单位代码 10445 学 号 2012020487

分 类 号 H319 研究生类别 全日制

硕 士 学 位 论 文 （学 术 学 位）

论文题目 A Study of Yann Martel’s Novel Life of Pi From the

Perspective of Cultural Semiotics

从文化符号学视角解读扬.马特尔的小说《少年派的奇幻漂流》

学科专业名称 英 语 语 言 文 学

申 请 人姓名 梁 洪 新

指 导 教 师 惠 敏 教 授

论文提交时间 2015 年 6 月 5 日 A Study of The Novel Life of Pi From the Perspective of Cultural Semiotics

By

Liang Hongxin

Under the Supervision of Professor Hui Min

A

Thesis

Submitted to

The English Department

of Foreign Language School

In Candidacy for Master’s Degree of Arts

Shandong Normal University

Jinan, Shandong

China

June, 2015 山东师范大学硕士学位论文

Contents

Abstract...... I 中文摘要...... III Introduction...... 1 Background of the Study...... 1 Significance of the Study...... 1 Organization of the Study...... 2 Chapter One Literature Review...... 4 1.1 Yann Martel and His Novel Life of Pi...... 4 1.1.1 Yann Martel...... 4 1.1.2 The Novel Life of Pi...... 5 1.2 Studies on the Novel Life of Pi at Home and Abroad...... 6 1.2.1 Studies on the Novel Life of Pi Abroad...... 6 1.2.2 Studies on the Novel Life of Pi at Home...... 9 Chapter Two Theoretical Framework...... 15 2.1 Saussure’s Semiotics Theory...... 15 2.1.1 Principles of Saussure’s Semiotics...... 15 2.1.2 Theory of Sign...... 16 2.2 Roland Barthes’ Semiotics Theory...... 16 2.2.1 Langue and Parole...... 17 2.2.2 Signified and Signifier...... 18 2.2.3 Syntagm and System...... 18 2.2.4 Denotation and Connotation...... 19 2.2.5 Roland Barthes’ Semiotics on Culture...... 20 2.3 Lotman’s Cultural Semiotics...... 22 2.3.1 Textual Semiotics Theory...... 22 2.3.2 Cultural Semiotics Theory...... 22 2.3.3 Communicative Semiotics Theory...... 23 2.3.4 Semiotics Systematology...... 25 Chapter Three Religious Culture in the Novel Life of Pi...... 27 3.1 Different Religious Cultures...... 27 3.1.1 Hinduism...... 27 3.1.2 Christianity...... 30 3.1.3 Islam...... 32 3.1.4 Pi’s Religious Pluralism...... 34 3.2 Religious Conflicts and Fusion...... 35 3.2.1 Religious Conflicts...... 36 3.2.2 Religious Fusion...... 39 Chapter Four Cultural Connotations of the Names in the Novel Life of Pi...... 43 4.1 Pi’s Names...... 43 4.1.1 Pi’s Original Name...... 43 山东师范大学硕士学位论文

4.1.2 Pi’s New Name...... 44 4.2 Tigers’ Names...... 46 4.2.1 The Tiger Richard Parker...... 46 4.2.2 The Tiger Mahisha...... 49 4.3 Mr.Kumar...... 50 4.3.1 Mr.Kumar in History...... 50 4.3.2 Opposition and Harmony Between Namesakes of Mr.Kumar in the Novel Life of Pi...... 51 4.4 Other Names in the Novel Life of Pi...... 53 4.4.1 The Ship Tsimtsum...... 53 4.4.2 The Female Orangutan Orange Juice...... 55 4.4.3 Pi’s Relatives...... 56 4.4.4 Pi’s Pets...... 59 Chapter Five Other Cultural Elements in the Novel Life of Pi...... 61 5.1 Colors...... 61 5.1.1 The Color ‘Orange’...... 61 5.1.2 The Color ‘Green’...... 63 5.2 The Image of Pacific Ocean, Drift and Lifeboat...... 66 5.2.1 The Biblical Archetype of Water, Drift, and Ship...... 67 5.2.2 The Image of Pacific Ocean, Drift and Lifeboat in the Novel Life of Pi...... 68 5.3 Animals...... 68 5.3.1 The Tiger...... 68 5.3.2 The Hyena...... 71 Conclusion...... 73 Bibliography...... 77 Acknowledgements...... 83 发表学术论文...... 84 山东师范大学硕士学位论文

