Pi's_Survival

Abandoning is key once stranded on a lifeboat Hesham Hammoud Pi’s survival was everything to him. Trying to save everyone was much too hard. Having to share a limited amount of space with a female orangutan named Orange Juice, a wounded zebra, a spotted hyena, and a Bengal Tiger by the name of Richard Parker was much too difficult to maintain peace, and keep everyone alive. After death started to occur, Pi’s only concern was for his own life, which caused him to abandon his morals, and become somewhat of an animal. Being mentally strong, and having faith in God benefited him greatly. In Yann Martel’s novel, Life of Pi, the author demonstrates the notion that sometimes you must abandon the responsibility of saving others in order to save yourself. Richard Parker helped Pi out greatly. He first started off by killing the hyena, which relieved Pi of some of his stress. However, that caused Pi to think that in order to survive he must become Richard Parker. When Pi began acting like a fierce tiger, he abandoned his morals, such as eating meat. Meat has never touched Pi’s mouth, but when he realized that it had protein, he did what was necessary of him to survive. Vegetarian foods were available, but they were scarce. Pi even took it a step further and began killing animals at every chance he had. He may have felt bad, but after coming to the realization that it provides him with food, he soon forgot about it. Pi did not have a single regret afterward, considering it saved his life just as much as God did. God played a major aspect in Pi’s survival. He believed that God was with him throughout the journey, even in the middle of no where such as the Pacific Ocean. As Pi was in the life boat he screamed to the world that the water belonged to God, showing the amount of faith in God. This raised his confidence and showed the amount of hope he had in his survival. God was also Pi’s only friend on the lifeboat before he had tamed Richard Parker. This took Pi’s mind off the situation he had been placed in, where he was stuck with a tiger, a zebra, a hyena, and an orangutan on a tiny lifeboat. Thinking positively and having a great amount of hope, greatly increased his chances of survival. Pi courageously took on the task of being mentally strong which was a large factor in his survival. He was able to overcome his fear of flesh and blood when he realized that his need for fresh water and protein trumped his fears. Desperate times, caused Pi to go through desperate measures which was demonstrated when he ate Richard Parker’s feces. However, after recognizing the fact that feces contained liquids he realized that his demand for food and water would force him into eating it. Pi’s mental toughness kept him in survival mode, which lead to his survival.. Pi’s ignorance of the others helped his survival. If he had tried to save the others, he would have not acted as a fierce tiger and ate meat, which helped him a lot by gaining protein. God was Pi’s only friend until he tamed Richard Parker, which constantly made Pi concentrate about his survival and nothing else. Also gaining protein and water from fish heads and feces would have never came to Pi’s mind if he never took on the mental courage to become strong and eat them. All these aspects helped Pi’s survival, and lacking the responsibility to save others improved his chances of survival.