Life of Pi
An Introduction
A Quick Glimpse
The author’s note, preceeding chapter 1, explains
that the author has traveled to India, restless
and in need of inspiration for a story. At the
coffeehouse in Pondicherry, an elderly man
named Francis Adirubasamy strikes up a
conversation with the author saying, “I have a
story that will make you believe in God.” He
refers the author to Piscine Molitor Patel who
lives in Toronto, Cnanda. The novel then begins
in Piscine’s voice…
Things To Discover…
Survival-the limits of human
endurance
Tolerance of Cultures and
Religion
Faith vs. Belief
Magic Realism
Ritual…
Things to Discover Cont’d…
 Territory and Dominance
 Depravity and Civility in human
instinct
 Hunger and Thirst
 Life and Death
 Truth vs. Lies
 Colour Motifs
 Pi
Major Characters
 Pi
 Gita and Santosh Patel
 Ravi Patel
 Richard Parker
 Mr. Kumars (teacher and the baker)
Critical Concepts:
 Freudian Theory:
1) Conscious and Unconscious Mind
2) Personality Theory
 Jungian Theory:
1) Shadow Self and
Individuation
About Freud:
 Sigmund Freud was was a Jewish Austrian
neurologist who founded the
psychoanalytic school of psychiatry.
 Freud is best known for his theories of the
unconscious mind
 Freud is also renowned for his redefinition
of sexual desire as the primary
motivational energy of human life
 Freud also used his theories of the
conscious and unconscious mind to study
dream analysis
About Jung:
 Born July 26, 1875 in Kesswil, Switzerland.
Died June 6, 1961 in Zurich, Switzerland.
 A prominent Swiss psychiatrist, and
influential thinker and founder of
analytical psychology.
 Jung’s investigations into the human mind
brought forth two ideas especially
important and influential for literary
criticism:
 Collective unconscious
 The theory of the archetype
Let’s start with Freud:
 Major Theory #1- Conscious vs.
Unconscious Mind:
HINT: Remember the ICEBERG!
Iceberg Theory:
 Freud believed that our psyche, or our
mind, can be broken down into two major
sections: the conscious mind and the
unconscious mind.
 The conscious mind represents everything
we are “conscious” of, our every day lives,
and reality.
 Our conscious mind is aware of our
surroundings, our thoughts, our ideas and
choices.
Iceberg Theory:
 The conscious mind is the aspect of our
mental processing that we can think and
talk about rationally.
 A part of this includes our memory, which
is not always part of consciousness but
can be retrieved easily at any time and
brought into our awareness.
 Freud called our regular memory, that we
use on a regular basis the “preconscious”.
Iceberg Theory:
 Freud called the other part of our
mind the unconscious mind.
 This part of our psyche is a
reservoir of feelings, thoughts,
urges and memories that exist
outside of our conscious
awareness.
 According to Freud, the
unconscious continues to
influence our behaviour and
experiences, even though we are
unaware of the underlying
influences.
Iceberg Theory:
 Much of the contents of our unconscious mind
are unpleasant, such as feelings of pain, anxiety
or internal conflict.
 Because the unconscious mind exists outside our
awareness, this means we are unaware of its
contents.
 It is pushed down, deep inside our minds in a
place that we cannot see or access, even
though this is the larger portion or our psyche.
 An example of the unconscious mind is what has
come to be known as a “Freudian Slip”.
Conscious vs. Unconsious
 What symbol can help you remember this
theory?
 Why does this symbol work?
 Explain the conscious mind.
 Explain the unconscious mind.
 Give an example of a Freudian
Slip.
 Why do you think Dream Analysis
resulted from this theory?
Next Freudian Theory…
 Major Theory #2 - Personality Theory
HINT: Remember the Scale!
Personality Theory
 According to Sigmund
Freud’s psychoanalytic
theory of personality,
personality is composed of
three elements. These three
elements of personality-known as the id, the ego and
the superego--work together
to create complex human
behaviors
Personality Theory …
 These three parts represent who
we are and how we represent
ourselves to the world.
 We use the image of the scale to
help us remember this theory
because the three parts are
constantly swaying back and
forth, trying to find some kind of
balance.
 The Ego and Id are in a constant
battle with each other
Personality Theory
THE ID:
 The id is the only component of personality
that is present from birth.
 This aspect of personality is entirely
unconscious and includes all of the
instinctive and primitive behaviours.
 The id represents primitive desires
 It is the human “want”
 Represents chaos
 The id is driven by the pleasure principle
which strives for immediate gratification of all
desires, wants, and needs. If these needs are
not satisfied immediately, the result is a state
anxiety or tension.
Personality Theory
THE SUPEREGO:
 The superego is the aspect of personality that holds all of
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our internalized moral standards and ideals that we
acquire from both our parents and society--our sense of
right and wrong.
The superego provides guidelines for making judgments.