Abstract

Yann Martel is famous for his novel Life of Pi which has attracted much attention from the public since it was published in 2001. At the same time, the novel Life of Pi was awarded The Man Booker Prize for Literature in 2002 and the German Book Prize in 2004. As a monumental work containing abundant implications, the novel Life of Pi can be interpreted from different perspectives. Given many cultural elements in the novel Life of Pi, this thesis will make a study on these cultural elements by applying cultural semiotics. This thesis is divided into three parts including introduction, main body and conclusion. The first part is introduction which mainly introduces the background, significance and organization of the study. The second part is the main body which consists of five chapters. The first chapter is literature review of the studies on the novel Life of Pi at home and abroad. It not only summarizes the studies on the novel Life of Pi but also points out their merits and limitations. The second chapter principally illustrates the theoretical framework of the study including semiotics by Saussure, semiotics by Roland Barthes and Roland Barthes’ semiotics on culture as well as cultural semiotics by Lotman. The third chapter primarily analyzes the cultural connotations contained in the religious symbols and doctrine of the three religions— Hinduism, Christianity and Islam; besides, the protagonist Pi Patel overcame many cultural conflicts and barriers to become a Hindu, Christian and Muslim simultaneously, so this chapter also analyzes religious conflicts and differences in religious rites, customs and traditions and elaborates how religious fusion can be realized by religious contacts and communication. The fourth chapter chiefly presents the cultural implications of some classical names in the novel Life of Pi. According to cultural semiotics, names contain profound cultural significance and are also a kind of cultural sign. On the basis of social culture, mass culture, folklore, legends, myths, literature works and the analysis of the names of the characters such as Piscine Moliter Patel, Pi Patel, Richard Parker and Orange Juice, it is easy to decode the

I 山东师范大学硕士学位论文

codes of the characters’ destiny contained in the names of the characters and analyze the characters profoundly. For example, Piscine Moliter Patel derives from the name of a famous French swimming pool, thus, he is doomed to be caught in the vast waters —Pacific Ocean; the famous namesakes of Richard Parker in history are the tragic victims of shipwrecks, therefore, the tiger’s name Richard Parker signifies that it could not get rid of the fate to meet with the shipwreck. The fifth chapter mostly expounds some other important cultural elements in the novel covering colors, the Pacific Ocean, drift, lifeboat, the cannibal island as well as several animals. The color ‘orange’ symbolizes hope, which predicts the protagonist Pi could survive on the Pacific Ocean; ‘green’ is the color of Islam, which predicts the heavenly green island is the paradise of Muslims. What’s more, according to Christianity, the image of Pi Patel, Pacific Ocean, drift and lifeboat is the epitome of Noah leading his family and the chosen animals to escape from the flood in Noah’s Ark, which suggests that like Noah, the protagonist Pi Patel, as a devout religious believer, could tide over the hard times in the shipwreck. What’s more, traditionally, tiger is the symbol of strength, power, justice and braveness in some mythologies, legends, folklore or religious culture, however, it is also the sign of evils and a kind of destructive force in some literature works. Therefore, the tiger Richard Parker not only shows the protagonist Pi Patel’s braveness and reverence but also represents the darkness and evils in his heart. As for the hyena, in general, in folklore, myths and literature works, it symbolizes cruelty, craftiness, betrayal and immorality. Thus, the hyena in the first story corresponds with that disgusting, cruel, wicked and bloody French cook appearing in the second story. The third part is a conclusion which points out the study on the novel Life of Pi from the perspective of cultural semiotics can not only help to interpret the novel in a better way by analyzing the novel’s theme, plots and characters profoundly but also accelerate the multicultural communication, reduce cultural conflicts and promote cultural prosperity.

Key Words: the Novel Life of Pi; Cultural Semiotics; Religion; Names; Cultural Elements II 山东师范大学硕士学位论文

中文摘要

小说《少年派的奇幻漂流》是加拿大作家扬.马特尔的成名作，该部作品自 2001 年问世以来便受到了很大关注，曾获得 2002 年英国布克文学奖和 2004 年德国图 书奖。作为一部蕴涵丰富的作品，小说《少年派的奇幻漂流》可以从不同的角度 进行解读。由于该小说中包涵着很多文化元素，本文将运用文化符号学理论对这 些文化元素进行研究。 本文共分为三部分：引言、正文和结论。第一部分是引言，主要介绍对小说 《少年派的奇幻漂流》的研究背景、研究意义以及论文的结构框架。第二部分是 正文，由五个章节构成。第一章是文献综述，对小说《少年派的奇幻漂流》的国 内外研究进行总结和评述。第二章主要阐述论文的结构框架，具体介绍了索绪尔

的符号学理论、罗兰.巴特的符号学及文化符号学理论以及洛特曼的文化符号学。 第三章首先从宗教文化符号和教义的角度，重点分析了小说中所出现的三种宗教

文化即印度教文化、基督教文化和伊斯兰教文化；同时，由于主人公派.帕特尔 克服重重文化障碍与冲突，信仰这三种不同的宗教，因而这一章节也着重分析了 不同宗教文化在宗教礼仪、习惯与传统方面的差异文化交流并且阐述了如何通过 文化交流实现文化融合。第四章主要介绍小说中一些典型名字的文化内涵。根据 文化符号学理论，名字蕴含着深刻的文化意义，也是一种文化符号。在社会文化、 大众文化、民间神话、传奇和文学作品的基础上，通过分析小说中的人物名字（比

