Blog #9

 

1972. In retrospect, the reader often discovers that the first chapter of a novel or the opening scene of a drama introduces some of the major themes of the work. Write an essay about the opening scene of a drama or the first chapter of a novel in which you explain how it functions in this way.

Yann Martel’s Life of Pi was “born when [the author] was hungry” (VII), and Pi achieves a spiritual rebirth as a result of the persuasiveness of hunger. This theme of hunger, embodied through Pi’s storytelling, reinforces the assertion that the rational and animalistic sides of a person co-exist to balance physical and spiritual needs.

Quotes/Explanation:

Pi’s envious attitude toward Richard Parker portrays the animalistic side of himself as something he must come to grips with to survive.

In the beginning of chapter 57 Pi says that “it was Richard Parker who calmed [him] down” (162). Pi describes Richard Parker as “contented” and that he “had eaten his fill” (162). He discusses the contrast between his rational self and Richard Parker’s untamed personality, saying that his “animal toughness” would “outlast [Pi’s] human frailty” (164).

-Much like the chocolate in the brownie-cookie is an enticing (yet guilty) cure to hunger, so is becoming more like Richard Parker, as it promises physical contentment but requires a spiritual readjustment.

Eating meat: This spiritual adjustment begins with Pi’s decision to eat the biscuits even though they contain animal fat. It was a “pity about the fat,” but of Pi would just “pinch [his] nose and bear it” (143). A practice that Pi held dearly became merely something of “the vegetarian part” of his personality, and the seductive “chocolate” of animal products began to sway Pi towards a more animalistic mode of survival.

Eating with Richard Parker: According to How to Read Literature Like a Professor, every time a meal is shared in a story it is communion, and thus Pi’s description of eating with Richard Parker develops the unity between the two emerging personalities of Pi.

As Pi has become hungrier, he has become more accustomed to killing animals to satisfy his physical need and, as a result, is more in touch with his animalistic self. This growing connection between the tiger and Pi is embodied through the sharing of a dorado on page 186. Pi, who has killed the fish with “no problem” decides to drop half of the dorado “into the boat” for Richard Parker to eat (186).

Pi sees this killing as something awful, but necessary when he “include[s] this fish in [his] prayers” (183). This cross between Pi’s spiritual and physical need, realized through the communion between the tiger and Pi, is represented in the combination of brownie and cookie in the dessert I made. The communion helps Pi realize that he is both a fish-killing animal and a spiritual human, which leads to the way he tells the story to others.

Storytelling: In order to come to grips with the reality of humans’ barbaric tendencies, Pi tweaks the story of his survival, demonstrating his animalistic actions through the actions of Richard Parker. The interview at the end of the book boils down to Pi telling two separate stories of his survival: one with animals and one without.

After telling the version of the story containing the zoo animals, Pi tells the skeptical interviewers that “the world isn’t just the way it is” (302). Pi is no longer the purely spiritual being he was before the ordeal, but is now a compilation of Richard Parker and Piscine Patel (just as his story is a compilation of what literally happened and his rationalization of the events). Pi understands that the world is not black and white, and uses this understanding to tell a story that indirectly presents the spiritual rebirth that he endured. This is represented in the brownie-cookies. If I were to tell you that they are brownies, I would not be lying, just as Pi was not lying about spending more than 200 days on a boat with a tiger (even though both are not literally true). On the other hand, Pi spent time with his animalistic self as hunger drove him to stray from the rational part of his being towards an interconnected understanding of his own personality, exemplified by the story he tells the interviewers at the end of the book.