Survival Instinct In Life Of Pi

Survival is an important instinct in every living species. Humans have many reasons to have the will and inspiration for survival and what causes it is the real question. The inspiration and will to survive in humans is unleashed when the person faces a choice to survive or die. The Life of Pi and “Story of Keesh” represent these qualities very well.

In the Story of Keesh, Keesh demonstrates many ways of surviving because he actually lives in an extreme environment. In the story it states, “Those who saw him go noted that he carried his bow, with a goodly supply of bone-barbed arrows, and that across his shoulder was his father’s big hunting spear,”(London 64), this quote from the text states how Keesh needs a supply of weapons just

Pi is stranded on a lifeboat in the middle of an ocean with a fully grown Bengal tiger. Not the best situation to be in, but Pi’s survival instincts kicked in to survive at all costs. One way Pi shows his survival instinct is according to the text, “And so I pushed aside all thoughts of Richard Parker and fearlessly went exploring for freshwater,” (Pi 81). Pi shows in this action that the thirst for water overtook his fear of a Bengal tiger! This action alone is mind boggling because he risks getting mauled by a tiger just to quench his thirst. After finding water on the lifeboat Pi was left with an incident, he had a can of water but couldn’t find a can opener. In the text it shows the many acts of desperation Pi does to open the can of water, for example, ”Could I prise it open with my fingernails? I tried. I couldn’t. My teeth? It wasn’t worth trying. I looked over the gunnel. The tarpaulin hooks. Short, blunt, solid. I kneeled on the bench and leaned over. Holding the can with both my hands, I sharply brought it up against a hook. A good dint. I did it again. Another dint next to the first. By dint of dinting, I managed the trick. A pearl of water appeared,” (Pi 87). With these actions, Pi is shown as desperate and attempting to do anything for a drink of water now. Last but not least,if you ever forced to survive with a tiger, I’m sure you would never in a million years think of taming it. In The Life of Pi, he does just that, for the survival for the survival of him and the tiger he says, .”I had to tame him. It was at that moment that I realized this necessity. It was not a question of him or me, but him and me. We were literally and figuratively, in the same boat. We would live or we would die together,” (Pi 92). With the thought of only survival in Pi’s mind, he’ll do anything just to