Life of Pi

Life of Pi started with a young boy from India who right off the bad had conflict to deal with.  Conflict was evident throughout the movie, whether it was internal or external it was there all the time.  There were some major conflicts and some minor conflicts but they ended up all working their way out.  There also happened to be an abundance of symbolism and different types of characters in the movie that helped it be a very well put together film.  Throughout the film symbols came out of nowhere, everything would seem normal and out of the blue would come a symbol for a character or characteristic of a character.

Conflict was a major part of this film, obviously, but determining the type of conflict and what it did for Pi is the difficult part.  the conflict began right away when he was a young boy in school and all the other kids were making fun of him for his name.  His full name was Piscine but everyone else, including teachers, called him "pissing."  This faced him with a very difficult decision to make, fight back or change his name.  He fought with this internal conflict and decided to change his name to Pi.  But it didn't go just that easily for him, he presented to everyone that he wanted to be called Pi instead of Piscine but the kids still called him "pissing."  So after this he brought out his plan B act and started writing down all the numbers in the mathematical term "pi" earning him the nickname Pi.

Another situation of conflict is when his family decided to leave India to go to Canada, they decided that it would be better for the family as a whole.  At this time Pi had been seeing a girl he met while playing the drums at a dance class so it was a rough time for him.  He had to decide what he was going to do because his family was leaving for Canada and he could not take her with.  He decided that the only thing he could do in this situation was to go with his family but promise his return to this girl that he started to like.

The next part spots of conflict came on the boat.  There was a scuffle of external conflict with one of the cooks about the food not being vegetarian and the cook being rude.  Then there was when the boat sank, sending Pi out into the sea on his own in the life boat.  His big conflict now at this point is his struggle for survival.  Internal and External conflict are abundant while he is there on the life boat.  He has to fight nature, hunger, thirst, and insanity all to hope a chance at making it to dry land somewhere.

Throughout the movie the main symbol in the movie is the color orange.  The color orange symbolizes hope and a chance that he will make it out okay.  We see it in India when the dancer's clothes are orange symbolizing that there is a chance that he could be with her.  The next time it appears is during the storm when he is handed a n orange life jacket with an orange whistle showing us that there is still hope he will make it through the storm and the crash.  After this the next big orange symbol become Richard Parker the tiger, throughout their time together he is a symbol saying as long as he lives there is still hope for Pi.

All these things add up to make Pi who he is today.  Throughout the movie he changed very much; this is due to the experiences that he had on the life boat facing conflict with himself, nature, and his will to survive.