Life of Pi

I have to confess. Up until about two weeks before the first day of school I had no idea we even had summer reading. To my knowledge, no letter had come in the mail and so naturally that meant no summer reading. I thought that the fact that PCDS of all places did not assign their upcoming senior students the task of reading over a three-month break was very strange, but I was quick to brush it off and think nothing more of it, categorizing this peculiarity as pure luck. Upon finding out I did in fact have to read a book for school, I decided to go with Life of Pi by Yann Martel since more than one person recommended it to me. Considering the book’s length I thought I would never finish in time, but was surprised to find that it intrigued me to the point where the opposite occurred, and I was done reading several days prior to school’s start.

To me, one of the most interesting aspects of the book was the blurred line between human beings and wild animals. I found the pages right after the sinking of the ship to be extremely interesting in regards to this statement. One of the first examples of personified animals comes along with Richard Parker, the tiger whose very human name actually led me to believe that it was a fellow human who Pi was beckoning towards the boat. Richard Parker’s human-esque qualities can first be seen when he is depicted weighing the pros and cons of life and death in the rocky ocean. The description of both his struggle in the ocean and his optimistic reaction to Pi’s lifebuoy flying towards him is so human-like that even Pi forgets that he is beckoning a “vicious” tiger towards his boat and leads to a humorous twist where Pi changes his mind and tells Richard Parker to drown instead. The story goes on and Pi is left stranded on the raft with an array of wild animals, where the idea of humans and animals being the same becomes more prominent as the animals experience the same shock and despair that Pi feels over the tragic sinking of the ship. The zebra continues to live quietly and painfully for several days, paralleling Pi’s sense that although he feels infinite grief and emotional strife, life continues. The hyena whines and barks in fear of the vast ocean paralleling Pi’s own fear. Later the hyena attacks the zebra and an interesting observation is made by Pi that shows that in survival situations, humans and animals take on the same principles: “I didn't have pity…for the zebra. When your own life is threatened, your sense of empathy is blunted by a terrible, selfish hunger for survival” (120). Finally, Orange Juice becomes one of the main symbols for this idea within the book. First, Pi sees Orange Juice experiencing seasickness, a sight that he finds funny specifically because of how human a trait it is. During a second and sadder instance, Orange Juice is seen somberly looking out to the ocean, searching for her two young children and inadvertently doing what Pi had been doing for so long. Lastly, before her death which she so vehemently and humanly attempts to prevent, Orange Juice is described vigorously protesting the killing of the zebra, much like a human would upon witnessing the murder of a fellow being.