Life of Pi

Lyotard’s “The Postmodern Condition” and “A Thousand Plateaus” by Deleuze and Guattari, provides theories of the how to interpret the structure of literature. The reference of the allegory within postmodernism can be illustrated in each of the theories presented. The panopticon, metanarratives and rhizomes can all be considered allegories. A novel that represents the aspect of the allegory is “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel. It is highly eclectic and also carries post modern reflections of randomness, artifice and fragmentation.
Pi is a tale of survival under the most catastrophic circumstances. It’s complex because it’s actually a story within a story. The author tells his personal story and in doing so tells the story of another man. In “A Thousand Plateaus,” Deleuze and Guatarri say “The book imitates the world, as art imitates nature: by procedures specific to it that accomplish what nature cannot or can no longer do. The law of the book is the law of reflection, the One that become two” (380). This type of novel helps that statement to carry validity. When one begins to read it, it becomes a reflection of what one may think is reality, but there is no sense of reality in the tale.
The religious part of the allegory is introduced when Pi tells the author that when he finishes telling him his story, he will believe in God. Pi himself has grown up believing in 3 religions, he’s a Christian, Muslim and Hindu simultaneously. One of the strong quotes in the book is when Pi says “I know zoos are no longer in people’s good graces. Religion faces the same problem. Certain illusions about freedom plague them both” (24). This is reminiscent of the panopticon theory that Foucault speaks of.
Pi’s father is a zoo keeper in Canada, who flees the country because it is going through political turmoil. There is a terrible shipwreck in which the whole family is killed. Pi is the only survivor besides an orangutan, hyena, zebra and a Tiger. The story explains how human values might change when in a life or death situation. When Pi is telling his story it’s difficult to decide if the story is true and the end explains the nature of why and how the tale was told in the first place.
Within the story there are symbols for all disciplines. It indicates the power of humans being territorial when it comes to having to live alone with a tiger on a small boat for 277 days. It shows how starving changes the human condition. The whole story is symbolic of human nature and what one will do in order to survive. Martel does this by using a lot of metaphors and visuals that are unrealistic and combining them with postmodern theories of life.

Works Cited

Deleuze, Gilles, and Felix Guattari. “A Thousand Plateaus.” Literary Theory: An Anthology Ed. Rivkin, Julie, and Michael Ryan. Blackwell Publishing, 1998. p. 379

Martel, Yann. Life of Pi. Canongate books, Ltd. Great Britain. P. 24