2013. A bildungsroman, or coming-of-age novel, recounts the psychological or moral development of its protagonist from youth to maturity, when this character recognizes his or her place in the world. Select a single pivotal moment in the psychological or moral development of the protagonist of a bildungsroman. Then write a well-organized essay that analyzes how that single moment shapes the meaning of the work as a whole.
Thesis: In Life of Pi by Yann Martel, Pi, a boy stuck at sea, goes to an island that thrives by day and destroys by night. This island symbolizes Pi’s coming of age by his realization that he turned animalistic and needs to return to reality.
Essence: Morality often lingers in the decisions we make and alter one’s life path.
Summary of text: An anonymous figure explained that he had traveled from Canada to America--we soon found out this anonymous character is Pi Patel. He explains how he earned his nickname and tells his story of his childhood in Pondicherry, India. Pi’s parents decision to move to Canada was motivated by political strife in India and they set sail in a cargo ship along with many zoo animals as his father was a zoo owner. During their voyage there is a shipwreck and Pi, a hyena, an orangutan, a zebra, and a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker are all but left of the shipwreck. They are now all fighting for survival.
Life of Pi Explanation
Our board game represents the different choices of morality through one’s life that can have an affect on our journey and where it takes us. Life of Pi is about how Pi must use his different personalities in order to face different kinds of situations during this coming of age story. If he is not able to use his “tiger” like personality or his courageous side during the perilous parts of his journey then he will not be able to continue onwards in his path. Martel states on page 164, “It’s the plain truth: without Richard Parker, I wouldn’t be alive today to tell you my story.” Without the courageous side of his persona, Pi would not have been able to survive. He also states, “Then Richard Parker, companion of my torment, awful, fierce thing that kept me alive, moved forward and disappeared forever from my life” (285). Richard Parker did not just help Pi survive, he helped him move onward with his journey.
Throughout our game there are two paths, one for Pi and one for Richard Parker. The path you take depends on how you answer certain morality questions. If your answers proves that you are brave, courageous, and self-preserving, then you will continue on the path of Richard Parker. If your answers prove that you are not as self-preserving, then you will continue on the path of Pi. Throughout the game, both of these paths cross which shows the Pi’s inner conflict between himself and Richard Parker. Such as when the blind Frenchman attacks Pi and Richard Parker saves Pi, Pi states,“This was the terrible cost of Richard Parker. He gave me a life, my own, but at the expense of taking one” (255). Richard Parker helped save Pi however, there was always a cost to saving Pi’s life at every situation they encountered.
Throughout the story, Pi is struggling with balancing his evil/courageous side with his weak/cowardly side--it is a constant mental struggle. Pi tried to incorporate both sides into his life by “training” Richard Parker. “I trained him to jump through a hoop I made with thin branches” (274). Pi uses this training as a metaphor to show that he is starting to train his animalistic and self-preservation persona and to control this side so that he does not lose the human aspect of himself. When Pi and Richard Parker finally land on shore, Richard Parker runs away without turning back. Pi tries his hardest to incorporate Richard Parker into his persona while they are on the boat, in the end, however, they end up going their own separate ways and will never meet again, showing that Pi has returned to his moral and human self.
At the end of the story, the reader can choose to keep faith in Pi and in the story with the animals or choose to believe in the more realistic story with humans. When Pi tells the Japanese investigators the human side of the story, they exclaim “which means he’s the tiger!” (311). At this point, the reader finally realizes the extended metaphor and can visualize the two sides of Pi: is human side and animalistic side.
Throughout the board game, the different morality and self-preservation issues are what decides how much each character moves forward/backward. The goal of the game is to be the first to reach the island at the end. Based on how you answer the morality questions, that decides which path you will take; Richard Parker’s or Pi’s, self-preservation or morality.
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