Question 7 (chapters 90-91)
Existentialism can be boiled down to a way of looking at the world as a composite of absurdities. It also (viewed by many) as a bleak outlook of life in response to the alienation and despair of modern people. (Look at things in life that we so often cannot explain their occurrence. Look at Life of Pi and how many absurd things happen in the book. Many view these absurd events with despair; others view them as a part of the human experience.) Existentialism says that we are born of nothingness and that we leave this world as nothing, if we do not find our meaning. The smallest, most absurd, even basic, actions are leading us to our meaning.
Beliefs of existentialism?
* Associated with anxiety, dread, awareness of death, freedom.
* Emphasizes action, freedom, decision as fundamental to existence
* Argues against definitions of humans as rational, knowing beings for whom action can be regulated by rationale.
* Views human beings as subjects in an indifferent, objective, ambiguous, "absurd" universe in which meaning is not provided, but can be created, however provisionally and unstably, by human beings' actions and interpretations. Man exists before existence has meaning. (Wikipedia)
What do you notice that is existentialist (look at the beliefs above)?
For a reading of another Existentialist piece of literature many of us are familiar with: read Winnie the Pooh to explore these beliefs. For me, this helped me understand existentialism. It will be interesting to discuss this in relationship to Pi. http://www.vanwensveen.nl/rants/deepthought/pooh.html
posted by Davis at
2:43 PM
18 Comments:
FYI: The original post was for you to state what you noticed in the text that seemed unreal. I have changed the post's question.
3:25 PM
"Existentialism is a philosophical movement that is generally considered a study that pursues meaning in existence and seeks value for the existing individual." (Wikipedia.com). It does not treat the individual as a concept, but rather values subjectivity and objectivity. As a result, questions regarding the meaning of life and subjective experience are important.
While Pi is on the lifeboat, he is able to survive over the odds of his obstacles. As a result, Pi begins to question life in general and the meaning of life. These thoughts are existentialistic, because he is trying to understand how he is able to overcome the obstacles that threaten his life and existence!
"I came to the sad conclusion that I could no longer take care of Richard Parker. I had failed as a zookeeper. I was more affected by his imminent demise than I was by my own. But truly, broken down and wasted away as I was, I could do no more for him." (Martel 305).
Pi's very existence was being torn by his obstacle, in this example, Richard Parker. Pi felt connected to Richard Parker; if Richard Parker died, then a part of Pi's life and meaning would die as well.
Contrast Group: Kylee, Zach, Meaghan, Kim, and Sierra
8:28 AM
The island is not real, it is metaphorical, the island is Pi's idea of life, you see all this glamour, as Pi initially is attracted to the island, and yet behind the false mask, you see in reality that life is a cruel task master, only after your soul and your happiness. This is the way existentialism is shown in the passage. Even the thing that provides life, the pond with drinking water, also turns on life and tries to end it with a grain of salt.
8:59 AM
Pi is imaging the island. the land is part of Pi's personality and thought inside his head. reason he is imaging this is becuase he has been on a boat for so long and is losing his mind. chrisE
2:12 PM
The way I see existentialism is that depending on whether we can define ourselves at the end of our lives determines what happens in the "afterlife". Ways to do this are affecting others' lives, creating a want to be alive in others and yourself, and realizing life is about your actions and thoughts, not what you have. Pi seems to have troubles with this issue because there is not much he can do on his own with Richard Parker. Pi's existence is all in his mind.
7:41 PM
I believed his story to be strange from the start but at the point when Pi and the Frenchman bump into eachother it all seemed far fetched. The chances of two blind, shipwreck survivors bumping into eachother after months of floating in the Pacific is null. Then the floating, man-eating island seemed like the hillucinations of a young man going insane.
9:49 AM
When Pi sets sail he is a very religious boy, but he has not yet define who he is himself, when the ship sank pi was nothing, throughout his entire journey he defines himself through the infinite hardships he faces. In Existentialism these events are the ones that define who he is, because he decided that, is who he is
11:15 AM
"The landscape was covered in meekats. And when I appeared, it seemed that all of them turned to me, astonished, like chickens in a farmyard, and stood up." (Martel 264). This part of the text seemed unreal to me because it involved meekrats being on a deserted island in th middle of the ocean. It is hard to believe that meekrats could be in such a place.
11:25 AM
First, we can say that existentialism is the main subject of the book. In fact, from the beginning, we wonder about Pi and his strange life and his trange practices. But it is even more obviously after the shipwreck because he is alone with animals on the lifeboat: all his family is decimated. It makes him wonder on the meaning of the life and the acts. Indeed, he follows to the word his religions (Christianism, Islam and Hinduism), but his situation makes him wonder about the goal of these religious practices. For example, while his hindousite religion forbids him to kill an animal, because of the reincarnation, alone in the middle of the Pacific Ocean he kills a huge dorado. Either when he meets the French castaway and when he agrees to receive a leather boot (cows are sacred) . So we can say that he forgets his convictions. Actually, his situation made him to understand that in such circumstances, everything is erased, all the convictions are lost and forgotten, to leave place at the instinct of survive. Consequently, he has only one thing in head: only survive. At the end of the book, we realy understand why he tells us about his childhood. All his life was a sequence of situations and meetings which put his beliefs in the test. The morals of this book is simple, and rests on the existencialism: we can all hear, all to believe because the reality and the most important is at the bottom of each person. All is a question of beliefs.
