Discussion Topic
Symbolism in Life of Pi
Summary:
In Life of Pi, Richard Parker symbolizes survival and moral ambiguity, representing either Pi's inner savagery or his salvation through companionship. Pi's name, linked to the mathematical constant, symbolizes life's irrationality and complexity, while also reflecting his journey from narrow to expansive worldviews. The island embodies false spirituality and the need for true faith, challenging Pi to choose between comfort and genuine life. Orange represents hope and survival, with Richard Parker and other elements reinforcing Pi's physical and emotional resilience. The zebra symbolizes passive suffering, highlighting the need for Pi's active struggle for survival.
What does Richard Parker symbolize in Life of Pi?
If you go with the non-animal version of the ending, he represents a world in which doing whatever is necessary for survival is not only okay, it is expected and normal. If the tiger does indeed represent Pi, it symbolizes all of the awful things that he had to do in order to stay alive, including killing someone evil. A tiger is expected to do what is necessary to stay alive; it is expected to kill. But a human being, that's another story; it is morally debatable. So, Richard Parker represents the reality, or existence, that allowed Pi to survive without having to deal with the moral weight of what he had done. What Pi did to survive weighs heavily on his mind, and in order to be able to live every day with that guilt, Richard Parker can take that guilt away from him.
If you go with the...
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animal story of the ending being true, Richard Parker can also symbolize Pi's salvation. Throughout the story, Pi mentions several times that if it wasn't for Richard Parker, he would have given up any hope of surviving. Having another creature to take care of, having company and companionship, that is what keeps Pi striving, working, and alive.
Those are a couple other possibilities for a deeper symbolism behind Richard Parker; I hope that they help! Good luck!
Besides the mathematical relation, what else does Pi's name symbolize in Yann Martel's Life of Pi?
There are a number of possible meanings to the protagonist's name in The Life of Pi. The most obvious is the mathematical reference to pi, the name given to the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. Expressed as a decimal number, pi is infinite, with the digits after the decimal point also never repeating any patterns. Expressed as a fraction, pi is approximately 22/7; however, because pi can only be expressed approximately as a fraction, it is also—in mathematical terms—an irrational, or transcendental number.
The Life of Pi is the story of Pi's search for meaning, and one of the lessons he learns is that life has no fixed meaning or dependable, guaranteed patterns. There is no end point to the meaning or the story of life. In these ways, what Pi learns about life is broadly similar to the known characteristics of the mathematical pi. Neither life nor pi have a fixed ending, and neither have dependable patterns. Life also, like pi, is irrational and transcendental, meaning that it cannot be adequately explained by rationalism alone. Any explanation of life needs something of the emotional and spiritual mixed in with the rational. Any explanation transcends the rational.
The fractional expression of pi as 22/7 is also significant in that it echoes the number of days (227) that Pi is stranded on his lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean.
Pi's full first name is Piscine, which is a French noun meaning a swimming pool. As an abbreviation, the name Pi could also, therefore, allude to the fact that the protagonist begins the story with a world view set within fixed, relatively narrow parameters, before his world view expands considerably to the extent where its parameters are much broader and not necessarily fixed. In other words, the journey from a swimming pool to an ocean could metaphorically represent the expansion of Pi's world view throughout the story. His name, Pi, serves as a reminder of where that expansion began.
First, he is named for a swimming pool in France, due to the role that place played in the life of a dear family friend. There's an obvious connection to water, of which Pi has entirely too much by the end of the novel.
Additionally, it demonstrates Pi's assertiveness. He takes the initiative on his first day at a new school to interrrupt the roll call by writing his new nickname on the chalkboard, intending to pre-empt the harrassment he received with the unfortunate moniker "Pissing" at his old school. This stands in contrast to Hindu fatalism, which would simply accept his suffering.
