An Interpretation Of Environmental Ethics In Life Of Pi

Yann Martel is a celebrated novelist in Canada.His experiences of traveling abroad and engaging in a variety of jobs help him accumulate abundant writing experience,enabling him to precisely and vividly describe the inner contradiction and confusion of characters.Most of his works focus on exploring the panic brought by modern people's identities and employing metaphors of animals to reveal the evil of human nature,which aim to arouse people's introspection of survival.The publication of Life of Pi,which tells a story about an Indian boy and a Bengal tiger's adrift journey in the Pacific Ocean,is the peak in Martel's writing career.The novel is rather mysterious and meaningful since Pi,the protagonist,devotes himself to thinking over the relationship among religion,humanity and nature.This thesis,based on Paul Taylor's theory of environmental ethics,probes into the construction of Pi's ethical perspective on respect for nature.To begin with,the thesis analyzes moral identities of both Pi and the tiger from two aspects,including the hero's childhood at the zoo as well as his adventure on the sea.In addition,the first part illustrates under the guidance of biocentric outlook,how Pi grows into a qualified moral agent who carries out the reverence for life.Then through the depiction of conflicts existing in the relationship between Pi and the tiger,the thesis inquires into Pi's basic obligations to nature and points out some main factors that affect his performance.In the end,the thesis deals with the inner link between human beings and nature by studying the implication of twofold story endings and furthers Yann Martel's environmental philosophy that safeguarding non-human beings'rights and overcoming ethical contradictions are appropriate ways to reconstruct a harmonious life community.