Circle
Imagery
We see circles everywhere…
From the shape of our world…
To the way we view nature…
The Water
Cycle
They even exist in how we
conceptualize time and the
universe…
 The Yin Yang symbol:
according to a Chinese
theory: yin is the
passive, negative
force, and yang the
active, positive force.
 Infinity is unbounded
space, time, or
quantity.
What is Imagery?
 Imagery is defined as:
 A set of mental pictures or images.
– The use of vivid or figurative language to represent
objects, actions, or ideas.
– The use of expressive or evocative images in art,
literature, or music.
– A group or body of related images, as in a painting or
poem.
– Representative images, particularly statues or icons.
– The art of making such images. (www.answers.com)
How is a circle an image?
 A circle can be defined as:
 “A plane curve everywhere
equidistant from a given
fixed point, the center.”
 “A series or process that
finishes at its starting point
or continuously repeats
itself; a cycle.”
(www.answers.com)
 As seen above, we
perceive the world, and
processes within our
universe in circular/cyclical
ways.
Life of Pi
Pi’s name is symbolic as well:
“The 16th letter of the Greek alphabet.
Mathematics. A transcendental number, approximately 3.14159,
represented by the symbol π, that expresses the ratio of the
circumference to the diameter of a circle and appears as a constant in
many mathematical expressions.” (www.answers.com)
In the novel, Pi is lost at sea, stranded on a lifeboat with a full-grown
Bengal tiger. In effect, Pi’s lifeboat becomes his world, the ocean and
sky surrounding it, his universe.
The following quotations emphasize
circle imagery in Pi’s world:
 “I felt like the centre of a small circle coinciding with
the centre of a much larger one.” (Martel 69)
 Symbolically, Pi sees himself at the centre of a circle of life that is
not linear, but infinite and ongoing. According to Pi’s Hindu beliefs
the circle of life consists of Birth, Death, and Rebirth, a true cyclical
pattern that also conforms to the Hero Cycle.
 “To be a castaway is to be a point perpetually at the
centre of a circle…Your gaze is always a radius. The
circumference is ever great. In fact, the circles
multiply. To be a castaway is to be caught in a
harrowing ballet of circles. You are at the centre of
one circle, while above you two opposing circles
spin about.” (216)
 Pi is trying to find his place in the universe, and the circle image
examines the relationship between the finite and the infinite.
The Celestial Circle in Life of Pi
 Pi’s journey is associated with the image of the circle, and
is seen primarily through the ocean and the sun “the
symbol of perpetual beginnings, constant renewal and
eternal regeneration[…]the sun, [can] suggest the very
centre of life, the guarantee of immortality, and, for return
and rebirth.” (www.lib.unb.ca)
 Yet the sun is a dual symbol, for it can also spell death for
Pi from heat exhaustion and dehydration. The ocean is
also dual in nature, and is described by Pi alternately as
life-giving (providing water, fish and turtles) and destructive
(stormy, shark-infested); it is ironic he is surrounded by
water yet cannot drink any of it.
The Universe of Pi
Pi’s world can be divided into the four elements, earth,
air, fire and water, and Pi must depend on all of these
elements for his survival.
“There were many skies. The sky was
invaded by great white clouds…The sky was
completely cloudless, of a blue quite
shattering to the senses…The sky was a
heavy, suffocating blanket of grey
cloud…The sky was nothing but falling water,
a ceaseless deluge…” (215)
“There were many seas. The sea roared
like a tiger…The sea whispered in your
ear…The sea thundered like
avalanches…The sea was dead silent.”
(215)
“emerging from the darkness I could see
before what I had only felt, the great curtains
of rain crashing down on me from towering
heights and the waves that threw a path over
me and trod me underfoot one after another…
(159)
Fire
Air
Earth
Water
“Salt water boils—red, angry
disfiguring—were a leprosy of the high
seas, transmitted by the water that
soaked me.” (192)
An Ocean of Notions
Air can also represent consciousness, while water can be seen
as the submerged unconscious processes of the human mind. In
this way, Pi’s second story of his survival can be viewed as a
coping mechanism.
Conscious: existing
above or outside of
nature.
Sub-Conscious:
existing as part of or
within nature.
Pi’s Journey as Monomyth
 “A hero ventures forth from
the world of the common day
into a region of supernatural
wonder: fabulous forces are
there encountered and a
decisive victory is won: the
hero comes back from this
mysterious adventure with the
power to bestow boons on his
fellow man " (30).
 -Joseph Campbell, The Hero
with a Thousand Faces
 The Monomyth is divided into
three sections: Departure
(sometimes called
Separation), Initiation and
Return.
Pi follows the monomyth cycle
within the novel through his
ordeal at sea.
Final Thought…
 “I believe that the concept of Tsimtsum also plays
a major role in how Yann Martel has structured
Life of Pi. There is something very circular in
telling Pi's story in exactly 100 chapters. Also,
when Pi uses pi to work out the circumference of
that strange anti-Eden he lands on, you can't help
but acknowledge that there is some great deal
of thought in Yann Martel's naming of Pi, since pi
is synonymous with circles. When God creates his
vacuum, one can only imagine a circular shaped
hole. Galaxies certainly resolve around black
holes.”