Kate Powell

12/11/09

Yann Martels novel, Life of Pi has many literary elements, some work and some do not. These

elements can either greatly add or detract from the novel as a whole. His gruesome detail and dramatic

episodes work very well and adds continuity to the novel, however his science is somewhat lacking and

ends up detracting from the entirety of the novel.

Drama comprises a big element in Life of Pi. Martel uses many dramatic episodes to propel the

story from one point to the next. In one incident Pi and his Father and Mother are approached by three

religious leaders who all believe Pi to be solely committed to their own respective religion. The wise

men seemed annoyed when they realized that all three of them were approaching the same people.

Each must have assumed that the others were there for some business other than pastoral and had

rudely chosen that moment to deal with it. Some looks of displeasure were exchanged (65). This

confrontation creates drama between Pi, his family, and the religious leaders. This incident causes Pis

parents to wander about what could have possibly possessed their son to become a believer in Hindu,

much less Christianity, or Muslim. I dont understand it. Were a modern Indian family, we live in a

modern way, and here weve produced a son who thinks hes the reincarnation of Sri Ramakrishna. A

devout Hindu, I can understand. A Christian in addition, I can stretch my mind all that I can accept.

But Muslim? Its totally foreign to our tradition. Theyre outsiders (74-75). In addition to his parents

confusion Pi is made fun of quite cruelly by Ravi, his brother. So, Swami Jesus, will you go on a hajj this

year. Does Mecca beckon? He crossed himself. Or is it to Rome for your coronation?...Have you

found time to get the end of you pecker cut off to become a Jew? At the rate your going you only need

to convert to three more religions to be on holiday for the rest of your life (70). The drama created

between Pi and the religious leaders escalates to the point where he has to find ways to avoid the

religious leaders. Once an oaf chased me away from the Great Mosque. When I went to the church the

priest glared at me A Brahmin sometimes shooed me away from the darshan. I stopped attending
Mass at Our Lady of Immaculate Conception and went to Our Lady of Angels. I no longer lingered after

Friday prayer I went to temple at crowed times(71).

Another dramatic episode happens while he is lost at sea, when he finds a carnivorous island in the

middle of the ocean. And then it came to light, an unspeakable pearl at the heart of a green oyster. A

human tooth. The feeling of horror came slowly. I had time to pick at the other fruit. Each contained a

tooth.Thirty-two teeth. A complete human set. The island was carnivorous(280-281). These

incidents create drama either between Pi and the family or Pi and the religious leaders, and suspense,

anticipation, and maybe even a little fear in the reader as well.

The gruesome detail in Life of Pi brings an element of realism to the novel that some novels do

not achieve. For instance, when the hyena eats the zebra, this is a great example of Martels use of grisly

descriptive incidents. A flap of skin hung limply over the raw stump. Blood was still dripping.a strip of

hide came off the zebras belly like gift-wrap paper comes off a gift it started pulling out coils of

intestines It plunged head and shoulders into the zebras guts half in, half out. The zebra was being

eaten alive from the inside(125). Martels descriptiveness is astoundingly vivid and, though grisly, truly

brings the book to life.

Another horrific episode was when Pi tells Tomohiro Okamoto-san, of the Maritime Department in the

Japanese Ministry of Transport, and his junior, Atsuro Chiba-san his story without animals. The cook

worked the knife quickly. The leg fell off Im going to throw it over board. Dont be an idiot. We can

use it as bait. That was the whole point (305). He died quietly. The cook promptly butchered him

(307). You just ate a piece! How could you? Hes human!(308)I stabbed him in the stomach.I

stabbed him again.I stabbed him in the throat, the Adams apple. He dropped like a stone. And died.

His blood soothed my chapped hands (310). The cooks mind set of doing absolutely anything to

survive, even cutting off a defenseless mans leg so as to use it as bait; and then to eat his flesh when he

has died, is sickening.

 One of the aspects of Martels novel that does not work is the science. He expects us to believe

that a zebra can live a whole night after being partially eaten alive. The zebra was still alive. I couldnt

believe it. It had a two-foot wide hole in its body, a fistula like a freshly erupted volcano, spewed half-

eaten organs glistening in the light or giving off a dull, dry shine(128). This seems impossible, yet Martel

insists on our believing this seemingly ridiculous idea. He also wants us to believe that the ocean is big

enough that we as humans havent found a giant, floating the island was not an island in the

conventional sense of the term-- but was rather a free floating organism (271)., carnivorous island.

The island was carnivorous (281).Whether or not this was a hallucination is not the point. The fact that

Okamoto-san and Chiba-san like the animal story better than the human oneSo tell me which is the

better story, the story with animals or the story without animals?... Mr. Chiba: The story with animals.

Mr. Okamoto: Yes. The story with animals(317), to me, suggests that Martel wants us to believe Pis

animal story as well, and everything that goes along with it; which includes the giant, carnivorous island.

The island seemed ridiculous from the beginning, even before we find out about its being carnivorous.

An island full of meerkats? it was the meerkats that impressed themselves most indelibly in my mind.

I saw in one look what I would conservatively estimate to be hundreds of thousands of meerkats (265).

How did they get there? Why are they not being eaten by the island along with humans and fish? And

my hunch is that the ponds reached down to the sides of this huge, buoyant mass and opened onto the

ocean, which explained the otherwise inexplicable presence in them of dorados and other fish of the

open sea (272). Meerkats are mainly insectivores (http://www.merriam-

webster.com/dictionary/MEERKAT) and they rarely eat snakes, birds, lizards, and scorpions;

(http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/575214/meerkat) none of which are in the genome of

fish. Martel writes that the meerkats were bringing fish on shore; we can naturally assume they mean to

eat them. I made for the pond in time to see meerkats swimming--actually swimming--and bringing to

shore fish by the dozens(267). Regardless of the statement that Pi makes about the meerkats being
most likely a subspecies These meerkats were most definitely a subspecies that had specialized in a

fascinating and surprising way (267), it is still a far too unbelievable incident. All of these so called

scientific facts sound great on the surface, but when you go deeper and really think about some of the

situations Martel is suggesting, the science seems at the least unsound and at most utterly ridiculous.

Yann Martels novel Life of Pi, is a fascinating example of the combination of dramatic episodes

and gruesome detail fusing to form a great tale of fiction. His science is unsound and completely

ridiculous, this doesnt, however, seriously detract from the overall story. Life of Pi is still an enthralling

and captivating read.