如派西尼.莫雷特.帕特尔、派.帕特尔、理查德.帕克、橘子汁）的文化内涵，便会 破解蕴含在名字中的人物命运的密码，加深对人物形象的解读。例如，派西尼. 帕特尔源于法国著名游泳池的名字，因而，他与水有缘，注定会被困于茫茫水域

-太平洋之中；历史上著名的理查德.帕克的同名者都曾遭遇海难，所以，老虎的 名字理查德.帕克预示着它无法摆脱遭遇海难的命运。第五章从文化符号学的角 度，对小说中所出现的其他重要文化元素进行分析，这些文化元素包括颜色、太 平洋、漂流、救生艇、食人岛以及一些动物。橘黄色象征着希望，它预示着主人 公派能够在太平洋上生还；绿色是伊斯兰教的神圣颜色，它意味着小说中天堂般 的绿色食人岛便是穆斯林的天堂。此外，根据基督教文化，派、太平洋、漂流和 救生艇的意象具有《圣经》中诺亚带领他的全家以及被选择的生灵在诺亚方舟里

III 山东师范大学硕士学位论文

逃避洪水的影像，因而，像诺亚一样，派作为一名虔诚的宗教信仰者也能够克服 海难的困境。同时，从传统意义上讲，在一些神话、传奇和宗教文化中，老虎象 征着力量、权力、公正和勇气，然而，在一些文学作品中，它也象征着邪恶和一

种具有毁灭性的力量。因而，老虎理查德.帕克展现了主人公表相勇敢、虔诚与 里相邪恶、黑暗的双重人格。至于鬣狗，从整体上来说，在传统神话和文学作品 中，它象征着残忍、狡猾、背叛和不道德，所以，小说的第一个故事中的鬣狗对 应着第二个故事中的那个令人恶心、残忍、邪恶、血腥的法国厨子。第三部分是 结论，指出从文化符号学视角解读小说《少年派的奇幻漂流》不仅能够有助于加 深对小说主题、结构以及人物形象的分析，更好地解读小说，而且有助于促进跨 文化交流，减少文化间的摩擦，推动文化繁荣。

关键词：小说《少年派的奇幻漂流》；文化符号学；宗教；名字；文化元素

IV 山东师范大学硕士学位论文

Introduction

Background of the Study The novel Life of Pi by the Canadian writer Yann Martel was published in 2001 and gained many famous awards including the Man Booker Prize,the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction and German Book Prize. Since its publication, although the novel Life of Pi has attracted much attention from the public abroad, it is still not familiar to Chinese scholars. Then, after it was put on the screen by American-Chinese director Any Lee in 2012, it became the focus of the public once more. As a matter of fact, in China, for most of audience, it is after they watched the film Life of Pi that they read the novel Life of Pi for the first time. At the same time, with more and more people discussing the film Life of Pi, recently, the study on the novel Life of Pi has also become a hotter and hotter topic at home and abroad. The story in the novel Life of Pi starts in India, crosses the Pacific Ocean and ends in Canada, in which there exist many cultural elements such as different religions, Biblical allusions, names and colors, etc. Nowadays, with the development of globalization, there are more and more chances and channels for different cultures to contact with each other. However, because of the differences among different cultures, there still exist many cultural conflicts in the world. For example, in the Middle East area, to a large extent, the war between Israel and Iraq is due to the religious conflicts and cultural barriers. Thus, it is essential to make a bridge for different cultures to communicate with each other and only by multicultural communication, can they understand each other and respect each other. Therefore, in order to accelerate multicultural communication in the world and make people with different cultural context understand each other, this thesis makes a research of the novel Life of Pi from the perspective of cultural semiotics.

Significance of the Study The novel Life of Pi contains a number of cultural elements such as different

1 山东师范大学硕士学位论文

religions, Biblical allusions, names and colors, water, drift, lifeboat and animals. Particularly, in spite of conflicts among different religions, the protagonist Pi Patel succeeds in practicing Hinduism, Christianity and Islam simultaneously. However, through literature review of the studies on the novel Life of Pi at home and abroad, it is obvious that nearly no dissertations or articles specialize in cultural elements from the perspective of cultural semiotics. Therefore, this thesis attempts to make a thorough research on the novel Life of Pi by applying cultural semiotics theory. At the same time, by studying the novel Life of Pi from the perspective of cultural semiotics, this thesis aims to realize two research goals as follows: First of all, because there are few studies on the novel Life of Pi from the perspective of cultural semiotics, this thesis can make a contribution to profoundly interpreting the novel Life of Pi from a new aspect. Secondly, by applying cultural semiotics to analyze the cultural elements in the novel Life of Pi, this thesis can contribute to accelerating multicultural communication, helping people with different cultures overcome cultural barriers to understand each other and reducing cultural misunderstandings and conflicts. Therefore, this thesis can not only analyze the cultural phenomena in the novel Life of Pi profoundly but also help to spread culture and provide a platform for multicultural communication.

