What Does Eating Symbolize In Life Of Pi

In The Life of Pi, a young boy called Pi is left to fend for himself in a small lifeboat containing a Royal Bengal tiger, an adult orangutan, a ferocious hyena, and an injured zebra. They are forced to cooperate and survive along each other, but many of those animals do not survive. Eating is part of survival during the day-to-day life of everyone, but in The Life of Pi, it means much more than that. Eating becomes the most important thing in both Pi and the animals’ lives, which gives it a great meaning compared to other pieces of literature. The fact that Pi is willing to give his food--his survival--to another living thing is symbolic in a great way. The exchange of food holds a special meaning, which, in some cases creates a form of communion. Pi interacting …show more content…
Pi and Richard Parker’s relationship was strengthened and filled with trust by their acts of sharing food and eating together. Foster said that “in the real world, breaking bread together is an act of sharing and peace, since if you’re breaking bread you’re not breaking heads” (Foster 9). Pi was dangerous to Richard Parker, and vice versa; however, the way they share their resources, especially food, builds their relationship and even instills trust between the two of them. Pi “roughly open[s] up [turtles] with the knife and [tosses them] on the floor for Richard Parker” multiple times in The Life of Pi (Martel 212); this in turn caused a sense of friendship between them. Pi tells him, “I love you, Richard Parker. If I didn’t have you now, I don’t know what I’d do. I don’t think I would make it. No, I wouldn’t. I would die of hopelessness” towards the end of their journey (Martel 236). Throughout the novel, Pi goes from referring mainly to “I” and “me” to saying things like “we came upon trash” instead of referring