Pi’s Purpose
Being able to immerse myself in the events and experiences of the characters I read about is what makes reading exciting for me. Add to that the element of surprise, and I can easily get lost in a book. Life of Pi by Yann Martel, did just that for me. The story begins with Pi Patel and his family traveling overseas to begin a new life in Canada. The decision to relocate to Canada was a result of the government of India closing down the family's zoo. The family begins their journey aboard a heavily loaded cargo ship which also carries several of their precious zoo animals. However, the ship tragically sinks, and Pi is the only human survivor of the cargo ship. Pi ends up being stranded on a lifeboat with nothing but a few supplies and a bloodthirsty tiger. His survival adventure continues so long that Pi ends up with the record for the longest time stranded alone in the
sea. Life of Pi includes many themes such as survival, life
struggles, hope, determination, and others. Throughout the story, Pi's hope and determination intrigued me in many ways.
The
author intrigued me with his use of hope throughout the book. During the long journey to survive, Pi read the
survival manual that was included in the supplies on the life boat. Without the manual
Pi would not have survived. The main thing the manual stated was to never
lose hope, and for the 227 days Pi was on the life boat he never lost
hope. Even in the first week on the lifeboat when Pi was without food and water, he still had the littlest bit of hope left in his
soul. Luckily for Pi, he did eventually discover a storage locker which contained food and water, but even without that he always believed God was with him throughout his journey. The hope Pi held onto during this difficult experience was what he needed to know God would not let him down.
Another
theme the author communicated well was determination. During this book, Pi
is determined to tame Richard Parker (a tiger that was on the boat with him).
He tries many times to tame Richard Parker and finally succeeds by blowing a
whistle until the tiger gets seasick from the obnoxious shrill. The reason this worked for Pi was Richard Parker began to associate the blow of the whistle to sea sickness. While Richard Parker was dealing with sea sickness, Pi was able to
access the food and water whenever he wanted without being threatened by the tiger in the lifeboat. If Pi wasn't determined to find a way to reach the supplies, he certainly would have died at sea. Another example of determination was Pi figuring out how to get off the carnivorous island before being consumed by would die there. He could have easily stayed there and eaten the algae but he would have died there alone in the end. Throughout the novel Pi demonstrates great determination.
The
themes of hope and determination play a large role in Life of Pi and they also play a major role in many other books such as Artemis Fowl The Arctic
Incident by: Eion Colfer. Although Artemis Fowl is a 13 year old criminal
mastermind he is determined to rescue his father from the Russian mafia. Young
Fowl is very hopeful and optimistic about his father’s rescue. But when a
wildcard is thrown at Fowl, his bodyguard, and two of his fairy friends, everything
goes wild. The underground fairy world is under siege and the fairies must do
what they can to save it, but Fowl continues on searching for his father.
Artemis is hopeful that he will get to see his father in exchange for the
ransom money that he is prepared to give the mafia. During this book Artemis proves that he has hope and determination just like the main character from the Life of Pi.
Life of Pi has many themes that were
established from the beginning of the book. The themes that reached out to me
the most were determination and hope. During the book Pi always was determined
to defeat the sea and survive, and with the help of god he was able to defy all odds. He always hoped he would survive. Without hope he would have died because he would not have had the power to go on living. Life
of Pi can teach many lessons and has many themes.
