An Unusual Journey—an Analysis of the Use of Metaphors and Symbols in the Film Life of Pi

ABSTRACT

In 2012, Taiwanese director Ang Lee brought Life of Pi, a film adapted from Yann Martel’s award-winning fantasy novel onto the big screen and enjoyed great success. The novel, with its in-depth exploration of multiple profound themes including cannibalism, spiritual growth, rationality and faith, instinct and humanity, was once considered “unfilmable” by critics. Yet Lee manages to complete this difficult task without jeopardizing the expression of its themes. To achieve this, Lee takes great pains to utilize two figurative techniques—metaphors and symbols that work towards the end of presenting to the audience the protagonist Pi’s abstract spiritual quest.
This thesis is dedicated to analyzing Lee’s use of metaphors and symbols and illustrating how they help express the abstract themes of the story. The discussion of the two terms is in keeping with their definitions specified in the introduction part. The thesis consists of two chapters. The first chapter studies metaphors and symbols used in the construction of the story from two aspects—plot and character. On one hand, the whole plot of the story is an extended metaphor of Pi’s journey of Pi’s spiritual growth. On the other hand, all the major characters embody certain important qualities in Pi that combine to pull Pi through his arduous journey—survival instinct, rationality and faith. The second chapter analyzes metaphors and symbols embedded in the two important aspects of the film’s language of cinematography—color and music. They appeal to our visual and audio senses and have great evocative powers, which make them perfect carriers of certain emotions and attributes.
Through the analysis of the use of metaphors and symbols, the thesis aims to tentatively provide a solution for filmmakers who wish to convey abstract thoughts and ideas more effectively through films, an art form of concrete symbols.

Keywords: Life of Pi, film adaptation, metaphor, symbol, spiritual quest