TEXT TO SELF - PERSONAL RESPONSE

         

                 I do agree that animals have deep emotions and are able to communicate with humans in some way, but I disagree with the fact that humans think anthropomorphically towards animals. We are humans they are animals. I have a couple of experiences involving anthropomorphism when I was younger like Pi. I used to talk to animals, play with barbie dolls act out scenes using them as the source of humans, I used to play with stuffed animals and pretend the were real people, and I used to think that clouds made pictures of what I see in reality. I always knew they didn't understand but whenever I was alone I used them to play with me.At the end of Life of Pi, when the two stories were revealed, the purpose of having animals and the anthropomorphism story is because the animals were a substitute to lighten the crude reality of what actually happened to Pi. Whenever I was playing with my toys and treated them like people with emotions and opinions, I did it because I was all alone so it was a way of of keeping myself company when I had no one around. In both scenarios, anthropomorphism is used as a way of escaping loneliness.



             I don't like it when people anthropomorphize in ordinary ways like dressing their pets with uncomfortable clothes or assuming what animals want by thinking what they want. I'm just against it because why are pets being treated better then humans or exact like humans. There are people starving all over the world, people that don't have shelter, don't have food, that are being abused, that don't have equal rights, and animals are living in a paradise. But theirs always that awful extreme that animals are being treated harsher then humans, by being thrown on the streets, beaten, and starved to death. Animals do have emotions so they do have to be treated with care and respect, but we have to do something for the people first. 

            In my mind the concept of anthropomorphism is not right. It is making kids believe that imaginative objects are real like fairies, elf's, Santa Claus, flying rain dears, this all play's with their mind. I do believe that animals are able feel, and can think but I disagree that their thoughts and emotions are the same as ours. Animals goal is survival. We might share some traits from evolutionary reasons, and they could be compared to us. But we should start focusing more on treating each other, humans, better and equally before we move on to another species. Because if humans cant get along with each other what will happen if we begin to go against animals.

                                          ANTHROPOMORPHISM IN REAL WORLD

             

                      Anthropomorphism is a  trait that humans use to give a inanimate objects or natural phenomena a human characteristic. Anthropomorphism is extensively used in religion and mythology by depicting deities with human form and ascribing human emotions or motives to force of nature. In ancient mythology they represented the divine deities as a human form with human qualities. The deities resembled human beings by appearance, personality, and they had many human behaviors that could explain natural phenomena, creation, and historical events. They did many things like humans for instance getting married, having children, fought battles, created weapons, and took care of animals.Different anthropomorphic deities represent specific human concepts like love, war, beauty, or the seasons. They had human qualities like wisdom, beauty, and power, and human weaknesses like greed, hatred, jealousy, and anger. Example of deities that were like humans are the Greek deities Zeus, and Apollo.
     
                   
    

                 Anthropomorphism can be used in certain types of literature like religious, fables, fairy tales, and  modern literature. In religious literature they personify god, or whom they believe in for instance the Christians personify God in the form of Jesus. In fables the animals are unique and these make them very interesting to mankind. The fables anthropomorphism animals to illustrate principles of life and to spread wisdom. Fables that are anthropomorphic are Jataka tales, and Panchatantra. Anthropomorphic motifs are very common in fairy tales. The 'tale of two brothers' has talking cows in it, and 'cupid and psyche' has a west wind that carries psyche away, but then an ant is upset for her and joins to help her in her quest.

             
              In modern literature the objects can be seen as representing facets of human personality and character. Modern literature that include anthropomorphism are Alice in Wonderland, Winnie the Pooh, The Wind and the Willows, The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, Elves, and Doctor Doolittle. Many films like in Walt Disney, are anthropomorphic because they take the object and make it into a human, by either allowing the character to speak like humans, dress, eat, walk, or even behave like them. For instance the movie cars, the characters speak like humans, or Mickey mouse, donald duck, kung fu panda, tinkerbell, dora the explorer, my little pony, and many more.  The anthropomorphism that was used in literature has created a furry fandom, meaning that it promotes and creates stories and artwork that have anthropomorphic animals, and the message of humanity by using anthropomorphism.

