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Symbolism
Humanity in Movie “Life of Pi” —Conflict between human nature and death

Introduction

Pi whose father operates a zoo in India has his special attitudes towards beliefs and humanity because of his extraordinary environment in which he lived when he was a child. His parents decided to immigrate to Canada when he was only 17 years old while Pi had to break out with his first lover. On the ship to Canada, a rainstorm occurred and the ship sank. Nevertheless, Pi survived dramatically with an unexpected companion Richard Parker—a Bengal tiger, drifting on the Pacific Ocean. During the adventure with the tiger, he struggled to explore the true humanity when he faced death so closely. At last, he came back to the human society and understood himself in a better way.

1. The first story

2.1 The final result of the animals

In the movie “Life of Pi”, there are four animals—a hyena, a zebra with one broken leg, a female orangutan and a grown-up Bengal tiger—Richard Parker. In the first three days, the female orangutan was bitten to death by the hyena which ate the zebra when it was still alive. Then the Bengal tiger killed the hyena. As a result, Pi had to live with the tiger drifting on the Pacific Ocean. 2.2 The analysis of the symbols of animals

In the movie, there are obvious relations between animals and characters. At first, the zebra represented the sailor who’s a Chinese with one leg broken. Secondly, the hyena was the representation of the cook who is arrogant and the female orangutan was the mother of Pi. The most important character, the Bengal tiger—Richard parker, was Pi himself.

2.3 The potential meanings the animals contain

In the first place, the relations between the zebra and the Chinese sailor are obvious. The most significant common point is that both of them have a broken leg after the rainstorm. What’s more, the sailor who is a Buddhist is a vegetarian while the zebra eats grass only. Last but

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