Essay Richard Parker

The idea of archetypal heroes finds its ways into countless prominent religions, literature, films, and epics. There are many types of heroes, dating all the way back to ancient times, namely Hercules of Rome or Prometheus of Greek mythology, to modern heroes, such as the Spiderman or the Hulk. However, one may perceive some characters in a story as heroes, while others may not. These characters may own some key attributes of a hero, but may lack others. An example of this is the main protagonist of the novel The Life of Pi, Piscine Molitor Patel, by Yann Martel. After selling the zoo in India, Pi and his family decide to move to Canada. During their trip to Canada, their cargo ship encounters a storm that sinks the ship. In the wake of the shipwreck, Pi is the sole human survivor as he boards a lifeboat, and spends what seems like an eternity out in the Pacific ocean in the company of an adult tiger. Throughout his 227-day journey, Pi becomes a clear archetypal hero.

227. The number of days Pi survived at sea with little food, little water and, even a Bengal Tiger..or so he thought. Life of Pi, written by Yann Martel, describes the journey of a young boy named Piscine Patel, also known as Pi, whose father owns a zoo in India. When his family decides to sell the zoo and move to Canada, the freighter they travel in breaks down and sinks. Luckily, Pi gets on a life boat just in time but weirdly enough, with four zoo animals who were also in the freighter. Pi continues his journey by learning how to live in a small space with these animals and even training one of them. In the end Pi reveals another story with people replacing the animals that were on the lifeboat before. Pi had initially used animals which best represented the people who were really in the boat. This showed how throughout the story, since these people were put into a life threatening situation, they had revealed a more primal side.

Life of Pi is a movie about Pi, a shipwreck survivor, and his epic journey of discovery and faith. It is based on Yann Martel’s novel with the same name, and the movie, directed by Ang Lee, makes use of magical realism to convey many themes related to life and spirituality. Many significant symbols are also used to showcase the characteristics of magical realism. In particular, water and the carnivorous island were two important symbols that represented the theme of spirituality in Life of Pi.

Thesis: Yann Martel is conveying readers that critical thinking, inspirations, and love are the important keys to survival.

Richard Henry Lee was born on January 20th, 1732 AD. He grew up in Westmoreland Virginia and was raised by a line of military men, legislators, and diplomats. His father was the governor of Virginia until 1750. Richard learned a lot of skills from his father like how to work and be tough and also how politics worked.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel is a novel where a young boy named Pi survives on a lifeboat for 227 days. Pi grew up at a zoo in India with his family, and when he was 16, they moved to Canada. During their journey across the Pacific Ocean, the ship sinks and Pi manages to get on a life raft with a zebra, a tiger, an orangutan, and a hyena. Soon after the tragedy, the zebra and orangutan were killed by the hyena, and the hyena was killed by the tiger, Richard Parker. Pi and Richard Parker survive together for the rest of the time. Pi uses his resources and prior knowledge to keep him and the tiger alive. This is plausible because Pi has strong background in zoology, has many resources available, is

Flannery O’Connor uses different writing styles and techniques to manipulate the reader into feeling the emotions of O.E. Parker and his dissatisfaction in life, while also displaying his obsession with tattoos, meant for pleasing Sara Ruth. The writing styles Flannery O’Connor uses give way to the expression and feelings of the characters’ emotive and colloquial language to authorize and internal emotion within the reader, giving credence to the morals of the reader enduring O.E. Parker’s harsh outlook on creation.

Envision being stranded at sea for two hundred and twenty seven days. Would you survive? This is precisely what the main character faces in Life of Pi by Yann Martel. The book tells the story of Piscine Motor Patel and his obstacles as he is stranded on a lifeboat with a 450 pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker- they had been on a Japanese cargo ship called the Tsimtsum until it sank in a “monstrous metallic burp” in the middle of the Pacific ocean (121). Piscine, otherwise known as Pi, goes against all odds as he fights for his survival. Martel powerfully demonstrates that an individual’s humanity can be chipped away through traumatic isolation; throughout his journey, Pi digresses from predatory behavior to desperation to cannibalism.

Alistair Macleod’s “The Boat,” depicts the need for advancement and revival in native inhabitants. Macleod’s representation of nature equates to the tradition and legacy of the past generations. Tradition evolves from being the essential mechanism that defies advancement to ironically inspiring advancement. Generally, the burden of tradition suppresses ambition in the father, provides approval for the mother’s dislike of advancement, and essentially initiates revival in the native inhabitants.

Pi’s life is devastated by the shipwreck and losing his family, this loss simply breaks his mind. Pi is unable to accept the loss and to

In Martel’s novel, the idea that through faith, one can find salvation, is present during Pi’s times of doubt. Pi believes in three different religions at the same time, he is amazed and in awe of the different beliefs and wants to get closer to, and love God by practicing them. His actions are questioned by many and the idea that he should only believe in one thing is pushed on to him by his family and believers in the church. His belief in multiple religions helps Pi find peace within himself, feel connected to the world around him, and realize his suffering has meaning. Even so, Pi still struggles with his beliefs: “But God 's hat was always unravelling, God’s pants were falling apart, God’s cat was a constant danger, God’s ark was a jail, God’s wide acres were slowly killing me, God 's ear didn 't seem to be listening.” (Martel, 264) Pi questions

In the story, Life of Pi by Yann Martel, the main character, Pi, is changed as a person after he must kill a flying fish in order to survive. Through this, Pi’s religious morals changed as well as his personality overall. When Pi first tries to kill the fish he continues to hesitate, and has a hard time committing the action to take the life away. As stated in an excerpt, “Several times I started bringing the hatchet down, but I couldn’t complete the action…A lifetime of peaceful vegetarianism stood between me and the willful beheading of a fish” (Martel 87). Throughout the beginning of Pi’s life, he is told not to kill any animal due to his vegetarian values. However, in this scenario, he has no choice. Through this, Pi transforms into a

To understand the psychological motivation in human beings, we must examine Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. The Life of Pi is a novel about an Indian boy lost at sea, accompanied only by a Bengal tiger. These circumstances allow the author to emphasize the needs we must have to induce certain behaviors. In The Life of Pi, Yann Martel uses events to signify each stage of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. To fully comprehend this, each stage in the pyramid must be analyzed.

The theme in Life of Pi is without a doubt the hardships in order to survive. The whole novel is about enduring pain, hardships, starvation, dehydration and more. I believe the author wrote this novel to reveal the hardships one has to proceed through in order to keep living. Pi certainly shows how quick life can change from ordinary to a long lasting nightmare. Surely this can happen to anyone, but not everyone can survive the long lasting nightmare. Not everyone can stand eating or drinking unpleasant substances, survive while being blind, and live next to carnivorous creatures. Pi on the other hand withstands all this misfortune for nearly a year. Additionally, another theme that comes to mind is that survival instincts result in some

With the creation of the story The Life of Pi, Yann Martel, causes others to question the true meanings and roles of storytelling and the realities that human beings accept to be true. In this fashion, the reader is left with questions about what truly is real in both life and in this novel even when it appears only on the verge of being realistic. Martel composes this novel in the certain way of being almost unbelievable to both fit under the category of magical realism and to fit his aspiration for this abstract novel. Magical realism was necessary for this novel in order to create the image and aura intended and to directly relate to Pi’s existential crisis. The existential