Yann Martel’s novel
Yann Martel’s novel is a scintillating thriller exploring a tale of a boy adrift the expansive Pacific Ocean with the company of Bengal Tiger. The novel focuses on the unlikely survival tactics of the boy amidst obstacles and challenges. Pi’s ordeal started when the family was sailing aboard Tsimtsum, which sang into the Pacific Ocean, Pi together with his pet, was able to get off the sinking ship. Out in the sea, Pi faced different ordeals but was able to survive because of various reasons outlined in the novel.
In his early life, Pi had learned to swim, and this proved a crucial element of his survival. According to Pi, “I remained faithful to my aquatic guru. Under his watchful eye, I lay on the beach and fluttered my legs and scratched away at the sand with my hands, turning my head at every stroke to breathe” Martel,7). Learning to swim gave him time to gather his lifeboat. While the art of swimming gave him confidence in the sea, he suffered physically, and the longer he remained in the boat, the more his muscles would ache, and his skin burn. He gathered energy and begin enhancing survival tactics. His skills and intelligence were necessary. Essential elements of survival- shelter, water, and food, was fundamental for his survival. Pi “had to find a means of sheltering” because “continuously outside, exposed to sun, wind, rain, and sea, was exhausting, and not only to the body but also to the mind.” (Martel, 91)
Pi realized that without food, he would not survive long, he devised ways of getting food. Fishing skills were fundamental to him. In the sea, it is difficult to survive without water; Pi began ingenious ways of distilling seawater. Faith in God was also crucial to him, his belief was extra-ordinary, and it gave him hope and strength to push on to survival. As the circumstance in the sea “was natural that, bereft and desperate” and “in the throes of unremitting suffering” Pi “turn to God.” (Martel, 154). His courage was also important for his survival; he courageously fought the orangutan by hitting the beast on the head. In the end, Pi was saved by Japanese fishermen.