Work Cited

• Yann Martel. Life of Pi. Toronto: Vintage Canada, 2001.
• International Socialist Review. International Socialist Organization. May-June 2006. <http://www.isreview.org/issues/47/wdss-humnature.shtml>
• Human Nature. Wikipedia. November 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_nature>

Human Nature

Human nature is the general psychological characteristics, feelings, and behavioral traits of humankind. In many ways Life of Pi is an allegory because Pi is trying to better understand who he is as an individual in the world and what his purpose is. The book deals with religious perspectives Pi follows three religions Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism to try and find the nature of man. He's trying to find what God wants him to do in life, he wants to experience God in different ways so he can appreciate and respect him more.

In the book Life of Pi, everything begins when Pi is stranded in a lifeboat after a shipwreck and has to fight for his survival, accompanied with two ravenous animals the hyena and Richard Parker the tiger. When people are trying to survive to stay alive it changes them, everything that defines them will change in an instant if they have to turn on their survival instincts. For example, Pi had a lot of trouble trying to kill the flying fish for food because he would be going against everything he believed in: religion, moral obligations. Everything that defines him as a person because he's also a vegetarian but he killed the fish to survive. Pi's human nature changes after killing the animals because he sees no harm in killing them for food.

The way Pi acts throughout his journey suggests a lot about his human nature. It shows that will power is one of the most important traits a human can have, because Pi demonstrated that he was able to do anything he set his mind to. He just had to shut out his fear and think logically. Pi quotes, "fear is life's only true opponent"(161) he uses this to overcome the fear of the animals and everything he has to overcome in his journey. Another thing that his story shows about human nature is that when you're battling to survive it takes a lot out of a person and can change them not just physically but also emotionally and mentally as well.

Our human nature as human beings is also shifting, we're not on lifeboats with tigers trying to desperately survive like Pi but people in our society today are relying too much on other things. Humans are becoming too lazy, too passive, too greedy, too self-absorbed, and too violent. The world has altered so much and continues to alter, human behavior will always be changing as well, as people adapt to new changes there human nature will be adapting also. There continues to be big world issues occurring and because of the way people's human nature has changed the issues are not getting any better.

This book reminds me a lot about myself, I feel like I can relate to Pi in many ways. The boy version of Pi is very similar to how I was when I was younger always curious about everything. Pi's human nature I believe is like mine we both understand things the same way and I think if I was put in the same situation as Pi I would of done similar things that he did to survive.

”An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind.” - M.K. Gandhi