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Transcript

The real story

Pi is retelling his story in the form of people rather than animals, the cook and sailor (hyena and zebra) are on board along with Pi and Pi’s mother. (337-345)

The people on board the ship (rather than animals) are all from different social classes. In this case, the social classes differ because the retelling of the story states that the cook, a class usually lower than those of passengers, is of higher class than that of Pi and his mother. The story claims that the cook “dominated us” (338) and the cook Made the rules and forced the other two to help amputate the sailor’s leg. The cook is the man in power on the boat up until Pi kills him by stabbing him. This relates the Marxist lens because it has to do with two classes fighting with each other until the oppressed take on their oppressors (cook and Pi) and when Pi kills the cook, the scales balance and create equilibrium.

Quotes from the text

These quotes refer to the power struggle of Pi and Richard Parker. Pi wants to try and be superior to the tiger when the tiger is the obvious superior predator of the two. In the end, Pi develops a sort of equal society in the boat by the two of them living together/ co-existing with each other.

“… no matter the beast, you must get its goat. The best way to do this will most likely be to go to the edge of your territory and noisily intrude into the neutral zone” (225)

“Either I tamed him, made him see who was Number One and who was Number Two …” (229)

Marxism

  • Money
  • Classes
  • Socialism
  • Bourgeoisie
  • Marxism is an economic and social system based upon the political and economic theories of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
  • Developed in the 19th century

Quotes from the text

In the beginning of being on the lifeboat, Pi discovers Richard Parker:

“Richard Parker also explained the animals’ strange behavior. Now it was clear why the hyena had confined itself to such an absurdly small space behind the zebra and why it had waited so long before killing it. It was the fear of the greater beast and fear of touching the greater beast’s food.” (151)

Explanation: A “greater being” such as the tiger helps the reader see the oppressed and oppressors from the cowering of the hyena reacting to the greater predator on the boat.

“In the face of such a superior predator, all of us were prey, and normal ways of preying were affected” (151)

Explanation: Using the word “superior”, it shows the two classes fighting for survival, one being dominant to another.

Quotes from the text

What is Marxism in literature?

  • Two classes fighting against each other
  • Oppressors v.s. the oppressed
  • Want for an equal society
  • takes into account political, economic, and social history at the time of the literature
  • usually we see a revolution of sorts (power struggle)

Clear evidence of a power struggle and the wanting for equality

“I had to tame him. It was at that moment that I realized this necessity. It was not a question of him or me, but of him and me.” (181)

Explanation: The word “and” in “him and me” shows the wanting for an equal society aboard the boat.

“we were, literally and figuratively, in the same boat. We would live – or we would die – together.” (181)

Explanation: Shows the idea of become equal to each other

Life of Pi through a Marxist lens

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