This paper will discuss the connection between the book Life of Pi and the Hero’s Journey coined by Joseph Campbell. It is divided into two main sections; one which summarizes the Life of Pi novel and the other which discusses the connection between the novel and the idea of the Hero’s Journey.
Life of Pi is a Canadian novel authored by Yann Martel and published in 2001. The novel’s main character is a 16-year-old South Indian boy who hails from the capital city of The Union Territory of Pondicherry, Piscine Molitor alias Pi. From an early age, the boy took to explore the issues of spirituality and metaphysics. The Life of Pi novel is fictional. It tells how Pi survived 227 days while on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker in the Pacific Ocean following a shipwreck. At 16, the boy Pi embraced Islam, Hinduism, and Catholicism simultaneously. His parents named him Piscine Molitor after a famous swimming pool in France. However, he changed his name while in high school from Piscine to Pi so that his schoolmates could stop teasing him. This is because his former name is pronounced the same as pissing. Coincidentally, Pi is the 16th letter of the Greek alphabet and corresponds with his age.
Life of Pi: A Hero’s Journey
Pi is also a mathematical term for 3.14 or 22/7, representing the days the boy Pi spent in the Ocean. Pi’s family decided to leave India for Canada due to political upheavals in the former country. The cargo ship carrying them sunk, and the boy was the only human survivor alongside a tiger, zebra, hyena, and orangutan. Shortly after, the hyena killed both the zebra and the orangutan before the tiger killed the hyena. While at the Ocean, Pi and Richard Parker faced traumas, challenges, and tragedies of all kinds. They could not get enough food and fresh water, and in the severe period of starvation, they become blind. The two almost fall prey to another starving and blind Frenchman, who wanted to kill and eat Pi. Accidentally, the Frenchman steps on Richard Parker and later killed the blind man. APA Style