Pi giving up on vegetarianism: Ethical or not? PDF

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This is an essay on the movie Pi....

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Unit 3 Essay Pi giving up on vegetarianism: Ethical or not? The movie, Life of Pi, directed by Ang Lee, is based on the fantastical novel written by Yann Martel. The movie has a very religious background because the main character in the movie, Pi, is very religious. Due to his attachment to religion, even though Pi was born as a Hindu, he gets interested in two other religions: Christianity and Islam. Thus, he becomes a pious devotee to all three religions. Pi’s father owns a zoo; once Pi goes to the cage of a tiger named Richard Parker and tries to feed him. His father sees this and scolds him and brings a goat to Richard Parker letting it eat the goat. Pi’s father tries to show how animals are heartless and how he should stay away from them, but Pi is very kind and loves animals. Influenced by the religious environment that surrounded him, it was natural for Pi to grow up as a vegetarian. As the movie flows, Pi and his family leave for Canada on a Japanese cargo ship with some animals from his father’s zoo due to a political situation in India. However, the ship that they are on tragically sinks, leaving Pi as the only human to save himself by moving to a lifeboat. Some other animals were in the lifeboat too, but they eat each other leaving Pi and Richard Parker alone in the lifeboat for 227 days. The journey on the lifeboat with Richard Parker brings many hardships for Pi, even to the extent that Pi gives up on his vegetarianism. At this point of life and death, it was ethically just for Pi to give up on his vegetarianism.

Pi was ethically just to have given up on being vegetarian because in the midst of survival and in the context of fear, any human being will not only do inhumane acts but will also draw upon faith and hope to do what feels best for them. The U.S constitution, which established America's national government and fundamental laws, and guaranteed certain basic rights for its

citizens, support it well. Section 1 of the 14th amendment states that, “...No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law…”(U.S Const., amend. 14, sec 1). This amendment passed in 1866 clearly states that any citizen has the right to life, liberty, and property. Both life and liberty apply to Pi, he can spend his life as it fits him; whether he becomes vegetarian or whether he stops it. Even as mentioned in the rights approach, he has the ability to choose freely how he lives his life and the people have a duty to respect that. At first, Pi uses all the food and water that was in the lifeboat to sustain his and Richard Parker’s hunger. After a few days, they are left with nothing to eat. Due to the fear that Richard Parker would eat him, Pi starts killing fish. Then, he himself starts eating fish and sea turtles due to uncontrollable hunger, abandoning his lifelong vegetarianism. Especially in a difficult time like living on a lifeboat with a wild animal with no basic necessities to survive such as food and water, he was not wrong to give up vegetarianism to save his life. While some people may think Pi should never have given up being a vegetarian he was most concerned about living in the moment and saving his life. It was morally just for Pi to eat fish or sea turtles to save his life. One should first stay alive to either follow a religion or do whatever he or she wants. Pi learned that the only way to survive was to make major sacrifices. Pi grew up as a strict vegetarian since most of his family members and everyone he knew was vegetarian, the whole region he lived in was vegetarian. If the society’s norm was being vegetarian, Pi would not have been any different from the rest. Pi never ate any sort of meat before in his life, the mere thought of him eating it made him feel nauseated. Therefore, only a life or death situation could change Pi from being a vegetarian. He hesitates to kill the fish in the beginning, the change occurs when a flying fish delivers itself to Pi. Although Pi realizes he must

end the fish’s life, he wrestles with the decision, describing his reluctance, empathy, disgust, sorrow, and the eventual gut-wrenching act of killing it, which he compares to killing a rainbow. After killing the fish, Pi grieves for the fish as if it was someone from his family. This shows how caring and serious his love for animals and religion are. His only option in that situation was to eat something that he had to save his life. If Pi started being a vegetarian, he should not stop it no matter what and if he knew he couldn’t continue being a vegetarian he should not start being a vegetarian at all. A law in Hammurabi's code explains a similar situation well, “If a builder builds a house for someone and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built fall in and kill its owner, then that builder shall be put to death”(Hammurabi’s code 229). Even Pi didn’t continue what he started and left it in the middle like the house that was not constructed properly. He should’ve not abandoned his lifelong vegetarianism in such a short period of time. There were other ways for him to survive. He could have saved the food and water that floated due to his irresponsibility until the boat flows to an island. But since he just focused on giving up on his vegetarianism he didn’t see the other possibilities. He disgraced his dead parents by breaking their trust by eating animals. When the Patel family was served dinner on the ship before the night the ship sank, Pi’s mother reminds the cook that she and her sons were vegetarian, despite the fact that she was served with meat, rice, and gravy. But the cook insults by saying that she can make their own meal which leads to a riot between Pi’s dad and the cook. Pi’s mom and Pi ends up just eating rice. Pi’s family followed their religion with the utmost respect and if his parents were alive they would’ve never allowed Pi to give up on his vegetarianism. In the beginning, Pi was grieving to kill his first fish, he even cries. But he changes drastically, later he drinks hawksbill blood, and

throws a shark to Richard Parker. Pi does all the inhumane things that he was unable to do in the past. His civilized, moral, human side turns to an animalistic nature. Pi grew up in such a religious environment with worshipping 3 religions and he betrayed the religion that he was born with. All the authentic literature of Hinduism clearly prohibits any kind of violence against animals and meat-eating. It is seen as a sin in Hinduism. Pi eating fish and sea turtles made his lifelong efforts go waste. For example, in one scene of the movie, he was so eager to catch the flying fish and eat. All his love and caring for animals have vanished. It portrays what he has done in his entire life was not something he really wanted to do rather something that was done because he didn’t want to be different from the people around him. Moreover, Pi states that turtles were an easy catch, then proceeds to kill them and drink their blood. He has lost his innocence to the extent of bloodthirst. This is also something that is seen as unethical in all the 3 religions he follows. Pi starts questioning his faith in religion when his basic needs were not met, leading him to do what goes against religion. He loses trust in god and acts as how he feels. If he had faith in God and didn't eat animals god is definitely showing him a way to survive. Pi acting on his instincts not only made him betray his religion but also gain sin which will affect his later life. In conclusion, the movie Life of Pi suggests that we as humans have an intrinsically moral nature in our religious beliefs and in the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves with a truth that is relative to our life situations. People can have different perspectives on Pi giving up on vegetarianism, either ethical or unethical. One who says its ethical can argue that Pi gave up on his vegetarianism because when people have to face life and death situations anyone would choose life instead of morals or religion and he was concerned about saving his life as the priority. Whereas, one who believes what Pi did was unethical can argue that he

should’ve never started being a vegetarian if he knew he’ll end up abandoning it and he betrayed his own religion. In my opinion, I believe what Pi did was ethical because the need for survival outweighs morals in any human being as it is one of the qualities of human nature. If I was in Pi’s situation I would do the same thing as he did. Even though he ate animals he was still feeling sorry for what he did and once he saves his life he goes back to being a vegetarian. Since humans are born with the desire to live, what Pi did was the best way to save his life even though it went against morals, because life is the main priority.

Work Cited “The 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.” National Constitution Center – The 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, https://constitutioncenter.org/interactiveconstitution/amendment/amendment-xiv. The Avalon Project: Code of Hammurabi, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/ancient/hamframe.asp....