For my ENG4UV-01 class. U2A7 Life of Pi seminar.

1. of
There are instances in life in which one can be trapped by certain
situations that seem absolutely impossible to escape. But what if this
isn’t true? What if there is always a choice hiding just beneath the
surface of some sort of personal transformation?

2. Lead:
• The quest pattern is a fundamental
template for all stories.
• The basic concept of the quest
pattern is centered on one
individual’s journey to
enlightenment, in which they
discover certain things about
themselves that were hidden or
silenced before partaking in the
journey.
• The novel Life of Pi follows the
journey of Pi Patel, who, after being
in a shipwreck when moving from
India to Canada, spends two hundred
and twenty seven days sharing a
lifeboat with an adult Bengal tiger.

3. Thesis: Yann Martel's Life of Pi is an effective modern
interpretation of the archetypal quest pattern, the Hero’s
Journey, through its use of the Call to Adventure, the
Challenge and Adventure, and Returning to the Ordinary
World.

4. Body Paragraph 1

5. Firstly, Pi’s previous KNOWLEDGE and
UNDERSTANDING of animals aids him in
accepting his CALL TO ADVENTURE.

6. Pi’s knowledge of zoo habitats.

7. “Animals are territorial. That is the key to their minds. Only a familiar territory will
allow them to fulfill the two relentless imperatives of the wild: the avoidance of
enemies and getting of food and water. A biologically sound zoo enclosure-whether
cage, pit, moated island, corral, terrarium, aviary or aquarium- is just
another territory, peculiar only in its size and in its proximity to human territory”
(Martel 19).

9. The lesson Pi’s father teaches his sons about the
danger of animals when he feeds Mahisha the tiger, a
goat, in front of them at the Pondicherry Zoo.

10. “I don’t know if I saw blood before turning into Mother’s arms or if I
daubed it on later, in my memory, with a big brush. But I heard. It was
enough to scare the living vegetarian daylights out of me”(Martel 39).

12. Overall, Pi’s previous knowledge and
understanding of animals, acquired by his
attentiveness to zoo habitats and the lesson his
father taught him, proves Yann Martel’s Life of Pi
to be an effective modern interpretation of the
archetypal quest pattern, the Hero’s Journey,
through its natural transition into Pi’s
acceptance for his Call to Adventure.
2. The Call to Adventure

13. Body Paragraph 2

14. • Topic sentence: Secondly, Pi’s diverse religious
background helps him to thrive while in the
Challenge and Adventure stage of the Hero’s
Journey.

15. Pi and his mother speak of why Pi should not
believe in more than one religion.
In his response to his mother, Pi says, “If there’s
only one nation in the sky, shouldn’t all
passports be valid for it?”

16. Pi’s willingness to accept different approaches to
religion helps him to accept different methods of
survival. By participating in three different religions,
Pi understands that he does not have to survive by
only using one method. For example, he uses his
survivor’s handbook, Richard Parker, and various
sorts of food in order to survive.

17. Pi claims to have met Jesus Christ on a family vacation
to Munnar.
Pi says of Jesus, “This Son, on the other hand, who goes hungry, who
suffers from thirst, who gets tired, who is sad, who is anxious, who is
heckled and harassed, who has to put up with followers who don't get it
and opponents who don't respect Him – what kind of god is that? It's a
god on too human a scale, that's what.”

18. • “This SON is a GOD
who DIED in three hours,
“What KIND of GOD isTHAT?”
with moans,
GASPS,
And laments.
WHAT is there
to INSPIRE this SON?”

19. Without being introduced to Jesus Christ through
learning of his suffering, Pi may not have been so
ready to push through his own suffering. In having
to accept that Jesus was a human, as vulnerable as
any other human, Pi was forced to understand
more about his own fragility within the confines of
humanity.

20. • In terms of the Challenge and Adventure stage of
the quest pattern, understanding that suffering is
a large part of humanity helped Pi make certain
decisions such as kill and eat live animals. After
reading the novel in its entirety and then
reflecting on the above quotation, is it not
possible that Pi Patel’s suffering could be directly
related to the suffering of Jesus Christ?
6. Challenge and Adventure

22. • When analyzing the Call and Adventure stage of
the quest pattern, in which Pi discovers he is not
who he thought himself to be, readers discover
that his diverse religious background helps him to
push himself to do the things he needs to survive.
• This plays a major role in Yann Martel's Life of Pi
being an effective modern interpretation of the
archetypal quest pattern, the Hero’s Journey.

23. Body Paragraph 3

24. Topic sentence: Lastly, Pi’s coping mechanisms
throughout the novel are the driving factors behind him
crossing the third threshold and returning to the
Ordinary World.

25. Pi realizes that he and Richard Parker need to
coexist in order to survive.

26. • “…a part of me was
glad about Richard
Parker. A part of
me did not 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.”