                                                            


    Humans are the main source of anthropomorphism in the world. We create it by treating animals or inanimate objects like humans. The animals or inanimate objects begin to form human qualities because when you are taking care of something and raising it, it will start to learn how its being treated and it will begin to copy what you are doing. It is becoming influenced from you. We train animals, we create movies and write books, and to this day we are trying to create robots who can act like humans. "A human-like robot, which can detect people's emotions and chat with them, will be for sale in February, 2015, according to Softbank Corp".

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                                     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osD6O4LAcpo

                                             ANTHROPOMORPHISM IN LIFE OF PI

                              "The attribution of human qualities to animals or inanimate objects".          

               Anthropomorphism plays a huge role in the novel Life of Pi written by Yann Martel, by giving the reader a deeper view on the non-human characters in the story. Every element in Life of Pi is symbolic and has a deeper meaning than what lies on the surface. The novel Life of Pi consists of two versions of Pi's journey. The first story is the one with the animals playing as the main characters and this is considered to be an anthropomorphic version because the animals are applying human characteristics and behaviors. Anthropomorphism was used from Pi so he is able to forget about his own bad actions, and used it to forget how humans act without humanity when under bad circumstances. It was used to draw an image of animals representing each human that was on the lifeboat with him.  

            

  In part 1 of the novel, Pi is introduced to the readers as a University student that studied religion and zoology. For the zoology class Piscine is asked to conduct a thesis on a specimen of an animal and the animal itself, Pi chose the three-toed sloth. Sloths are not very majestic creatures; they are as Pi describes them to be, demeanor-calm, quiet, and introspective. The sloth’s move up to 5 meters per hour when unmotivated, and they live in trees and sleep up to 22 hours a day. The sloth is an anthropomorphized example of a relaxed human. Piscine relates the sloth’s to "upside-down yogis deep in meditation or hermits deep in prayer, wise beings". The sloths are described to soothe Pi's shattered self. This part gives us a bit of insight on Piscine Molitor Patel's psychological state through the sloth, and reflected the condition of a human through an animal counterpart.

           

             In part 2 of the novel, Pi is stranded on a lifeboat with the company of wild animals. The animals are an element of symbolism, and each is given human characteristics. The animals are given human characteristics by Pi because this will help him get by the harsh reality of living with wild animals on a boat. Pi also expresses himself as an animal to reflect upon the deeper sense of his struggles. The main animals Pi lives with on the boat are a zebra, orangutan, hyena, and a tiger. Now the two versions of Pi's survival intertwine.

           The zebra resembles the sailor. In Pi's vision he sees a wounded sailor trying to hold on to life while suffering from a broken leg. This makes the sailor the weakest, therefore not being able to defend himself or even being able to survive on the lifeboat. The sailor is at the mercy of the cook and is unable to fight back when he is attacked. The cook murdered the young sailor and was the first to turn cannibalistic because he ate the young boy. Likewise, the zebra was injured, and was first killed by the hyena. The zebra is a weak animal and is prone to be hunted by the prey. This animal brings out the beauty of the young sailor and what he went through. Pi described both characters as beautiful; when he focused on their features he realized the innocence. The death of the zebra and the sailor represent vulnerability, they waited for someone to rescue them and never lost hope till the last breathe.    