Organization of the Study This thesis consists of three parts and they are respectively introduction, main body and conclusion. Introduction is the first part in which the background, the significance and organization of the study are illustrated clearly. The main body of this thesis consists of five chapters: the first chapter not only pays much attention to the novel Life of Pi and its author Yann Martel but also reviews the studies on the novel Life of Pi at home and abroad and points out the limitations of these studies; the second chapter focuses on the theoretical framework of the thesis and illustrates Saussure’s semiotics theory, Roland Barthes’ semiotics theory and Lotman’s cultural

2 山东师范大学硕士学位论文

semiotics, which base a theoretical basis for the analysis of the cultural elements in the novel Life of Pi; the third chapter focuses on the three religions: Hinduism, Christianity and Islam, lays an emphasis on their respective religious symbols and doctrines and analyzes the protagonist Pi Patel’s religious pluralism which is the reason why he can practice three religions simultaneously; the fourth chapter applies cultural semiotics to analyze the cultural connotations contained in the typical names such as Richard Parker, Pi Patel and Mr.Kumar and decode the codes in the fate of the protagonist Pi Patel, which contributes to interpreting the protagonist’s legendary and marvelous experiences; on the basis of cultural semiotics, the fifth chapter explains the reason why the colors ‘orange’ and ‘green’ appear again and again, finds out the Biblical image of water, drift and lifeboat and interprets the deep-layer meanings of the tiger and the hyena. The third part is conclusion which illustrates the major findings of this thesis, points out its limitations and provides several suggestions for the further study on this subject in the future.

3 山东师范大学硕士学位论文

Chapter One Literature Review

1.1 Yann Martel and His Novel Life of Pi In order to interpret the novel Life of Pi, it is essential to have a good knowledge of the background of the author Yann Martel and the plots of the novel Life of Pi.

1.1.1 Yann Martel Yann Martel, the author of the novel Life of Pi, is a Canadian writer. He was born in Salamanca, Spain and is very lucky to be brought up in a happy family full of love. Both of his parents are even-tempered. His father is patient, gentle and good at writing poems; his mother is open-minded and has deep love for art. As the son of diplomats, Yann Martel has visited many places around the world with his family since he was a child. Inundated with all kinds of variables, his life was filled with transferring from a place to another, adapting to the new environment, saying goodbye to old friends and making new friends. All these made him be fond of traveling. The experiences in France, Turkey, India, Iran, Mexico, Costa Rica and Canada not only broadened Yann Martel’s horizon but also provided him with rich writing materials in his novels and made him have the consciousness of cultural pluralism. As a student, Yann Martel studied in the Trinity College which is a boarding school in the Port Hope, Ontario when he was a teenager. Then, he was admitted to Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario. In university, Yann Martel majored in philosophy, which helped him refresh his minds and deepen his comprehension towards life, religion and universe. After graduating from Trent University, Yann Martel was occupied in all kinds of jobs such as working as a dishwasher, a security guard, volunteer and a worker to plant trees. All these jobs helped him enrich his experiences, have a good knowledge of all walks of life and come to realize the essence of life. Yann Martel believes that everyone is an independent individual and the keynote of life is to accept the Other although it is very difficult to adopt Difference especially

4 山东师范大学硕士学位论文

when the Other refers to the ethical Other or the religious Other. (Chen, 2003:47) Yann Martel speaks highly of the theory of Martin Buber, a German Jewish philosopher. Particularly, he adores ardently the sentence-Everything is meeting-in the works I and Thou by Martin Buber. (Chen, 2003:46) In other words, Yann Martel holds that life interacts with people or things and the interaction not only decides the keynote of life but also indicates who you are.

