Essay on 'Life of Pi': Coming of Age

Science played a major role in Pi’s survival during his journey. Life of Pi is a book written by Yann Martel which was based on a sixteen-year-old boy by the name of Piscine Molitor Patel. The main themes of this book are belief, science, and religion, telling a story of survival and coming of age. There are few characters whether real or fictional who believe as strongly as Pi does in both science and religion which are two central themes scene throughout the Life of Pi. The belief in both is often seen as conflicting but this was the opposite for Pi, who saw them as complementary to each other. Science played a major role in Pi’s survival which is evident throughout the book such as on the island, using the social hierarchy to his advantage to tame Richard Parker and studying animal behaviour.

Pi’s love for science is first evident in his chosen name. To prevent persons from calling him Piscine; a name which he hated he shortened it to Pi. Pi is used for calculations both in Mathematics and Physics. Science was what saved him from ridicule by his peers. There is a hierarchy in Life of Pi that every animal follows and respects or else they will live “a life of unbearable anarchy.” There are 3 classes: Alpha, omega, and beta. A good example of this hierarchy is the circus trainer versus the lions. Lions are stated to be very territorial and as such the trainer has to enter the ring before the lion and impress it by for example snapping his whip in order to establish himself as the super-alpha male and the lion will accept itself as the omega. Even if he successfully establishes himself as the super-alpha male it is very important, that he maintains that relationship. “Only the trainer better make sure he always remains super alpha. He will pay dearly if he unwittingly slips to beta. Much hostile and aggressive behavior among animals is the expression of social security” (Martel page 54-55). What Pi means by this is that the lion if he feels as if he is the alpha, will exert his dominance aggressively due to having a sense of social insecurity. It is important that the animal in front of you knows where it stands whether a higher or lower class than you. Pi used this same social hierarchy in order to tame Richard Parker, instead of going with any of his plans to kill him, realizing he needed him as a distraction from the fact that he lost his entire family. “I had to tame him.” “A part of me didn’t want Richard Parker to die at all, because if he died, I would be left alone with despair, a foe even more formidable than a tiger. “If I still had the will to live, it was thanks to Richard Parker. He kept me from thinking too much about my family and my tragic circumstances” (Page 207). He did eventually succeed in taming him with his nine steps shared unfortunate, unlikely case anyone gets in a similar situation he did. It reached the point where Richard Parker tried to hide his feces from his alpha Pi. Pi saw it as a means of showing respect to him as leaving his feces out in the open would be a sign of “social dominance.” It is important to know the behavior of the animal in order to tame it as gives you an idea of the best way to approach it.

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Zoology played a big role in Pi’s survival on the lifeboat. While on the lifeboat he had nothing better to do than study the behaviour of the animals surrounding him. He knew or at least was familiar with the animals he encountered and progressively knew more about them the more he saw or interacted with them. One aspect of Richard Parker Pi's study was his sleep pattern. Pi described Richard Parker as a “champion sleeper” (page 250). Unlike himself. In adaption to his surroundings, Richard Parker mostly slept underneath the tarpaulin. But sometimes during calm days when the sun was not as harsh or calm nights he would come out. Pi also recognized that tigers would not first attack a shark out of the water with their jaw, but they would instead first attack with their forepaws heavily clobbering their opponent. Pi’s behavior also had to adapt to his surroundings. His sleep pattern was one thing that changed as a product of being lost at sea with his only companion being an unpredictable tiger. He made it clear that the reason he did not sleep more than an hour was not the obvious such as the sea which he got used to, but “It was apprehension and anxiety that roused me” (page 250). With this, he is saying that the fear of the unknown was prohibiting him from getting as much sleep as he needed rather than the sea. His fear of the unknown made him feel uneasy as there was so much that could happen at any moment while sleeping on a lifeboat at sea with an unpredictable tiger. Which he continues to tame on the island.

Pi especially used his knowledge of science to make sure the island was not just another illusion that would soon vanish after a few blinks. Upon arriving on the island and the boat physically touching it he was still reluctant to believe it was more than just an illusion. This is when he begins to conflict with himself to answer a simple question “To judge-and be disappointed-or not to judge” (page 124). This question came up because he did not want to quickly judge and exert energy he could not replenish. In the end, he decided to judge by using his five senses as any good scientist would. He used his eyes to make sure there was nothing dangerous on or around the island. When he was pleased, he stepped in the water and when he didn’t hear anything suspicious, he continued to the island. Even with this was still not convinced. What convinced him finally was his sense of smell. When he smelt the vegetation, he was relieved as he traveled months forced to smell nothing but saltwater. Even with so much evidence that the island was not just an illusion he still had to make sure that the herbage around him was edible. So, he bites into and with that, he finally accepts that the island is real. Soon after spending a couple days on the island he realized something was off about the island and started formulating questions that needed to be answered to maximize his survival. One such question is “Why did Richard Parker sleep in the lifeboat?” At first, he thought that it was that the meerkats were harmless in the day but suddenly at night they became ruthless and killed their opponent with their combined weight. Soon after though, he realized that the meerkats meant no harm, so the question was once again left unanswered. Several more questions popped up when he woke in the middle of the night due to the meerkats’ shaking and he saw dead fish rising to the top of the pond. As a good scientist, he came up with several hypotheses such as Richard Parker may have killed them. Soon enough all his questions were answered when he found teeth in the fruits of a tree. That is when he came up with his final theory that answered all his questions. “The island was carnivorous” (page 355). Science played a major role in his survival on the carnivorous island.

With many facts pointed towards it we can see how science played a major role in Pi’s survival on the island, and on the boat by using the social hierarchy to his advantage to tame Richard Parker and study animal behavior. Pi used all his senses the most while on the island in order to maximize his chance of surviving and on the boat he used what he learned at the zoo with a combination of zoology to survive on the boat. What do you think Pi would have done if Richard Parker came to the boat five minutes late or not at all? And what do think would have been the consequences of his decision?