You've noted the mathematical connection to the Greek letter Pi; you may also have noticed that this number is used for measuring circles. Have you caught the many references to circles in the rest of the novel? Start looking for those and you'll be amazed. He mentions the endless cycle of days on the Pacific, the limited perspective he has (surrounded by a circle of horizon), myriad physical objects that are circular in shape, and more. Circles certainly relate to the eternal nature of God, so prominent in Pi's life. They also represent an Eastern view of time (a Hindu worldview perceives life as circular, cyclical, as opposed to the linear, progressive nature of Judeo-Christian views of time).
In a sense the novel itself turns us in circles, leaving us wondering what really happened, unsure if there really is a conclusion. It turns us back on ourselves, asking questions about reality, perception, and narration.
In Life of Pi, what does the island symbolize?
The island is allegory for the Garden of Eden in the Christian Bible—one of the three major religions under study in this novel.
Pi happens upon the island at the brink of death. This is his birth as he is given food, fresh water, companionship with the lemurs and Richard Parker, etc. This place is an utter paradise where he is able to really come into his own, experience real sleep, body and mental nourishment, etc.
The island is dangerous, though. He knows that there is something up with the island because Richard Parker goes back to the raft and the lemurs sleep in the trees.
When he is in the trees and pulls down the flower, unravels it, and finds the tooth, he is enacting the tree of knowledge and the apple with Adam and Eve. Once they ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, they understood they were naked. Once he unravels the flower and sees the human tooth, he gains the understanding and knowledge that he will die on this island much like the owner of the tooth.
Yes, he can stay on this island, eat, drink, and hang out with fuzzy lemurs all day, but is that really life? Is that what the rest of his life should be? He has to make the decision to leave and risk death in order to really live.
The algae island is a symbol of a particularly shallow brand of spirituality. On the face of it, the island appears to be a kind of demi-paradise, but in reality it's a carnivorous island, a place that feeds on the flesh of various animals as well as human beings. In that sense, the island represents the kind of undemanding spiritual path that all too many would-be pilgrims follow.
On this reading, the attainment of spiritual wisdom is a long, hard process, which involves going beneath the surface of things to get at the truth. Yet the carnivorous algae island makes it all seem so easy. The suggestion here is that those foolish or desperate enough to settle for the kind of "off-the-peg" spirituality that is readily available these days are deluding themselves. As long as they remain in the shallows, as it were, far from attaining to the depths of spiritual wisdom, they will encounter spiritual death.
The island is a rather remarkable and fantastical element to Yann Martel's Life of Pi, and requires the reader to really suspend their disbelief in order to believe that it could actually exist. In interviews, Martel himself said that he put the island into the story in order to require the reader to take a leap of faith. The entire story thus far is pretty interesting, and takes a lot of faith to believe in the first place. Pi—surviving for weeks on end in a life boat with a carniverous and vicious tiger? Martel makes it pretty believable, through his use of Pi's expertise in zoology. But an island filled with lemur-like creatures and acidic and deathly tube plants, that is just floating out in the middle of the ocean? Now that takes a huge leap of faith to believe.
Since Martel's theme in this book is the power of storytelling, and how a really great story is like taking a leap of faith, he wanted to make the readers leave behind any rational logic and leap into the unknown, and believe something just because someone said it existed, and because it was a great story. The island symbolizes faith, and how when you have faith, you take a leap in the dark and believe in things that might seem impossible to other people. That is what the island is—something that might seem impossible, but who's really to say it doesn't exist? Martel wanted the reader to experience that leap of faith, believing in a really great story at the behest of logic, and how it can be invigorating, interesting, and comforting. His book is all about "the power of the imagination," and the island definitely is a part of that.
For me, the symbolic importance of the algae island that has developed its own curious system of feeding its carnivous instincts lies in the larger question that runs through the novel, which is how we live our life as humans. When Pi discovers the truth about the island through the human molars that he first thinks are fruit in the tree in which he takes refuge, it is clear that he has to make a big choice in his life. The choice is made in the following quote:
By the time morning came, my grim decision was taken. I preferred to set off and perish in search of my own kind than to live a lonely half-life of physical comfort and spiritual death on this murderous island.
