Life of Pi, a novel about how we, as people, will do nearly anything to survive. We do not wish to die, we do not wish to stop living.
This idea is illustrated in nearly all of the characters, in the hyena. The hyena believed that if it did not attack the others, the others would eventually attack it. The hyena may seem crazed, but in reality it only wants to survive, it only wants to live. The hyena does not survive long, for Richard Parker was on the boat, and not a soul knew. Richard Parker only killed the hyena so that it, itself, could survive.
Richard Parker killed the hyena, yet it did not kill Pi. Richard knew that if it killed Pi, it would have no source of food, and it would die. Richard Parker kept Pi alive, for Pi will supply food for him. Richard Parker knew that Pi would get him to safety, Richard Parker knew that Pi would save his life. Pi kept Richard Parker alive, for if he tried to kill Richard, he himself would surely die.
The person that Pi met while in the lifeboat would also do anything to survive. He would even eat another human. While both Pi and the survivor would do anything to survive, Pi would never eat another of his own kind. Pi and the survivor were both blind, so the survivor decided to tie their boats together. After that, the survivors hunger took over, and he climbed to the other boat to eat Pi, although the hungry man was unaware of Richard Parker, and thus Richard Parker proceeded to consume the man also.
Pi would do anything to survive, even break have the rules he set out for himself. Soon after setting out on the lifeboat, Pi has to break his lifelong vegetarianism, for if he stayed a vegetarian, he would not stay alive. The only food that they might encounter out at sea, is fish, for what else would be out there? Pi had to kill fish, and eat them to survive, even though he vowed to never harm a soul, and to be a vegetarian. If Pi would have followed through with these vows, Pi would have never survived.
This novel clearly states that we, as humans, will do anything to survive, even if some of the things we do make us sick to our stomach, or if some of the things we do will hurt other people. Our will to survive is the strongest thing any of us have.