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.