Life Of Pi: Yann Martel's Survival

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How is it possible for people to survive in what seems like impossible conditions? Yann Martel has created a story that describes how a young boy can overcome the many obstacles that are standing in the way of his survival. Martel was born in Salamanca, Spain, however, he moved often due to his parent’s professions. He became a writer at the age of twenty-seven and wrote about topics such as death, sexuality, battle, and illness. Martel’s big break came when he published the New York Times Number 1 Bestseller Life of Pi, which “was praised by critics for its blending of literary styles, incorporating magic realism and absurdity” (Hunter 9). The novel is about a young boy named Pi Patel, who by accident, gets stranded in the middle of …show more content…
Pi knows that he will need food, water, and shelter if he wants live. Patel realized that he could not survive by only drinking the salty ocean water. Pi recognizes that he would be able to use the numerous wet and rainy days at sea to collect drinking water for himself. Patel explains, “I grabbed a bucket and made it into a rain catcher” (Martel 155). Pi uses his creative mind to help him solve his problems in order to survive. Even though Pi successfully collects clean drinking water, he still needs to come up with a solution to obtain food, Pi “used his ingenuity to catch fish and turtles” as a source of nutrients (Chaney 1). Pi is able to draw upon his experiences as a young boy at his father’s zoo in Pondicherry, where he learned much about turtles. When he is scrambling for food at sea, he catches a turtle and instantly uses his prior knowledge to butcher it. Martel explains that Pi put “ the turtle on its back… jabbed the knife right to the right of the turtle’s head, at an angle” (Martel 201). This clearly shows that in order to survive, Pi Patel uses his innovation and creativity throughout his brutal journey. His ingenuity helps him develop solutions instantly, allowing him to survive while at

Survival In Yann Martel's Life Of Pi

obstacles in life, but how they cope can determine their survival. Having a positive outlook when going through an a tough situation, gives you the strength to continue to keep going and move forward. In Life of Pi, by Yann Martel Pi asks the Japanese investigators, “which story do you prefer? Which is the better story, the story with the animals or the story without animals?” The story with the animals is the better story because Pi is viewed as the good guy. In the story without the animals, Pi was stranded…

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Life Of Pi resurch paper

Alternative Paper: (Collingsworth) Life Of Pi Part 1 Question Answer What is the name of book? Life Of Pi by Yann Martel What is the background of story? The background of the story is Pi and his family live in India. The family was poor but they owned a zoo. His mother’s name was Gita Patel. His father’s name was Santosh Patel. His brothers name was Ravi Patel. Who are the Main characters? The Main characters in the Life Of Pi is Pi, The bengal tiger, Orange juice, Zebra…

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Yann Martel's Life Of Pi

Life of Pi by Yann Martel epitomizes the themes of twisting reality for understanding of personal beliefs. Throughout the novel, the main character, Pi, is stranded in extreme conditions of survival, and his faith is tested. The original story he tells is him on a lifeboat with a tiger, orangutan, hyena, and zebra. He is eventually alone with the tiger, Richard Parker, and when he tells his story, investigators do not believe him. He reiterates his story, replacing the zebra with a Taiwanese sailor…

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Essay on fu's life

Life of Pi is divided into four sections. In the first section the main character Pi Patel, an adult Canadian, reminisces about his childhood in India. His father owns a zoo in Pondicherry. The livelihood provides the family with a relatively affluent lifestyle and some understanding of animal psychology. Pi describes how he acquired his full name, Piscine Molitor Patel, as a tribute to the swimming pool in France. After hearing schoolmates tease him by transforming the first name into "Pissing"…

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Essay on Life of pi

phrase that follows us through school, work, sport and the rest of life. Why can’t anything be easy? Now, why did I choose to write about Yann Martel’s book and now movie, ‘Life Of Pi’ when it has so many bad reviews and ratings? The film starts off in a small Indian village called Pondicherry in the 70’s. Piscine Molitor Patel, known as Pi lives with his traditional Indian family with a normal lifestyle, much like my ordinary life, here in England. The mystical movie varies throughout between happy…

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Yann Martel's Life Of Pi

Pi’s story, in Life of Pi by Yann Martel, claims to have him stranded on a lifeboat with little more than his faith, a small assortment of zoo animals, and a Bengal tiger. He spins a web of unimaginable scenes phenomena, but ultimately leaves the reader in doubt. Towards the end of the novel, a few Japanese reporters ask him to tell them what really happened on the boat. Pi tells them he was actually on a lifeboat with his mother, a cook, and a sailor. Many startling parallels can be drawn between…

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Essay on Yann Martel

Devgan World Studies 3/4 Dr. Nelson 12 April, 2012 Life of Pi: Conflicts In life, conflicts arise almost as often as happiness. They are very much alike as yin and yang, fighting against each other constantly only to end up balancing out. However, in Yann Martel’s novel, Life of Pi, conflicts seem to dominate the battle in the main character’s pursuit of happiness. In the novel, Piscine Patel, otherwise known as Pi, lead a difficult life where he was unaccepted and bullied, but nothing compared…

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How Does Yann Martel Use Poetic Language

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…

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Perspectives In Yann Martel's Life Of Pi

Throughout history human kind has possessed an intrinsic ability that no other animal has. It has helped us learn grow, conquer and succeed. This faculty is the ability to understand perspectives. In the novel Life of Pi Martel uses many examples for framing this idea. Through the use of Mr. and Mr. Kumar meeting together in chapter thirty-one, Martel illuminates that humans' greatest faculty is their ability to understand other perspectives even if human beings’ do not agree or experience it for…

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Key Passages In Yann Martel's Life Of Pi

and enhance the plot, character and the theme of the novel, Yann Martel’s Life of Pi. To truly understand a text the reader must first understand and discover the underlying meaning of words and sentences. This will aid the reader to uncover the key passages that will help analyze the overall, story. The theme, diction, mood, perspective and worldview comparison can be analyzed from the three passages I have picked from the novel Life of Pi. In the passages, the main theme which is evident in the…

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