1.1.2 The Novel Life of Pi As a writer, Yann Martel has published six novels including We Ate the Children Last, Self, Beatrice and Virgil, The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios, Seven Stories and Life of Pi. Among all these works, Life of Pi is the greatest one and helps Yann Martel step in the list of the world famous writers. It was awarded the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction and the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction in 2001, the Man Booker Prize in 2002, the Boeke Prize in 2003 and German Book Prize in 2004. At the same time, it has been translated into more than thirty languages and sells well in about forty countries. Therefore, it was also awarded the Best Fiction in New York Times, the Best Seller of LosAngales Times, the Best Novel of Publishers as well as the Best Seller of Amazon Website in 2002. What’s more, the novel Life of Pi was adapted into film and has been put on the screen on October 22th, 2012 directed by the Chinese American director Ang Lee. Then, with the film Life of Pi gaining four Oscars for the Best Director Award, the Best Cinematography Award, the Best Visual Effects and the Best Musical Score in 2013, the novel becomes much more popular than ever before. Before Yann Martel wrote Life of Pi, he had ever read a review of the novel Max and the Cats by Moacyr Scliar. To some degree, Life of Pi is inspired by the premise in Max and the Cats. However, these two novels are quite different: Max and the Cats is about the story of a Jew and a panther in 1933 and it reflects Nazism and Holocaust; while Life of Pi tells two different stories about the survival of the protagonist Piscine Moliter Patel on the sea after he and his family met with the shipwreck on their way to Canada. In the novel Life of Pi, “the first story narrates how the protagonist Piscine 5 山东师范大学硕士学位论文

Moliter Patel and an adult Bengal tiger named Richard Paker drifted on the Pacific Ocean for 227 days while the second story presents a much more cruel cannibal scene”. (Suarez, 2013:45) Religion, belief, humanity, adventure, meditation of life, philosophy, psychology, cultural elements, allegory and ingenious storytelling run through the whole novel, which lets the novel Life of Pi become a classic with bountiful implications. In a word, as a classic, the novel Life of Pi by the famous Canadian writer Yann Martel can be interpreted from different perspectives such as narratology, religion, faith, humanity, psychology, philosophy, cultural elements, adventure and allegory.

1.2 Studies on the Novel Life of Pi at Home and Abroad Since the novel Life of Pi was published, it has attracted much attention from the public. In the following, I will summarize the studies about the novel Life of Pi at home and abroad and point out their merits and limitations.

1.2.1 Studies on the Novel Life of Pi Abroad Compared with the studies in China, criticism on the novel Life of Pi abroad is much more abundant. To begin with, there are a number of book reviews on the novel Life of Pi. Here are some examples:

[A] fantastical tale.

--- USA Today

Each chapter is well-polished pearl....[Life of Pi] is an exhilarating story of gut survival, of strange

islands with people-eating trees and flying fish that appear like manna.

---The Seattle Times

By the time Martel throws Pi out to sea, his quirkily magical and often hilarious vision has already

taken hold....Beautifully fantastical and spirited.

---Salon

Think: comic strip ‘Calvin and Hobbes’ with an overt religious theme.

---The Wall Street Journal 6 山东师范大学硕士学位论文

At the same time, there have been many articles abroad to discuss the novel Life of Pi since it was published. In the novel, the protagonist narrated completely different stories, so it is still controversial that which story is true. On Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, Steward Cole(2004) “elaborates the anthropomorphism on the tiger Richard Parker and points out that the novel tries to lead its readers to believe in God by trusting the first story with the tiger Richard Parker”. On the contrary, Pankaj Mishra voices his negation on the novel Life of Pi to the effect that he doubts the protagonist Pi’s morality and faith(Mishra,2003:12). Meanwhile, in the article Credulity, by contrasting Life of Pi with Robinson Crusoe, James Wood (2012) “expounds how Yann Martel endows his stories with belief”. What’s more, in point of the identity pursuit of the character Richard Parker, in the essay Tigers, Humans and Animots, Elsie Cloete (2007) “believes that the tiger Richard Parker stands for animality in the protagonist Pi’s inner heart and man is the unity of humanity and animality”. Similarly, June Dwyer (2005) “also analyzes the subtle relations between the hero Pi and the antagonist Richard Parker and holds that Richard Parker is the Other of Pi” in his article Yann Martel’s Life of Pi and the Evolution of the Shipwreck Narrative. Furthermore, the article Hollow at the core: Deconstructs Martel’s Life of Pi by Florence Stratton “analyzes the protagonist Pi’s religious pluralism and explores its plots and characters”(Stratton,2004:23). At the same time, from the perspective of Ecocrticism, Graham Huggan (2007) “adds the novel Life of Pi in the list of postcolonial works and discusses the way to liberate man and animal”. While in Life of Pi as Postmodern Narrative by Rebecca Duncan, from the perspective of postmodern narratology, the author “states that the survivor Piscine Moliter Patel tries his best to cure his trauma by the way to narrate his stories to others”(Duncan,2008:30). In addition, some scholars make a research on the novel Life of Pi in their dissertations. In the dissertation Lost in Transnation: Culture, Nation, and the Individual in Postcolonial Theory by J.C.Cawley, the writer first comes up with a series of questions to point out the limitations of transnational subject under postcolonialism, then puts forwards a new terminology pærternalionalism on the basis 7 山东师范大学硕士学位论文

