In the novel Life of Pi, the author Yann Martel uses diction in a way to lyrically write a 100 chapter story resembling a poem. In the story, Martel uses poetic language to push for extra meaning. Often, Martel uses this poetic language to aid in understanding how the story and the storyteller are meant to be viewed. Religion, faith, and God are a few of the many topics Martel addresses using poetic language. Around the time Pi discovers his religious self, Pi recalls being told "if you take two steps towards God, God runs after you" (77). This sort of vivid language gives a picture that ultimately tells the reader about Pi's love and deep faith in God. Another example of poetic language describing God is one seen throughout much of the book. "Dry yeast less factuality": three words that seem to tell a story…show more content… During his time on the lifeboat, Pi discovers that the challenge of being on the ocean is overcoming the ocean itself. In the midst of this challenge, Pi communicates through poetic language, "the lifeboat … held on to the surface of the water like fingers gripping the edge of a cliff" (201). This almost perfectly gives the idea of the struggle Pi was facing. Like a person gripping the edge of a cliff, Pi's world began to fill with fear, as if he were waiting to fall. Later on, Pi meets a new struggle: hunger. In one of his moments of hunger, Pi kills a fish: "the most extraordinary thing happened as it died: it began to flash all kinds of colors in rapid succession … I felt I was beating a rainbow to death" (234). Through this comes the message that in times where survival is difficult, sometimes people have to do terrible things to achieve greatness. Being a vegetarian, Pi beating a fish was a terrible thing, but it was one of the few options he had to achieve greatness. As shown, poetic language is a great way of displaying the struggle for