    

          The orangutan, named Orange Juice, resembles Pi’s mother, Gita. Gita, is a mother of two, and is courageous, sympathetic, protective, vulnerable, and holds her strong belief in humanity.  Version two of Pi’s story presents to us how Pi’s mother floats on an island of bananas and makes her way to the boat. Gita also fearlessly attacks the cook, and confronts him for amputating the sailor’s leg off and for being a cannibal.  Pi watches as his mother is beaten and killed because she is defenseless and is no match for the cook. Likewise, in version 1 the orangutan arrives safely on the lifeboat by floating on bananas. Orange Juice is a mother of two, like Gita. She is also scared of the predator, the hyena, because she is defenseless and is physically no match to the hyena. Both characters are displayed for safety and security. The use of this character is to give the reader an upfront view on the challenges that mothers face daily to protect their children and to show how this was an unbalanced fight. Orange Juice portrays many human characteristics especially compassion towards the zebra when he was being eaten alive, and to her two sons that died because of the crash. Whenever Orange Juice would look into the Pacific Ocean it would indicate that her loved ones are lost and she’s searching for them, “Orange juice's head came into sight... She had given birth at the zoo to two young ones, strapping males five and eight years old that were her - and our - pride. It was unmistakably these she had on her mind as she searched over the water, unintentionally mimicking what I had been doing these last thirty-six hours (Martel, 125).”Another example of anthropomorphism is when the orangutan was floating on the island of banana’s trying to get its way to the lifeboat Pi describes her as, “ She came floating on an island of banana’s in a halo of light, as lovely as the Virgin Mary”. Being compared to Virgin Mary shows your innocence and gentleness.              

           The hyena resembles the cook. The cook was a blood thirsty cannibalistic being. Pi describes him as,” he was a brute. He dominated us”.  The hyena and the cook considered themselves as the alpha male, consuming and resource of food by any means for survival and thinking about the others on the ship. They thought of themselves, and cared for their survival instead of working as team and trying to all survive. Both characters were accompanied by opponents who are much weaker than them which made their killing easier until they faced the true alpha male. The hyena presented to the reader that he does not care how he gets his food, as long as he survives. The hyena shows that he will kill a mammal alive in order to keep himself living and to fulfill his needs. Pi tells the reader about the hyena, "How can you do this, you monster? Where is your humanity? Have you no decency? (Martel, 387)”.  The hyena is the reflection of the cook because this character brings out the aggressive psychological condition of the cook and the physical strength he owns. Pi discussed that when humans look at animals they see a mirror of themselves. He feels that animals do feel empathy when they kill another animal because in reality we are all trying to survive.

             

           The only characters that are left are Richard Parker and Piscine. Since each other animal was a reflection of a human being on the lifeboat, the reader must now assume that the 450 pound Bengal tiger is Piscine Molitor Patel. Pi was introduced to the reader as an intelligent, open minded, religious, but a person who sees the world realistically. Pi cares for the earth and all life on earth this act is shown throughout his doings in the first part of the book. Pi believes and follows three different religion by preforming the mandatory prayer, he is a vegetarian, and he is dedicated to his work because he graduated early. The main question is how could a person like Pi resemble a dangerous creature such as Richard Parker? It all comes down to the fact that both Pi and Richard Parker were stranded on a lifeboat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and they both were clinging to life just because they want to survive.

             

             Piscine Molitor Patel is a human, and Richard Parker is a tiger. Richard Parker is not Piscine Molitor Patel entirely, he is the animal that has been created inside of him because of the journey in the Pacific Ocean. Richard Parker is a vulgar meat eater and a vicious hunter, this is different then Pi's morals. The tiger is a part of Pi's fears because of his memory when the tiger attacked the goat. Richard Parker is a symbol of Pi's fears, but he is part of Pi's survival instinct. Whenever trouble came Pi's way he always fought for Richard Parker, and stayed alive for him and to keep Richard Parker alive. "It came as an unmistakable indication to me of how low I had sunk the day I noticed, with a pinching of the heart that I ate like an animal, that this noisy, frantic unchewing wolfing-down of mine was exactly the way Richard Parker ate (Martel, 225)". Pi realizes that he shouldn't be scared of an animal because he is becoming one. This is going against all his morals. Pi and the tiger had just become one.