of binary opposition in Daoism to make up for the disadvantages of postcolonial theory and finally takes the novels Life of Pi and White Teeth as examples to “delve into the transformation of culture and identity on individuals and find a way to clear up the barriers between nations and cultures”(Cawley,2004:56). When it comes to the novel Life of Pi, J.C. Cawley (2004) “highlights how it represents the transition of postcolonial works and analyzes the process in which individuals shift their own cultural identity by means of exchanges with each other or the environment”. Besides, in another dissertation Reading Canada Biblically: A Study of Biblical Allusion and the Construction of Nation in Contemporary Canadian Writing, Kristina Kyser (2004) “explores the Biblical archetypes and nationalism in Canadian literature by analyzing a list of contemporary Canadian novels including Green Grass and Running Water by Thomas King, Life of Pi by Yann Martel, Such a Long Journey by Rohinton Mistry as well as Anil’s Ghost by Michael Ondaatji”. In its chapter three, Kristina Kyser (2004) not only expounds the prototype of the Deluge in the novel Life of Pi in detail but also pays obsessive attention to the survival of the protagonist and cultural identity. At the same time, the dissertation The Measure of Our Care: The Politics of Place and Animal Presence in Contemporary North American Narrative by Ella Soper-Jones (2007) briefly lists the novel Life of Pi in his Ecocriticism analysis. From another point of view, in the dissertation Postsecularism and Literature: Prophetic and Apocalyptic Readings in Don Delillo, E.L.Doctorow and Toni Morrison, Kathryn Ludwig (2010) “not only takes the novel Life of Pi as an example to elaborate the relations between science and religion in the postsecular literature but also explores the implication of the protagonist Pi’s names”, at the same time, he points out the novel Life of Pi provides philosophical prophecy for readers. In a word, early studies on the novel Life of Pi abroad, to a large part, concentrates on its themes, narrative methods as well as psychological analysis of characters. In recent years, latest studies shift focus to interpret the text from the perspective of postcolonialism and ecocriticism. However, there are few studies to interpret the novel Life of Pi in point of cultural semiotics. Therefore, in order to make up the vacancy in the field of studying the novel Life of Pi, this thesis makes a 8 山东师范大学硕士学位论文

research from the perspective of cultural semiotics.

1.2.2 Studies on the Novel Life of Pi at Home In China, studies on the novel Life of Pi, in a large part, concentrate on some master’s dissertations. The first is the dissertation A Study of Religious Pluralism in Life of Pi written by Dang Wei; with the help of John Hick’s Religious pluralism it analyzes the religious pluralism phenomenon in the novel, “answers why the protagonist Piscine Moliter Patel could practice Hinduism, Christianity and Islam simultaneously”(Dang,2007:3) and further points out the writer Yann Martel also holds the view of religious pluralism.In this thesis Dang Wei (2007) “makes a difference in the interpretation of the novel Life of Pi especially from the perspective of religion”. However, this thesis just focuses on the first part of the novel while as the theme of Life of Pi, religion covers the whole novel from its beginning to the end. Then, in 2009, directed by the same supervisor Guo Guoliang, another two important dissertations about the novel Life of Pi appeared. One is From Names to Naming Acts in Yann Martel’s Life of Pi by Zhuo Ran in which the author pays attention to the names and naming acts in the novel. By probing into the deep connotation contained in the names of some major characters and typical animals or objects, this thesis concludes that “names play an important role in predicting the protagonist’s fate, illustrating the multiple themes of the novel, pushing the development of plots and shaping characters”(Zhuo,2009:57). In addition, Zhuo Ran (2009) “also explains the significance of naming acts in revealing the identity of characters, showing the motif of the novel and even changing characters’ destiny” by exploring why the French cook doesn’t have name and stating the process in which the protagonist becomes Pi Patel from Piscine Molitor Patel and believes in Hinduism, Christianity and Islam simultaneously by means of renaming the different religious characters. On the whole, this thesis refreshes the studies on the novel Life of Pi and provides a new perspective to do further research. The other is What is Richard Parker?---An Exploration of the Tiger Character in Life of Pi by Zhang Yanyu in which the author focuses more energy on exploring the 9 山东师范大学硕士学位论文

