Karma Nyendrak

English 2400, Section 0552

Dec 17, 2020

Prof. Scanlan

Ethics in the “Life of Pi”

The human mind is a very peculiar and interesting topic as each human varies with cognitive ability and consciousness/psychology. A lot is unknown, such as our own conscious which gives us the ability to think for self, and others. That conversation leads to the topic of morals, which in its most general form equates to what’s good or bad. Like with anything, morals for the most part depend on lots of factors such as culture, time period, education, etc. While this is all true with the variance of humans and whatnot, it is not to say that there are certain pillars or principles in our mind that we all share and are ingrained in our minds. One being survival, and the other being heroism/nobility. In all cultures from the dawn of civilization, we could read or hear stories displaying one’s heroism whether it be a mythological tale, to a real-life account, the possibilities are endless. Thus, survivalism and heroism are often interlinked as the reason for one’s heroism is for the most part survival. With death being the biggest consequence, we could face, in the face of it is when the human breaks or prevails, often leading to a psychological change. With that in mind, this leads to virtue ethics, which asks the fundamental question of what type of person should I be. The hero stories as mentioned earlier will frequently get to a point in their stories where the character is faced with a situation, and is prompted to answer that very question. This can all be seen or read in the “Life of Pi” with a character that might not seem heroic in posture but nevertheless a hero. He faces death in the face, has to make hard decisions and lastly survive through unbearable conditions that could turn any one inside out. The reason for its success though it could be factored to a lot of things, has to do a lot with how we can put ourselves in Pi’s shoes, with the obvious being that the movie would’ve been a lot shorter if the main character just gave up. Pi has to answer to the overarching question of what type of person should I be? in many different contexts leading to character development. Since the story is essentially the same, the movie adaption and the book don’t differ much as the movie just felt like a visual and auditory representation of the book. This can also be relayed in the success of both the movie and the book, as both have equally done well meaning that they are essentially the same in different forms.

It’s revealed to us in the beginning of the story that Pi is a highly religious individual as he partakes in three different religions concurrently. Thus, he follows a strict set of rules that restrict him from certain things such as meat. This rule is questioned when Pi gets stranded in the ocean with a live tiger as his ship mate. In order to not get eaten by the tiger, Pi has to break this rule which may be seen as unholy or unethical from the eyes of religion as a way to live. He states “had to start fishing very soon. It would not take long for Richard Parker to finish the animal carcasses. At the zoo the adult lions and tigers ate on average ten pounds of meat a day.” So, Pi had to make a conscious decision for his own survival and in doing so, broke his moral/religious standing which he loves, showing his resilience to survive as under any other circumstance he couldn’t separate himself from religion.

While the text comes off as straight forward and sort of cold, the movie representation does show how much of a struggle it is for Pi to initially kill fish. In the movie, after killing the fish Pi is sickened with himself and is crying, holding up prayer hands for the fish. This very scene while sort of brushed off in the text, can be vividly displayed in the movie and is a pinnacle point  in Pi’s journey. It was the point of no return, as now Pi had broken one of his rules, which he would vow against in the past but due to his current situation had no choice. While I did mention that the movie and book don’t differ much, little details such as visually seeing Pi cry after killing the fish definitely added more to the respective scene. Pi answers the question of virtue ethics, by being a man of grit and endurance in order for his future sake.

Virtue Ethics can be found all throughout this film and book, with the interaction of nature, survival, and the consciousness. The Life of Pi has warranted many successes due to its interesting story, but as mentioned before it holds up some of the principles of our mind, which is in a nature sense, survival, and also in terms of society, a sense of duty. Pi is able to achieve both making for a very entertaining story that while is farfetched, we can all relate to in one way or the other. Both renditions of the text and film are alike and both relay these sentiements.