Will to Survive

Over the course of the novel, Pi faces many hardships, through which he struggles to survive. Somehow, Pi's survival instincts help him make it to across the Pacific Ocean. Yann Martel shows the nature of survival that often pushes people to perform heroic, uneasy tasks. Here is a list of obstacles Pi overcomes:

• Lack of shelter
• Lack of food and water
• Lack of human contact
• Stormy ocean conditions and nature
• Near blindness
• Loss of family and grief
• Nearness of dangerous animals
• Boredom and little chance
• Fear

The list goes on and on. In a situation where chance of survival is slim and hardships are many, it curious as to what makes a human keep going. This drive is our will to survive.  Pi fights against death and only for brief moments does he almost accept it. However his nature never allows him to fully succumb to its temptation. For most people death is not a temptation, though for Pi, it would seem much easier than the path to survival.

In Pi's life and death situation, he does many things that go against his moral beliefs. The vegetarian at first struggles with the idea of eating fish but is soon easily tearing into the meat of turtles, fish, sharks, birds, crabs, etc. He even decides it is worth trying tiger poop, in the chance it might help him survive.

Pi is not the only one in this novel who demonstrates the will to survive. The Zebra puts up a good fight before finally dying after many days of being eaten alive by the hyena. In fact, each animal who travels with Pi fights it's opponent before dying, in attempt to fulfill their will to survive. Including Orange Juice, the orangutan, who puts up a good fight against the hyena, even though likelihood of survival is low.

Ricky's much thinner look after
 surviving 70 days in the outback.

The will to survive is not only found in Pi and his animal friends. In real life there are many, hard to believe, survival stories that humans have endured. The story of Ricky Megee's survival in the Australian outback is an inspiration one. In 2001, he managed to survive 70 days alone in the outback. While he couldn't remember how he ended up alone in the middle of the wilderness, Megee believes he was drugged and abducted while driving on a quiet road. His diet while lost consisted of frogs, leeches, cockroaches and lizards. He managed to find a small damn where he could stay hydrated. He was lucky to be found by farmers passing by.






Aron Ralston stuck in Bluejohn Canyon, Utah.

 Another similar story to that of Megee's is Aron Ralston's survival in Bluejohn Canyon, Utah. This story is better known to most as it was made into a book and movie. In 2003, Aron was hiking in the canyon alone when he got his arm trapped between a bolder and the canyon wall. Aron had not told anyone of his hiking plans or where he was going, so he knew he was alone and that his chance of survival was slim. He had only a small amount of water and food that wouldn't last him very long.  After six days, Aron took action. Knowing he wouldn't be found or survive very long, Aron amputated off his right arm and climbed back to freedom with only one arm left. His heroic behaviour was brought on by the conflict between the idea of death and his will to survive.

In this audio taken from one of Aron's videos while he was trapped he sounds very discouraged. It is similar to how Pi feels when he starts fading into an acceptance of death. Pi claims that "By the next morning I had lost all fear of death, and I resolved to die." Like Aron, Pi decided that he would not last much longer  and would likely die soon. Coincidently, both start dreaming of the foods they wish they could have in their last hours. Pi talking about ice cream and Indian delicacies from back home, and Aron talking about margaritas and orange juice. However, even though Pi and Aron become discouraged and start to accept the idea of death, neither actually gives into its temptation. Their will to survive takes over and pushes them to survival.