Nayef:

Human Psychology: How Pi’s mind and will power allowed him to survive in his time of crisis.

After discussing with my group members, we decided to divide the work of the presentation in to three different pieces. I will be talking specifically on the idea of how the power of the mind works in this novel. Pi’s journey across the sea is not an easy one. Being put in a boat with a Bengal tiger and with no food but the sea’s population, this was going to be one up hill battle.  One would assume that an ordinary human being would just cave in under the pressure of the situation but Pi defies the odds and actually does survive this experience. But how did he do it? What drove him to live? What drove him to survive and be able to tell his story to the world?

            This is the question I will try to answer in my part. The human mind is a strong tool in the body, if used properly it has great power.  One instance where Pi’s mind shows strength his simply when faced with the hyena and Richard Parker, he does not breakdown. Most people in this situation would simply cave in under the pressure of having predators in such a near proximity that it would put them out. However, Pi shows mental strength in marking his territory and staying strong. My instinct is that because of the traumatizing experience Pi’s father put him through by making him watch a tiger eat a goat, that made him stronger subconsciously. In the novel, we are made to question that act, but we come to realize that indeed that was an act, which would teach him a lesson: the lesson to survive. In my time with the class, I hope to shed light on the question of the will to survive, but looking through the lens of human psychology.

Cheers

 
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    Life of Pi is a three part story of Piscine Molitor Patel, a sixteen- year- old South Indian boy who survives out at sea with a Bengal tiger for 227 days. Pi is raised in Pondicherry a Southern city in India, where his father runs a zoo. At the age of fifteen he adopts three religions Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam. Pi has been a Hindu from an early age, but considers himself to be devoted to all three religions.

Due to commotion by the government that has been bugging Pi’s father for quite some time, the Patel family decides to close the zoo and move to Canada. At sixteen, Pi, his mother, father, brother, along with the zoo animals all board the Tsimtsum (the animals are on the ship so they can be sold all around the world). 

    An unknown reason causes the Tsimtsum to sink, and Pi is the only person to make it onto a lifeboat and survive. The lifeboat including Pi contains a hyena, a zebra, an orang-utan, and Richard Parker a Bengal tiger. As the journey continues most of the animals end up killing each other, leaving pi and Richard Parker as the sole survivors left on the boat.  

     While at sea, Pi and Richard Parker face challenges that only a pessimist could survive through. Without a sufficient amount of food and fresh water, both Richard Parker and Pi become severely weak and encounter high amounts of pain. During a severe period of starvation, Pi and Richard Parker become blind. They encounter a Frenchman that’s hidden agenda is to kill Pi and eat him. Without any idea of a tiger being on the lifeboat, The Frenchman steps into Richard Parker's territory and immediately gets attacked and killed. 

      Pi and Richard Parker end up on a strangle island made up of algae, with trees growing from it, and no other life other than meerkats. After a couple of weeks of staying on the island, by Pi eating algae and Richard Parker eating meerkats, they begin to grow stronger. Pi starts to sleep in a tree on the island and shortly after realizes that the island in carnivorous. Pi becomes greatly disturbed by this realization, takes Richard Parker, and leaves the island. 

      Richard Parker and Pi after quite some time end up on a Mexican beach. As soon as they are on land Richard Parker immediately runs off into the jungle, without even acknowledging Pi. Pi finds Richard Parker's lack of delay deeply hurtful because they both experienced so much together. Pi is then found, fed and bathed, and taken to a hospital. At the hospital, two Japanese men come to question Pi on how the Tsimtsum sank. Pi tells his story, which the men do not believe, so he offers them another story. He replaces the animal characters with humans which cause his original story to be doubted on.