Life of Pi

Reflection:
While writing this essay, I thought about survival instincts and flight or fight responses, I find it interesting how you never truly know how you will react in a situation unless you are thrown into it. The moment your life is threatened a natural instinct to survive surpasses any other action causing an unpredicted reaction. Through this essay I will discuss how Martel displays the theme nature of truth in the story Life of Pi, through the use of symbols and ghastly situations the truth of an individual's true personality can appear in unfamiliar environments.

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Essay:

No one ever expects to be placed in a situation of complete isolation, in Life of Pi, Piscine, also known as Pi, is involved in a shipwreck and forced onto a boat with a few other survivors. He had a limited amount of resources and no outside human interaction other than his fellow survivors, forcing each individual personality to be displayed. When human are placed in difficult or uncomfortable situations their most true form emerges. In Life of Pi, Yann Martel develops the theme, nature of truth, through the use of symbols and gruesome situations.

In Life of Pi, Martel uses many symbols on the life boat to elaborate on "nature of truth," some being: a hyena to represent the crazy cook, an orangutan to represent his caring mother, a zebra to represent the calm and collected sailor, and lastly a tiger to represent Pi's inner savage. Each represented their true nature, a personality that would be brought out in the most darkest of times. Humans can imitate other emotions though when push to the the edge of their existence, their instincts to survive would over power them thats when the individual's true nature appears, which is represented by each animal. Richard is a great example of a human's instincts to survive surpassing sure will. Richard appeared when Pi lost control after his mother's death, when Pi became delirious, and when he was attacked by the other castaway. The theme nature of truth was supported by the use of symbolic animals in place of humans causing the story to be that much empowering.

Martel describes some gruesome situations to develop the theme the nature of truth throughout the story of Pi. Martel illustrated the Belgium tiger as a savage hunting down a goat after not being fed for three days. Richard, the tiger, chased the goat around his cage back in the zoo to the point one could only see white and orange blurs. This is the first encounter that Pi had with true nature, a memory he could never forget. Pi's second encounter was during the cooks killing spree, this is when he discovers that when people are pushed into difficult situations they can react in unpredictable ways. Pi's most personal experience of true nature would eating his first fish, being a vegetarian this was difficult to bare. It is quite possible that Pi would have never eaten meat his entire life if he wasn't placed in the boat, thus developing the theme nature of truth further through the use of terrifying situations.

To conclude, throughout improbable situations no one can be truly trusted because in any given situation an individual's reaction can be unpredictably. During isolation one must break out of their confort zone and do things that may seem unethical and wrong to survive. In Life of Pi, Martel uses abnormal symbols and interesting situations to expand and develop the theme of true nature.