In a sense, we can view the whole novel as an allegory concerning how to live our lives and the way that so many settle for a "half-life of physical comfort and spiritual death" rather than truly, and much more dangerously, trying to live their lives as they were meant to be lived. The image of this island that slowly dissolves its prey over years is a fitting one when we think about the impact of a life led for physical comfort alone, whilst all the time the spirit is slowly dying.
Select and interpret a major symbol from Life of Pi.
It seems orange—such a nice Hindu colorùis the color of survival because the whole inside of the boat and the tarpaulin and the life jackets and the lifebuoy and the oars and most every other significant object aboard was orange. Even the plastic, beadless whistles were orange. (Chapter 50)
Orange is symbolic of hope and survival in the novel. It is present from the moment the Tsimtsum sinks:
One of the men interrupted me by thrusting a life jacket into my arms and shouting something in Chinese. I noticed an orange whistle dangling from the life jacket. The men were nodding vigorously at me. (Chapter 38)
Here orange, as a symbol of survival, is connected to the physical tools which ensure Pi’s survival immediately after the sinking of the ship. However, man does not solely exist on a physical level, but also requires emotional and spiritual survival. This becomes apparent after the emotional torment and horror of the first night Pi spends on the lifeboat. He cold despair departs from him when he is awakened by an orange sun and finds hope alive in him:
Warmth came only when the sun, looking like an electrically lit orange, broke across the horizon, but I didn’t need to wait that long to feel it. With the very first rays of light it came alive in me: hope. As things emerged in outline and filled with color, hope increased until it was like a song in my heart. Oh, what it was to bask in it! (Chapter 45)
Although rescue does not follow that first hopeful sun, more hope, symbolized by the color orange, remains present for the duration of his torment as a castaway. Keep in mind that Richard Parker himself is orange and is a mechanism which Pi uses to ensure his physical survival and emotional resilience in the face of despair.
Note how Richard Parker is drawn to the lifeboat by the sight of the orange lifebuoy which Pi throws towards him:
He [Richard Parker] was too far. But the sight of the lifebuoy flying his way gave him hope. He revived and started beating the water with vigorous, desperate strokes. (Chapter 37)
Once Richard Parker is on the boat, Pi describes the powerful and terrifying sight he sees before him in the form of the drenched tiger. Here, Richard Parker is again explicitly connected to orange and the lifeboat. These images further underline the symbolism connecting orange to survival:
I had a wet, trembling, half-drowned, heaving and coughing three-year-old adult Bengal tiger in my lifeboat. Richard Parker rose unsteadily to his feet on the tarpaulin, eyes blazing as they met mine, ears laid tight to his head, all weapons drawn. His head was the size and color of the lifebuoy, with teeth. (Chapter 37)
Orange-Juice is by her name and class of animal (orangutan) connected to orange. She too contributes to developing the symbol of survival and hope. Pi is filled with joy and hope as he sees her floating towards the boat. It is almost a spiritual experience for him. Note the spiritual references in his salutations when he sees her floating towards the boat on her net of bananas:
She came floating on an island of bananas in a halo of light, as lovely the Virgin Mary. The rising sun was behind her. Her flaming hair looked stunning. I cried, “Oh blessed Great Mother, Pondicherry fertility goddess, provider of milk and love, wondrous arm spread of comfort, terror of ticks, picker-up of crying ones, are you to witness this tragedy too? It’s not right that gentleness meet horror. Better that you had died right away. How bitterly glad I am to see you. You bring joy and pain in equal measure. Joy because you are with me, but pain because it won’t be for long. ... Let me say it plainly: I love you, I love you, I love you. I love you, I love you, I love you. ... The bananas on which she floated were held together by the nylon net with which they had been lowered into the ship. When she stepped off the bananas into the boat, they bobbed up and rolled over. The net became loose. Without thinking about it, only because it was at hand’s reach and about to sink, I took hold of the net and pulled it aboard, a casual gesture that would turn out to be a lifesaver in many ways; this net would become one of my most precious possessions. (Chapter 42)
Not only does the net on which Orange-Juice floats in provide Pi with another practical survival tool, but Orange-Juice serves an important emotional support to Pi in the first days of survival on the boat:
Simians are the clearest mirrors we have in the animal world. That is why they are so popular in zoos. I laughed again. I brought my hands to my chest, surprised at how I felt. Oh my. This laughter was like a volcano of happiness erupting in me. And Orange Juice had not only cheered me up; she had also taken on both our feelings of seasickness. I was feeling fine now. (Chapter 45)
Orange-Juice, against every natural instinct to avoid predators, is the creature in the boat who stands up to the hyena and in effect saves Pi’s life. She awakens Richard Parker from the depths of the boat to kill the hyena. If you apply the alternate reading of the story, Orange-Juice is Pi’s mother, and as such brings him the protective survival which a mother devotes to her children and awakens within her son the will and desire to fight for survival when he kills his mother’s cannibalistic murderer.
