Life of Pi

The novel, “Life of Pi” is the story telling a young man, Pi, who survives a dreadful shipwreck and months in a lifeboat with a l Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. When Pi was a teenager, owing to the India political condition, his family decided to sell the animals and immigrate to Canada to start a new life there. On the way to Canada, their cargo ship had the misfortune due to being hit by a violent storm and ended up with a shipwreck. In this shipwreck, Pi’s family was killed, except for Pi. During the sea journey, there are four animals accompanying Pi. The four animals are: an injured zebra, a ferocious hyena, an orangutan and a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. In the process of coexistence with these animals, Pi witnessed the wildness of the animals. In the beginning, Pi almost gives up in his first days on the lifeboat, for being unable to bear the loss of his family and reluctant to face the difficulties. Nevertheless, he realizes that he is still alive means that God is still staying together with him rather than abandon him. We can say that a miracle has been given to him. It is this thought that gives him strength and willingness to fight and to remain alive. Via his adventure, I firmly believe it is the religion and faith in God that makes him keep praying regularly, which provides him with courage, hope and a sense of connection to God. Undoubted, this belief in God inspires and helps sustain him while at sea. On the other hand, though Richard Parker is quite fearsome, ironically his company helps Pi stay alive. Amazingly, they live together for 227 days. In my opinion, if it were not for Richard Parker’s accompany, Pi might not have survived for 227 days. In other words, Pi might have given up on life without Richard Parker to challenge and put him in danger. Richard Parker symbolizes Pi’s most animalistic instincts.

After reading the novel, I am deeply impressed with its fantastic story. It is a story about struggling to survive and having strong will to stay alive in a life-or-death situation. The primacy of survival is the major theme in the core of the novel. I think it is quite interesting that the author creates the character of Richard Parker. By creating such a character, like Richard Parker, Pi can disavow the violent part of his personality that made him survive on the ocean. It is the survival instinct within that drives Pi to act in ways he never thought he could. Pi even abandons his lifelong vegetarianism and eats fish to sustain his own life on the lifeboat. He allows his need to survive to suppress his moral system. That is, he eats meat, kills living animals in order to survive and avoid being eaten by the tiger, Richard Parker. The peaceful orangutan, Orange Juice, fights back against the hyena; even the seriously wounded zebra battles to keep alive. Pi’s painful struggle for survival illustrates the strength of his life force during his sea voyage.