Imagine you have just pulled into your garage returning from the grocery store. You walk around to the trunk, grab a couple bags, make your way to the kitchen door, and enter the house only to find your sister being severely beaten by an unknown man. In this moment, you have to make the decision either to try and save your sister from any further harm or to run and avoid conflict. To make matters worse, you strongly believe in pacifism and have never engaged in any physical violence. What do you do? Do you sacrifice your values to rescue your loved one?
In Life of Pi, Piscine Molitor Patel is forced into a similar, yet even more complicated predicament on his lifeboat. While he was not forced to choose between his sister and his value set, he did have to either relinquish his vegetarian and pacifistic core beliefs or suffer death by starvation. Interesting enough, the book and and the movie have fundamentally different depictions of this key scene. The variations in the author’s and director’s envisionments of the first time Pi killed an animal have great significance.
The amount of time Pi took contemplating the situation is a distinct difference between the books’ …show more content…
In the book, once Pi has the fish in the blanket, he cannot bring himself to beat the helpless animal with the hammer. Pi would raise the hammer above his head, but his hand would remain motionless in the air. Overcome with emotion, Pi said, “The idea of beating a soft, living head with a hammer was simply too much” (181). After Pi reconsidered the situation and weighed his values against survival, he knew what he had to do. Rather than using the hammer, Pi decided it would be more human if he quickly broke the fish’s neck. Determined, Pi stated “Tears flowing down my cheeks, I egged myself on until I heard a cracking sound and I no longer felt any life fighting in my hands”
In Life of Pi, Piscine Molitor Patel is forced into a similar, yet even more complicated predicament on his lifeboat. While he was not forced to choose between his sister and his value set, he did have to either relinquish his vegetarian and pacifistic core beliefs or suffer death by starvation. Interesting enough, the book and and the movie have fundamentally different depictions of this key scene. The variations in the author’s and director’s envisionments of the first time Pi killed an animal have great significance.
The amount of time Pi took contemplating the situation is a distinct difference between the books’ …show more content…
In the book, once Pi has the fish in the blanket, he cannot bring himself to beat the helpless animal with the hammer. Pi would raise the hammer above his head, but his hand would remain motionless in the air. Overcome with emotion, Pi said, “The idea of beating a soft, living head with a hammer was simply too much” (181). After Pi reconsidered the situation and weighed his values against survival, he knew what he had to do. Rather than using the hammer, Pi decided it would be more human if he quickly broke the fish’s neck. Determined, Pi stated “Tears flowing down my cheeks, I egged myself on until I heard a cracking sound and I no longer felt any life fighting in my hands”