Life of Pi Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Life of Pi - Research Paper Example Life of Pi is a 2012 American -Indian- British live action and computer-animated adventure drama film based on Yann Martel’s 2001 novel of the same name. Ang Lee directs the film. Life of Pi did succeed in depicting the story of a young Indian man who survives the tragic shipwreck but later entered a 227 days journey on the Pacific Ocean with a ferocious Belgian tiger. Besides the troubles and tribulation, the film also depicts meaningful lessons on the religious aspects. Pi Patel whose role was played by Gautam Belur at five, Ayush at twelve, Suraj Sharma at 16 and Irran Khan at middle age had to move together with his family to Canada on a Japanese cargo ship. Unfortunately, the ship in which they were travelling in is struck by a deadly storm and only some people survive. However, an unexpected incident happens, separating Pi from the group. Pi is left alone in the boat together with his family’s zoo animals, including in the zoo animals is a ferocious tiger named Ri chard parker. In order to survive Pi has to find ways to deal with the unexpected and dangerous company. (John, 186). Throughout the 127 minutes of the film, the audience would be fascinated with pi thoughts and actions through the transformations, the beliefs he holds as well as his solutions for the fearsome, aggressive company- Richard Parker. From a somehow weak, flaccid person, Pi is seen letting parker take over the lifeboat, but Pi gradually becomes stronger and tries to gain dominance of the situation that he is in now. Finally, Pi achieves the control and sustains a neutral relationship with the Belgian tiger. This is not only a fight for survival but also a metaphor, which implies the battle for good and evil. The film Pi tries to make the reader want to believe in God, the film give then reader the democratic choice that is the desired to believe rather than the belief itself. The two survive for 272 days at sea with one stop on an island overflowing with vegetation and m eerkats. In the evenings when the tide rises on the island, it contains a deadly acidic level and kills anything in the tide pool or the now flooded ground. Therefore, everyone seeks shelter on top of the trees at night. After gathering food from the island, Pi and the tiger get back to the lifeboat and head back in the sea (Susan, 23). By analyzing the conflicts, characters, dream sequence, and symbols a psychoanalytic theory emerges. There are strong Oedipal connotations in this theory, the son’s desire for his mother, the father’s envy of the son and rivalry for the mothers attention, the daughters desire for the father’s attention. Of cource these all operate on a subconscious level of the characters of the film, this is to avoid the serious social more. There is also an emphasis on the meaning of dreams. This is because psychoanalytic theory asserts that it is in dreams that a person’s subconscious desires are revealed. What a person cannot express o r do because of social rules will be expressed and accomplished in dreams, where there are no social rules. Most of the time, people are not even aware that it is they secretly desire until their subconscious goes unchecked in sleep. Life of Pi might not make you believe in god, as a character in the film suggests. It does however; make you