Life of Pi 4

Life of Pi

Analytical Essay # 4

      At times, Life of Pi seems like a survival manual for the spirit. Survival is involved in every aspect of a human beings life. Piscine Molitor Patel or Pi had spent an interesting childhood in the Zoo of Pondicherry on relation of him being the zoo keeper's son. In his childhood, he knew more about wild animals than any other child his age is expected to know.   Pi Patel learns to survive physically, emotionally or spiritually, and biologically throughout his journey on the lifeboat till the end.

“I was giving up. I would have given up – ... if a voice hadn't made itself heard in my heart. The voice said, "I will not die. I refuse it. I will make it through this nightmare. I will beat the odds, as great as they are. I have survived so far, miraculously. Now I will turn miracle into routine. The amazing will be seen every day. I will put in all the hard work necessary. Yes, so long as God is with me, I will not die. Amen." (Martel, 53)

      This quote just mentioned above in the novel Life of Pi, describes how each day Pi survives is a miracle. We watch as Pi's daily routine of survival takes on the quality of spiritual exercises like prayer or fasting and how Pi learns how to survive on the Pacific Ocean without any food or fresh water supplies. His feasts, especially turtle blood, become sacramental. The right time and difficult situations in life can change or sometimes reveal many new sides of a person’s character such as Pi Patel’s, where he went from being a vegetarian for life to a meat eater, only because he needed to keep his body alive.

      Pi butchers a small hawksbill turtle and drinks its blood, which the survival manual recommends as a nutritious and salt-free thirst quencher, and because the turtle was too heavy for the raft, Pi had to do this butchery on the lifeboat tarpaulin. He then decided he needed to train Richard Parker to allow him onto the lifeboat more regularly. The knowledge of wild...