada but when a normal storm hits and something unknown goes terribly wrong the boat sinks leaving Pi on a lifeboat with an orangutan, a hyena, a zebra, and a Bengal tiger. Soon Pi and Richard Parker, the Bengal tiger, are the …show more content…
Mercury poisoning is a, “Poisoning caused by mercury or a compound containing mercury, with the acute form characterized by stomach ulcers and renal tubule toxicity and the chronic form affecting the central nervous system and causing emotional instability.” (Dictionary) In the story, Life of Pi, the protagonist is abandoned at sea stuck in a lifeboat with a bengal tiger relying on fishing and crackers to survive. While Pi’s story may be very different from previous ones they have one thing in similar: Mercury Poisoning. For many sailors they received mercury through medical treatments for syphilis and open sores but that is not the only way one may obtain mercury in their system (“Medicine at sea”) . Another way one could obtain mercy is to consume it through the digestion of fish and other seafoods. Research shows that in fish, shellfish, and other animals that consume there are high levels of a very toxic form of methylmercury, which is consumed by humans while in the process of consuming fish and shellfish (“Mercury Poisoning”) From the novel, Life of Pi chapter 52, we know that Pi only has 1 dark chocolate bar and 31 emergency rations to survive off of other than fish and turtles. In a study by