27. By using Richard Parker as a means of survival, Pi does not place as much emphasis on
his own suffering.
If Pi had not had Richard Parker to tend to, he may not have found the strength to
survive, resulting in his death and also in him never being able to cross that final
threshold and return to the Ordinary World.
Pi would have never discovered the parts of himself that were capable of taking
drastic measures to survive.
With Richard Parker’s help, Pi learns things about himself he never knew he had.

28. Pi’s use of the two different stories at the end of
the novel.

29. Pi says to Mr. Chiba and Mr.
Okamoto, “In both stories
the ship sinks, my entire
family dies, and I suffer […]
So tell me, since it makes
no factual difference to you
and you cant prove the
question either way, which
story do you prefer? Which
is the better story, the story
with the animals or the
story without the
animals?”

30. Pi uses the two stories
about the animals and the
people as a coping
mechanism in order to deal
with his own guilt. He never
says which one is true, but
readers get the sense that if
he did not present two
variations of his experience,
there is a distinct possibility
that Pi may not have been
able to keep his sanity
intact when he crossed the
final threshold after being
rescued into the Ordinary
World.

31. Coping mechanisms seem to make up a large portion of
Life of Pi, and the role they play in helping Pi’s transition
into the Ordinary World run more smoothly, shows
readers that the novel is an effective modern
interpretation of the archetypal quest pattern, the Hero’s
Journey, through the stage Returning to the Ordinary
World.

32. Yann Martel's Life of Pi uses the Call to Adventure, the
Challenge and Adventure, and Returning to the
Ordinary World stages of the Hero’s Journey in order
to demonstrate that the novel is an effective modern
interpretation of the archetypal quest pattern.

33. To enhance the efficiency of this process, it is noteworthy to
mention:
• Pi’s knowledge of and previous experience with animals
• His assorted religious background
• The stories he tells in order to cope with the events of his
journey
It is ultimately the aforementioned characteristics that lead Pi
to fall so effortlessly into the various stages of the Hero’s
Journey.

34. Life of Pi, though full of heartbreak, is a novel
riddled with wonder, mystery, self discovery, and
most of all, an everlasting sort of faith. It is a novel
that can and will leave its imprint on the youth of
our generation, who, as Pi suggests, may refuse to
be told which story to believe and opt instead, to
choose which story they want to believe with the
help of Yann Martel’s influential and meticulous
story telling.

36. Works Cited
• Martel, Yann. Life of Pi. Toronto Ontario: Vintage Canada, 2011. Print.
• http://hdw.eweb4.com/search/life+of+pi/
• http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/02/which-story-do-you-prefer-how-
different-cultures-saw-life-of-pi/273265/
• http://www.dvdactive.com/reviews/dvd/life-of-pi-2d.html
• http://www.filmapia.com/sites/default/files/filmapia/pub/scene/scene/life-of-pi2.jpg
• http://galleryhip.com/life-of-pi-shipwreck.html
• http://www.filmapia.com/films/movies/scenes/pis-family-zoo
• http://www.filmapia.com/films/movies/scenes/young-pi-church
• http://www.religionfacts.com/islam/symbols.htm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_symbolism
• http://www.religionfacts.com/hinduism/symbols.htm
• http://www.kushiinstitute.org/better-brain-health
• http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/tigers/images/16120028/title/tiger-wallpaper-wallpaper
•
• http://deadline.com/2013/02/oscars-the-adapted-screenplay-nominees-433591/
• http://www.awardsdaily.com/blog/2012/11/reader-spotlight-steve50-on-life-of-pi/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star
• http://screenmusings.org/LifeOfPi/pages/Life-of-Pi-334.htm
• http://ksxyforeverlove.blogspot.ca/2012/12/life-of-pi-3d-premier-screening-gsc.html
• http://www3.canisius.edu/~grandem/animalshabitats/SOFTCHALKGOOD_print.html
• http://blog.wonderfulmachine.com/2012/06/shattered-glass/

37. • http://natepyle.com/secular-people-or-not/#sthash.7F9QuO5i.dpbs
• http://shiggins.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2013/03/14/pi-eyed/
• http://screenmusings.org/LifeOfPi/pages/Life-of-Pi-282.htm
• http://www.your3dcenter.com/life-of-pi-3d-review/
• http://habee.hubpages.com/hub/Life-of-Pi-Movie-Review-and-
Analysis
• http://www.readliterature.com/BC_lifeofpi.htm
• http://marigoldnatural.blogspot.ca/2013/03/normal-0-false-false-false.
html
•
• http://www.aveleyman.com/FilmCredit.aspx?FilmID=30289
• http://www.thewritersjourney.com/hero's_journey.htm
• http://ethology.eu/life-of-pi-read-the-book-watch-the-movie/