The color orange is connected to many of the physical lifesaving devices which ensure Pi’s survival as a castaway. However, his successful survival at sea is not only determined by what is physically required from him. Part of his test to survive is to conquer the mental and emotional challenges which he faces during his 227 days at sea. In this sense, orange represents the spiritual and emotional survival tools which support him during his torment at sea. Consider again the following quote: “It seems orange—such a nice Hindu color—is the color of survival.”
Orange (or saffron, which is considered deep orange) is considered the most sacred color for Hindu people, as it represents fire and purity. It is a color associated with holy men who are on a quest for light. It is also the battle color of the warrior caste. Consider then, by implication, the cultural and spiritual significance of the orange for Pi as a symbol for survival, light and hope in the midst of the dark, depressing struggle against death as a castaway.
It is Richard Parker, the orange Bengal tiger, who is the ultimate source of survival and hope while Pi is on the lifeboat. Pi admits this on numerous occasions, primarily when he recognizes the value of keeping Richard Parker alive and focusing his efforts on taming him.
It was Richard Parker who calmed me down. It is the irony of this story that the one who scared me witless to start with was the very same who brought me peace, purpose, I dare say even wholeness. (Chapter 57)
But there’s more to it. I will come clean. I will tell you a secret: a part of me was glad about Richard Parker. A part of me did not want Richard Parker to die at all, because if he died I would be left alone with despair, a foe even more formidable than a tiger. If I still had the will to live, it was thanks to Richard Parker. He kept me from thinking too much about my family and my tragic circumstances. He pushed me to go on living. I hated him for it, yet at the same time I was grateful. I am grateful. It’s the plain truth: without Richard Parker, I wouldn’t be alive today to tell you my story. (Chapter 57)
From examining orange as a symbol, it is clear that survival requires that physical, emotional, and spiritual needs have to be met for a person to regain a sense of wholeness after the type of trauma Pi experiences as a castaway.
References
What does the zebra symbolize about Pi or his character in Life of Pi?
Much of the book pushes readers to accept a story that sounds like an unbelievable fantasy, and readers are likely to accept Pi at his word. That is why the final chapters can be so frustrating. In chapter 99, Pi gives readers a much more plausible explanation for what happened, and Chiba and Okamoto plant the idea in our heads that Pi's entire story is built upon animals that symbolize characters.
[Mr. Chiba:] So the Taiwanese sailor is the zebra, his mother is the orang-utan, the cook is . . . the hyena—which means he's the tiger!
The zebra is symbolic of the Taiwanese sailor, and the zebra and/or the sailor are symbolic of something greater. The cook is portrayed as savage because he cut off the leg of the sailor, and the hyena tears off the zebra's broken leg. In both stories, the sailor/zebra suffers greatly and is a victim of gruesome trauma; therefore, I think it makes sense to say that the zebra (sailor) is symbolic of suffering. This could represent Pi's suffering, or it could be representative of suffering in general.
