There is a LOT of figurative language in this novel.
Analyze one of the similes or metaphors in the novel.
(Remember: analysis pushes you to teach me something. Summary is death to analysis. Don't summarize or discuss. ANALYZE.)
Include the actual text and citation of the simile/metaphor you choose at the beginning of your comment.
I think that metaphors can display certain emotions and feelings by representing a common action with a symbolic meaning. The metaphor does not have to be relevant to what is really happening, but it must display the feeling that is present through a similar event. On page 143, when Pi describes his feeling of being completely sated from his thirst after drinking the canned water he discovered in the lifeboat, he describes the feeling through this metaphor: "My heart began to beat like a merry drum and blood started flowing through my veins like cars from a wedding party honking their way through town." By using these comparisons of a celebration and upbeat music, he was able to display his true feeling of happiness and satisfaction after he quenched his nearly fatal thirst.
ReplyDelete"My heart began to beat like a merry drum and blood started flowing through my veins like cars from a wedding party honking their way through town"(143). Going off what Ian said, this metaphor helps express Pi's feeling of content after receiving water for the the first time on the life boat. Imagining his heart beating helped me picture an overwhelmed and exhausted Pi coming to life. He needed some fuel and in this case the water was his fuel. The relation with the wedding party meant he was excited and hopeful at the possibility of a new beginning. Overall, I believe Martel included this in the novel because it helped the reader understand how Pi must've felt.
Delete“Orange Juice lay next to it, against the dead zebra. Her arms were spread wide open, and her short legs were folded together, and slightly turned to one side. She looked like a Simian Christ on a cross.” (165 ch. 47). Pi says this after Orange Juice is killed; this is yet another biblical allusion in Life of Pi. Pi is comparing the death of orange juice to the death of Jesus Christ, who is the lord of Christianity which Pi practices. The death of Orange Juice is like the death of Jesus to him.
ReplyDeleteI think Martel is also trying to show Orange Juice's innocence in this quote. She is represented as pure, while the hyena would be compared to the Romans in this case. Orange Juice's death is shown as gruesome and unfair like the death of Jesus. I also believe that Martel is showing a belief in evolution in this quote. His comparison of an ape and Jesus shows how similar Orange Juice is to a human being. He also gave Orange Juice humanlike characteristics in the sentence before the simile. The way she "folded her legs together," and how they were "turned to one side" shows qualities of a person. Overall, by comparing Orange Juice to Jesus, Martel was expressing Pi's love for the orangutan, and the simile shows how cruel and evil the hyena's act toward his humanlike friend was.
DeleteSimiles and metaphors are another way of stating an action, although through a different perspective. Similes are another way to emphasize a point the writer is trying to make. On page 59, Pi is entering the mosque and he relates to how the Christians and Muslims are called to their are of worship. "I imagined it beckoned the Muslim faithful to the mosque, much like bells summoned us Christians to church."
ReplyDeleteI couldn't complete my full thought.
DeletePi is finding ways of relating the three religions together, possibly helping him worship all of them at the same time. The more the religions have in common, the less major differences they have among them, and the easier it should be to worship them all.
Delete“To be afraid of this ridiculous dog when there was a tiger about was like being afraid of splinters when trees are falling down” (Martel 136). More than just adding humor to the situation, this quote shows how frightened Pi really is. The image of the goat being eaten by Richard Parker was permanently etched into Pi’s mind. So when he realizes the Bengal Tiger is still aboard the life boat, he is no longer afraid of the hyena. The comparison between the splinter and tree shows how beneath the tiger the hyena is.
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I agree with you. This similie shows that the hyena is lower than the tiger, and that Pi shouldn't be worried about the hyena. The hyena won't mess with Pi because it thinks that Pi is the tiger's food, not his. This comparison with trees and splinters is great. He shouldnt be worried about something small when there is a much bigger thing right next to him.
DeleteOne simile that I absolutely loved was right after Pi drank a lot of water. He says, “My heart began to beat like a merry drum and blood started flowing through my veins like cars from a wedding party honking their way through town” (143). Pi is feeling so good at this moment because he is not thirsty anymore. This shows that he is truly merry at this moment. PI is literally changing inside his body because he says that it’s as if cars from a wedding party are like his blood. He is truly in a dreamy mood. He is dreaming about his blood and heart.