The superego represents the conscience
It is the “should” of human beings
It is socialized and represents order
The superego acts to perfect and civilize our behavior. It
works to suppress all unacceptable urges of the id and
struggles to make the ego act upon idealistic standards
rather that upon realistic principles.
Personality Theory
THE EGO:
 The ego is the component of personality that is
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responsible for dealing with reality.
According to Freud, the ego develops from the id
and ensures that the impulses of the id can be
expressed in a manner acceptable in the real world.
Essentially the ego works as a balancing force
between the id and superego. It is like the center of
the scale.
The ego functions in all of the conscious,
preconscious and the conscious mind.
This is the “self”, or who you view yourself as.
It is your personality and the way you portray
yourself to the world.
Our Psyche:
Review:
 What helps us remember Freud’s first
theory?
 What helps us remember Freud’s
second theory?
 Explain the Superego.
 Explain the Id.
 Explain the Ego.
 What is the role of the ego?
Next Stop- Carl Jung
 Carl Jung’s major concepts
that we will look at are:
 The Collective
Unconscious
 The Theory of the
Archetype
 From here, we will learn
about our main focus which
will be the archetype of the:
 Shadow Self
The Collective Unconscious
*Jung shared some commonalities with Freud
but felt that dreams were more than an
expression of repressed wishes.
*suggested that dreams revealed both the
personal and collective unconscious and
believed that dreams serve to compensate for
parts of the psyche that are underdeveloped in
waking life.
*However, later research by Hall discovered
that the traits people exhibit while they awake
are also expressed in dreams.
The Collective Unconscious
 Jung agreed with Freud on the idea
that everyone has a personal
unconscious from which our
motivations derive, however, Jung
developed this theory further to
suggest that one aspect of an
individual’s psyche is identical to all
other members of the same species.
 Therefore a part of all minds go
beyond personal experience and
draw upon a common source.
 This concept goes beyond the
spiritual, with Jung describing it as a
biological function of the mind.
The Collective Unconscious
 For Jung, the experiences of the individual are
conditioned by the experiences of the human
race (all who have gone before). The
unconscious mental record of these experiences,
Jung called the collective unconscious.
 Essentially, Jung believed that each one of us
have our own individual consciousness, but we
also have a separate consciousness, one that has
been passed down and is shared with all humans.
We can relate this to our human instincts.
 Jung believed that the collective unconscious is
not directly knowable but that it expresses itself in
the form of an archetype.
Collective Unconscious
 HINT: Remember the analogy of the
FILING CABINET
The Archetype
According to Jung an archetype is “a
figure…that repeats itself in the course of
history whenever creative fantasy is fully
manifested.”
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The three fundamental qualities of an
archetype are:
i.
An archetype is a preconscious, instinctual
expression of human’s basic nature.
ii.
An archetype is universal; it is generated by
human’s psyche regardless of time of place.
iii. An archetype is recurrent. From prehistoric
times until the end of the earth, it expresses
human’s reaction to essentially changeless
situations.
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Archetypes
The number of possible archetypes is
as unlimited as man’s experiences,
however, they may be grouped in
three major categories:
1. Characters
2. Situations
3. Symbols or associations
Archetypes and
the Shadow
 Jung recognizes a plethora of
archetypes that exist within our
collective unconscious.
 He believed that these models
are innate, universal and
hereditary.
 They outline how we
experience the world around
us.
 The “Self”, the “Persona”, the
“Anima” or “Animus” and the
“Shadow” are a short list of
human archetypes that exist.
The Shadow
 The Shadow is a very common archetype that
reflects deeper elements of our psyche, where
“latent dispositions”, which are common to us all
arise.
 It also reflects something that was once split from us
in our early lives.
 It is, like its name’s sake, dark, shadowy, unknown
and potentially troubling.
 It is, essentially, our opposite character.
 We can often see the shadow in others and
recognize it in ourselves, however we more typically
deny it in ourselves and project it onto others.
The Shadow
 It is the "dark side" of the ego, and the
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evil that we are capable of is often stored there.
In actuality, the shadow is amoral -- neither good nor
bad, just like animals. An animal is capable of tender
care for its young and vicious killing for food, but it
doesn't choose to do either.
It is instinctive and irrational.
It is also prone to projecting our issues onto others- for
instance turning a personal inferiority into a perceived
moral deficiency in someone else.
The shadow may show itself in others, as stated above, in
dreams or in hallucinations, but we frequently have
interactions with it in some way.
Individuation
 Individuation is a
process we
undergo in order
to develop our
“Self”.
 This process is a
life-long one and
has many
different levels.
 The ultimate goal
is to merge our
conscious and
unconscious
minds.
Individuation
 Part of this process involves encountering
our shadow.
 During this merger with the shadow, there
are two possibilities: we can either
 Assimilate with it - meaning that we get a step
closer to developing our sense of self or we
 Identify with it - meaning we lost the moral
battle and do not come any closer to our
own self-awareness.
Now what does any of this
have to do with Pi?
That is what you need to find
out…
GOOD LUCK!