7:52 AM
According to existentialism, that is the man who chose his own fate, and makes his own acts independently of God's will, as existentialism says that God doesn't exist. In Pi 's life God is very present and important, but from reader's point of view we can't say that God comes to pi's help as he didn't manifest himself, we notice that Pi is quickly leave to his own devices when he loses his family, he had to manage alone and makes his own choses to go on whitout any help of God. His life is accelerated. That is why we can say that Life of Pi is an existentialist's work.
8:06 AM
Existentialism is a mixture of absurd, imagination and fate. The character has to face to his fate in the good and bad, deeper moments. In "Life of Pi", Pi invents a story with animals to survive. Existentialism refers to the freedom of thinking. Pi makes himself what he belives to be true or not: he is the only respnsable of his acts. The absurd of the scene make the cahracters to have relations with human.
"Man exists before existence has meaning" means that the man appears in the world at first and then he defines imself by his acts that he is the only responsable...
To conclude, we can say that "Life of Pi" is an existentialism book.
11:33 AM
The administrator of this blog started the thread with a promising premise touching upon existentialism and the possible metaphoric touchings in the story. And all I read are some inane ramblings from posters about how the story is "fake". Uh, people... this is a fictional novel. People are still discussing the meanings the author intended not what is fake and what is not fake. Again, this is a fictional novel.
4:30 PM
In the book "Life Of Pi", we can see a lot of allusions of existentialism. First of all, anxiety is omnipresent : Pi is alone in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and with that, we can add dread : Pi doesn't know what will happen the following day. Then, Pi has the awareness of death because of his adventures : every day he comes close to dying, he tries to fish to survive, he is with a tiger who can eat him when he wants, so Pi has to be afraid.Moreover, we can associated the book with the notion of freedom : it's a kind of freedom when we are alone even if it's in the middle of the ocean, nobody can punish him, Pi can do everythings he wants, he is not determined anymore.Then, after the shipwreck, we can see that Pi describes more than at the beginning : there are many details like when he compares the sound of claws in the bones to the sound of spectacles falling to the floor. Pi makes a reconsideration of rationality with Mr Kumar, he describes him as a robot who believes in rationality and logical.Finally, from the second part of the book and especially from his meeting with the French castaway, tere are too many things which are absurd like the French castaway himself, or the trade even their dialogue.
To my part, when I started to read the book, I really believed at Pi's ordeals, but from his meeting with the French castaway and from the algae island with human tooth in leaves it started to become very weird... Then when I knew the end of the story I was a little disappointed but in the same time I understood Pi who invented the story with animals to stay alive and he showed that imagination can be believed by everybody and that was his purpose.
11:20 AM
To my mind , Pi's experience on the lifeboat can be qualified of existentialist.
Indeed, he come back to nothingness (alone in a vast ocean)and he must refind a meaningfull existence during his long journey.
Futhermore, he has to face ton many and terrible hardships( survival , killing a human ...) where anxiety, death surrounded him.We realize that his only rescue is ton find refuge in invented but conforting vision of the shipwreck . This is why this story seems absurd which is also one element of the existentialism.
12:30 PM
Life of pi comprises, as well as the existencialism, many facts approaching the subject of death, the anxiety and the absurdity. First, Pi must face many tragic tests which make that he must make choices himself ( survive on the ocean, alone, without food ; eating human flesh ). Death follows Pi throughout the book, in particular in the real history. He made eveerything to avoid dying. He lives a terrible drama and he decided to make terrible choices in order to take his destiny in hand. However, the book has also absurd aspects which bring it closer to the existencialism (story with animals) . On the lifeboat, Pi is responsible of all his actions and his beliefs. They give meaning to his existence, although they will surely affect his futur life. To conclude, we can say that Life of Pi has many common points with the existentialist theory.
1:43 PM
In my mind, the story of Pi is existentialism, Pi is tested, he survive the sinking of the boat, with some person and some food. Pi tells us throughout the book a story with animals at the end we learn that in reality Pi invented these animals. I think Pi up the story to hide the truth that is too hard to take. Existentialism is to forge an destiny oneself. He is forced to make decisions to survive, like eating the cook. There is no other way out, so he chose to eat human flesh, so hard truth when he told us that Richard Parker who eat the cook to save Pi.
11:28 AM
This is Charlotte S.
In Life of Pi, extencialism is refered to many times. We know that it includes dread, which is present almost at every moment he spends on his lifeboat (the dangerous tiger, the hunger, the french castaway who wants to kill him...). Awareness of death is omnipresent, tightly linked to dread. To continue on this idea, freedom is a big problem for Pi, since his freedom is doubled of solitude.
Absurdity has an important place in Pi's adventure (the story of the banana, the boot, which can remind us "Waiting for Godot", an other blind castaway, the island with the meercats...).
Pi needs to tell this existencialist story to accept what he has done in reality (killed humans, and had probably eaten them).
12:04 PM
Here's the thing. The island is not real. The frenchmen isn't real. These things are obvious. However, how do you not realize that Pi also knows they are not real? He is not mad. He is not a liar either. It is Pi's belief that the truth is arbitrary. "The better story" refers to the way you see the world. It is in Pi's decision to see the true horrific events through a looking glass of charm and fantasy that show the idea of existentialism. Not only who you choose to be, but what you choose to see. Or at least, how you choose to see it. The very fabric of the world we live in is up to our interpretation and perhaps even adjustment. This is what this book tells us. It is existential, I suppose.
10:10 PM
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