ReplyDeleteOne simile that I absolutely loved was right after Pi drank a lot of water. He says, “My heart began to beat like a merry drum and blood started flowing through my veins like cars from a wedding party honking their way through town” (143). Pi is feeling so good at this moment because he is not thirsty anymore. This shows that he is truly merry at this moment. PI is literally changing inside his body because he says that it’s as if cars from a wedding party are like his blood. He is truly in a dreamy mood. He is dreaming about his blood and heart.
ReplyDeleteI feel once Pi took a sip of water he already began replenishing his system, and now he willl be able to open his eyes to the terrible situation he is in. Before Pi was able to find the emergancy rations and water he went three days with out eating or drinking. This I feel put Pi in an isolated state of mind. Before Pi could only think about water and food. Up until right after he took a sip of water he finally realized I have to find a way home. Pi was merry and joyful he finally drank his water, but soon after his dreamy mood became reality.
DeleteI agree that Pi is happy because he isn't thirsty anymore, but Pi is also happy because it means he can survive longer on the lifeboat. With finding the food and the water, Pi isn't worried about dying of thirst or hunger anymore. His heart is beating hard because he is getting excited because he realizes he has a real shot, however small it might be, to get off the boat.
DeleteMartel writes with some of the most descriptive, most relatable, and most interesting similes that I have read in a while. His similes clearly put an image in your head that give you a better understanding of the reading. I have already begun tonight's reading, and these back-to-back similes already are some of my favorites. "Richard parker opened his maw and the squealing rat disappeared into it like a baseball into a catcher's mitt. Its hairless tail vanished like a spaghetti noodle sucked into a mouth" (Martel 153). These similes really signify Pi's youth. He is still a teenager, and sports and food aren't uncommon to be on a boy's brain. They remind you that Pi is going through this whole ordeal alone, and while he is acting mature and rational for the most part, he still is young and scared. Martel could have just written "Richard Parker swallowed the rat whole," but this is boring. These similes not only can be clearly understood and pictured, but they also provide a little bit of humor to such a dark circumstance. Without this simile, Richard Parker eating a rat would not mean too much to a reader, and in most cases it could be overlooked.
ReplyDelete"At length, as slowly as a caravan of camels crossing a desert, some thoughts came together" (134). Pi is stuck on a boat, not by choice, crossing an irrational body of water. A desert, like an ocean, is an irrational space that camels do not cross by choice. Camels are often led in that direction by human action. It was the human action or misfortune that led Pi to the ocean with a caravan of animals. On a desert, there is few water or rain. Pi's lack of water pushes him to fight for survival. The dangers of an ocean and desert are quite similar. Because of Pi's condition, the thoughts that are slowly coming to his mind can be considered irrational. This leads back to Martel's overall theme of "Life of Pi."
ReplyDeleteThis quote is by far one of my favorites from the book, but my interpretation of it was that it was a metaphor describing how slowly his thoughts were coming to him. At the time, he was famished and rather dehydrated, so of course his brain activity wouldn't be very strong. For the majority of the time he was on that boat, he would blankly repeat to himself that he was going to die, but after time his thoughts slowly come onto him. Obviously our ideas on what it means differ; however, I like your views much more.
Delete“A single fly buzzed about, sounding to me like an alarm bell of insanity” (Martel 127). At this point Pi had witnessed his sinking boat, sat in horrible awe of an innocent animal being butchered alive by another, and had to come to the fact of reality that his whole family was dead. Although not showing signs of it yet, I am quite sure that Pi will have an insane outbreak sometime in the near future. Pi hearing only a single fly buzzing around him amidst a hyena brutally killing a zebra, ocean waves crashing around him, and a 450 pound Bengal tiger that he is unaware is resting at the back of the boat shows that Pi is beginning to lose it. I can almost imagine him doing one of those insane laughs that crazy people in the asylums squeeze out as the rock back and forth in their strait jackets. Pi says “like an alarm bell to insanity” signaling he knows he is going to lose it, but he’s not quite done with his mind yet.
ReplyDeleteI think Martel is referring to alarm going off in Pi's head that what he is going through is truly insanity. Not many people can say they have survived what Pi has. He is a unique boy and is in an insane situation. He is placed in a small lifeboat with a zebra, a hyena, and a bengal tiger. The chances of survival are slim, but somehow Pi manages. The alarm is a realization to Pi that this is not a dream. Pi has awakened to reality and this is when he begins to take action for his survival.