The zebra represents the danger of passivity. If Pi chooses to simply sit and wait, circumstances (and predators) will tear him apart. Therefore, that is not an option for him. He can't just draw back and avoid the tiger. He must enter into an active struggle for dominance with it, contesting for mastery.
In Life of Pi, what does Pi represent in the animal story?
Pi, in the animal story, represents his more humane, decent, polite, religious, polite and controlled self. Richard Parker, in the animal story, also represents Pi, just his more barbaric, animalistic self that does all of the difficult things that enable him to survive. Pi is thrust into a very difficult situation, where he is forced to do things that are extremely uncomfortable for him, and even abhorrent, in order to survive. He is normally an educated, respectful, vegetarian boy who would never hurt anyone or anything. However, if that part of himself reigns, he would die quickly on the ocean. So, he gives in to his more animalistic side in order to survive. He lets that side take over to kill, take control, be dominant, fight the odds, and survive the tragedies.
Often, in stressful situations, people have to do things they never would have imagined themselves doing. Pi does that here, and embodies all of those horrific acts in the animal of Richard Parker, a fierce tiger in whose nature it is natural to fight and kill. Pi separates himself from the horrible things he does by putting them outside of his normal self. So Pi, in the animal story still represents himself, just the human, humane, decent part of himself, the part that would never do horrible things or hurt others. He has to maintain that part on himself in order to remain sane, and to keep a semblance of his old nature. So both Pi and Richard Parker, in the animal story, represent Pi, just different parts of his nature that, in order to survive, work together. I hope that those thoughts helped a bit; good luck!
What does the character Pi symbolize in Life of Pi?
In Life of Pi, the protagonist succeeds in changing the meaning of his name and avoids a great deal of bullying in the process. Pi's full name is Piscine Molitor Patel. The word piscine is French for "swimming pool," and Pi is named after a famous and beautiful swimming pool in Paris. However, the word is also a near-homophone for the English word "pissing," a slang term for urination. Pi is in danger of going through his school career with the name "Pissing Patel."
Pi avoids this fate by taking charge of his own name on the day when he starts secondary school and insisting on defining the meaning for himself. He tells everyone that the meaning of his name is the mathematical constant represented by the Greek letter "pi." This is the number which begins with the digits 3.141592 and which in geometry describes the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter.
Life of Pi is a novel full of symbolism, and readers often notice that circles and cycles play an important part in it, from the endless cycle of time to the circle of the horizon when Pi is adrift on the ocean in the lifeboat. Pi's unreliability as a narrator could also be said to send the reader on a circular quest for truth and certainty.
What symbols represent the character Pi in Life of Pi?
There are a lot of different possibilities for this one--Pi is a very diverse character that lends himself well to various different symbols. One symbol could be the tiger, Richard Parker. In one analysis of the book, Richard Parker is Pi himself, his alter-ego, the strong side of himself that endured and survivedhis devastating ordeal. So, the tiger--strong, dominant, feared, and commanding, could be one symbol for Pi. Another could be a bible, or some other religious book. Pi was a very religious person, and took great comfort in various religions. So, a religious book would work well. Other possibilities: a link in a chain (to symbolize how he brought 2 religions together), an encyclopedia (to symbolize how much he knew about zoology, which helped him to survive), a whistle (to represent the one he used to establish dominance on the boat), and a first-aid kit or 72-hour kit (to symbolize how he utilized resources to survive).
If you are looking for more pictoral symbols, that are just images that hold meaning, you could use a ray of sunshine in a stormy cloud (he survived many storms), a rainbow after a storm, a lighthouse, and a pine tree clinging to bare rocks on the side of a cliff. All of these pictures indicate strength in the face of adversity, and a beacon of light and example to others. I hope that those thoughts give you some ideas to get started; good luck!