antagonist---the tiger Richard Parker. On the basis of demonstrating that the tiger “Richard Parker is much more similar to a man than a tiger and the tiger Richard Parker doesn’t exist throughout”(Zhang,2009:45), the author asserts that the real identity of the tiger Richard Parker is the Other of the protagonist Piscine Moliter Patel by applying Jacques Lacan’s mirror stage theory. In the following, Zhang Yanyu (2009) “argues why the hero Piscine Moliter Patel makes up the tiger Richard Parker in his first story”. Further, the author concludes that “the antagonist Richard Parker deeply reflects people’s mental world at present”(Zhang,2009:44). To some degree, this dissertation refreshes the studies about the novel Life of Pi and provides people with a new angel to understand the character Richard Parker. Although there are few reviews on the novel Life of Pi before 2012, more and more articles and dissertations about the study on the novel Life of Pi have appeared since it was adapted into film and put on the screen in 2012. Among all these studies, there are two dissertations analyzing the novel Life of Pi from the perspective of psychoanalysis. One is Personality and Destiny---An Analysis on Life of Pi under Freud’s Psychoanalysis by Zheng Lichun in which by applying Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalysis Theory to analyze why the protagonist Pi could get over a series of difficulties and hazards during his process of drifting on the Pacific Ocean, the author “concludes that syntonic personality among id, ego and superego plays an important part in helping people deal with the contradictions and problems in reality and making for the harmonious society”(Zheng,2013:48). The conclusion of the thesis has some practical significance on the peace of individual’s inner heart and the stabilization of modern society. The other is Metaphorical Representation of Trauma: A Psychoanalytical Study on Life of Pi written by Guo Xiangli. With the help of Psychoanalysis Theory and some theories relating to trauma and metaphor, the author not only proves the second story is true in the novel but also “analyzes the trauma the protagonist Piscine Moliter Patel suffered in the shipwreck and probes into how he made use of metaphor to take place of trauma”(Guo,2014:55). Finally, Guo Xiangli (2014) “concludes that when people can not confront the cruelty of the reality they usually choose to heal 10 山东师范大学硕士学位论文

themselves by making up a better story to cover the truth”. By the way, this essay enriches the studies of psychoanalysis about the novel Life of Pi. In terms of Ecocriticism, there are two excellent dissertations. In the dissertation A Thematic Study of Life of Pi as an Eco-Bildungsroman by Li Ying, in the point of Ecocriticism, the author regards the novel as a Bildungsroman. Based on delving into the protagonist Piscine Moliter Patel’s growth experience in his childhood to find out his growth environment and Bildung guidance, answering how he had a Bildung epiphany when drifting on the Pacific Ocean and how he became mature in spirit after being an adult, Li Ying (2014) “stresses the relations between man and nature and tries to find a way to solve the conflicts and unbalance between nature and man in modern society”. On the way to study the novel Life of Pi, this essay opens up a new field from the perspective of Ecocriticism. Similarly, in the dissertation Harmony between Man and Nature: An Ecocritical Interpretation of Yann Martel’s Life of Pi , from the perspective of Ecocriticism, Zhou Ting(2014)“applied Self-realization and Bio-centric Equality in Arne Naess’s deep ecology theory to prove the importance of respecting nature, keeping balance between nature and man as well as enriching man’s inner world”. About the novel Life of Pi, there is something in common between the studies of Zhou Ting and Li Ying, but on the basis of Ecocriticism, Li Ying (2014) “further enriches studies about the novel Life of Pi”. In the view of stylistics, there appear two dissertations. In the dissertation Unsettling Identity in Travel Literature with Special Reference to Life of Pi, from the perspective of travel literature, Zou Longhui(2014) “applied Homi Bhabha’s Identity Theory concerning mimicry, hybridity and minoritization to discuss the protagonist Pi’s identity in the novel Life of Pi”. On the basis of introducing travel literature and Homi Bhabha’s Post-colonial Theory concerning the issue of identity, Zou Longhui (2014) “concentrates on exploring the shift and reconstruction of the hero Pi’s identity” from Pondicherry to Canada via Pacific Ocean, attempting to revealing the associations between identity and traveling and pointing out the new direction of travel literature. This essay provides new angel to further delve into the issue of 11 山东师范大学硕士学位论文