DeleteYou are sitting alone in a room focusing. Out of seeming nowhere, a sound emerges. Bzzz. It's a fly. Suddenly you are distracted. You cannot focus, and you definitely cannot continue working at the same level of concentration. The sound stops; you relax. Then the sound erupts again and after a few repetitions of this outbreak, you start searching for the fly to solve the problem. You cannot find it, and it makes you go mad because you can hear it but cannot see it. A single fly in a room can make any sane person go mad, even if for only minutes. In "Life of Pi", the fly was the point of no return for Pi. The fly was last slip before the earthquake. The day he heard the fly was the night "disbelief gave way to pain and grief" (Martel 127).
Delete"Her [Orange Juice] arms were spread wide open and her short legs were folded together and slightly turned to one side. She looked like a simian Christ on the Cross" (Martel 132). Pi looks upon the body of Orange Juice after her fight with the hyena and the first image that comes into his mind is Jesus as he was crucified. This shows that religion is always on his mind. The fact that Orange Juice looks like Jesus on the Cross means that Orange Juice went through intense pain as Jesus did when he was crucified.
ReplyDeleteI noticed this several times while Pi was on the lifeboat. When Pi was thirsty, he compared the pain of thirst to the pain of suffocation. He did this by referencing to Christ on the Cross. He said that thirst was so bad that Jesus was thirsting for water even while he was being suffocated. His thirst was a bigger priority than the need for air. This also shows how religion is usually on his mind, even in dire times.
DeleteI think that the involvement of religion that Pi brings up while describing his experience is a very good quality way that the presence of religion is repeated throughout most of the book. This religious presence is constantly hinted at by Pi's reactions to significant events such as the Tiger rising up from it's den to greet Pi, or when he is struggling to create the raft as his method of escape, because he exclaims things such as "god give me the time" Which show how he constantly looks to his religions for salvation during his journey.
Delete"Her [Orange Juice] arms were spread wide open and her short legs were folded together and slightly turned to one side. She looked like a simian Christ on the Cross" (Martel 132). It is shown that Pi is very religious because the first thing he notices at he sees the mauled body of Orange Juice was Jesus Christ crucified. Pi also sees a resemblance between Jesus, someone he loves dearly, and Orange Juice, someone else he loves. Perhaps Orange Juice is someone more than an orangutan to Pi.
Delete"Memory is an ocean and he bobs on its surface" (53). This metaphor obviously fits the story of Pi being stranded in the middle of the ocean and bobbing on its surface in a lifeboat, but Martel's choice of words has more meaning. As Martel explained in the interview, Pi's name and the ocean are similar in that they are both irrational. Pi is an irrational number, and the ocean is an irrational volume of water. Memory is also irrational. People make tons of memories every day; the amount of memories stored into our brains is so large that, even though they’re in our head somewhere, it’s not possible to remember and recall everything we have ever seen or heard. Memory is one of the most irrational things there are. Pi “bobs on its surface” because this story, this memory, still bothers him even today. As he tells it to Martel, “he gets agitated” (53). He wants to stay rational while recounting what happened. It was a traumatic experience and going too deep into his memory of what happened is scary. He wants to tell this story, but he doesn’t want to jump overboard into the ocean of thoughts and memories that he has of this experience; he wants to stay on his lifeboat where he knows what he can do.
ReplyDelete"Memory is an ocean and he bobs on its surface" (Martel 42). The “he” Yann Martel is referring to is Pi. In this short chapter, Martel is describing how agitated Pi can get about telling his own story. The reference to the ocean is very relevant to the story, considering that’s where the majority of Pi’s time in the text took place. Also the reference foreshadows things to come later in the novel. The fact that these memories are “an ocean” means they are very vast and can go into depth, something more than what meets the eye at the surface. The depth of the ocean can sometimes is very dark and haunting, which opens the bad memories Pi experienced and maybe that’s why he’s afraid to go into it. He’s bobbing on the surface because he’s hesitant to relive the images and feelings that once happened to him on that lifeboat or maybe it’s because there is simply so much in his memory that he doesn’t know where to start. Over time, memory becomes very vague and we forget what had happened to us which is maybe why Pi is agitated because he wants so badly to tell his story and get it right.
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