identity in the novel Life of Pi. In the other dissertation Survival Narrative in Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, taking survival as the theme of the novel, Lv Chen(2014) “not only explores how the survivors Piscine Moliter Patel and the tiger Richard Parker survived in the calamity but also further probes into the characteristics and innovative points of survival narrative” in the novel Life of Pi. Therefore, on the one hand, Lv Chen expands the space of studies on survival in the novel Life of Pi; on the other hand, it helps pour fresh water in studies on fictions about survival. From the perspective of linguistics, there are two important dissertations. One is the dissertation Inquiring into Similarity-creating Metaphors in Life of Pi from the Perspective of Conceptual Integration Theory in which Yu Hong (2014) “lays more emphasis on finding out similarity-creating metaphors of names and characters in the novel under Fauconnier and Turner’s Conceptual Integration Theory”. The other is A Comparative Study of Onomatopoeia in English, Japanese and Chinese Based on Life of Pi in which by means of comparative analysis and mathematical statistics, Zhang Xi (2013) “compares and contrasts onomatopoetic words in English, Japanese and Chinese” in terms of semantic properties, translation strategies and approaches, structural form and syntactic function. At the same time, there are also some articles published on some journals, magazines and periodicals to study the novel Life of Pi. First of all, in the article Revamping Canonical Novel: the Case of Robinson Crusoe, Lv Li-an not only compares and contrasts the similarities and differences between Robinson Crusoe and Life of Pi but also “points out Life of Pi endows Robinson Crusoe with new era implications”(Lv,2007:47). Then, Zhuo Ran deeply “digs out the mystery of names and naming acts”(Zhuo,2009:12) in her article The Secrets Hiding in Names---Exploration of Naming Acts in the Novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Zhang Yanyu (2010) “lays much emphasis on finding out the reason why the author shapes the tiger Richard Parker” in her article Construction of the Other in Life of Pi; and in her another article Illusion or Reality, Mirror or Ego---Exploration Tiger’s Character in Life of Pi, she “not only points out the importance of the character Richard Parker 12 山东师范大学硕士学位论文

but also delves into its real identity”(Zhang,2010:34). What’s more, from the perspective of narrative mode, Zhang Jianhong (2009) “points out that the novel Life of Pi possesses polyphonic characteristics in her article Polyphonic Characteristics of Life of Pi”. Besides, in the article Trauma and Ethics: Interpretation of Life of Pi by the theory of Narrative Rhetoric, Wei Guangzhen (2013) “shows how the novel makes full use of narrative rhetoric to express the trauma and cure the wound”. In addition, in The Fortune Interpretation of Lying Characters in Life of Pi, Wang Li (2014) “analyzes the fate of liars in the novel from the perspective of Ethical Value Theory” and concludes that liars are supposed to be punished. Similarly, on the basis of Ethical Literary Criticism the article Ethical Metaphors in Life of Pi by Huang Man focuses on the correspondence between metaphors and ethics and “shows the presentation of Sphinx factor on the hero Piscine Moliter Patel”(Huang,2013:147). Further more, as for the theme of the novel Life of Pi, in the article An Exploration of Theme in the Novel Life of Pi, on the basis of contrasting reality and imagination as well as science and religion, Tian Junwu and Zhu Qian (2007) probe into the importance of religion. Then, in the article Alienation of Survival and Salvation--- A Study of the Theme of the novels Life of Pi and The White Bone, Yang Kaicui (2009) not only lays much attention to analyze the alienation between man and nature and explain the estrangement among people but also points out a way for people to save themselves. Afterwards, the article An Analysis of Sphinx Factor in Life of Pi written by Sun Shiqi and Zhang Zhihong (2014) regards the tiger Richard Parker as Pi’s irrational will and stresses the struggle between rational will and irrational will. Differently, in the article Perennial Changes: An Analysis of the Theme of the Novel Life of Pi, Dai Meili and Wang Yican (2014) discusses a range of constant changes happening to the protagonist Pi in point of identity, religion and inner world. While Que Shitao (2014) in his article The Religious Metaphor of the Shipwreck Narratives in Life of Pi holds that the essence of the fiction aims at leading readers to believe in God by the religious metaphors hiding in the two stories narrated by the protagonist Piscine Moliter Patel. Further, in the article Subject in Mirror Theory: Identity and Alienation---Narrative Discourse of Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, with the help of Jacques 13 山东师范大学硕士学位论文

Lacan’s mirror-image theory, Wang Xiaomei and Li Xiaoling (2013) analyze the characteristics of narrative discourse and reveal the mystery of Sphinx factor in the text. At the same time, in point of literary genre, the article Interpretation of Magical Realism in English Novel Life of Pi written by Yu Jingmei (2014) takes the fiction as a magical realistic works after analyzing the protagonist Pi’s inconceivable religious value, the surrealistic scene as well as its fantastic narrative mode. In terms of linguistics, there are two representative articles: the article A Grammatical Metaphorical Study of the Interpersonal Meaning in Life of Pi by Yang Rufu and Qu Chunling (2013) analyzes the discourse between Pi and the Japanese officials by applying the mood metaphor theory; while in the other article A Cohesive Discourse Analysis of English Novel Life of Pi, Fan Hanchun (2013) focuses on the effect of cohesive device within the frame of discourse cohesion theory. Particularly, the article An Analysis of the Novel Life of Pi From the Perspective of Cultural Semiotics explores the religious culture and some cultural elements in the novel in a brief way. （Liang,2014:34) To sum up, although in China there are still very few studies about the novel Life of Pi, more and more scholars have focused their attention on it, at the same time, much more valuable articles and dissertations about the novel Life of Pi have been published since it was adapted into film and put on the screen in 2012. Thus, under the background of the novel Life of Pi becoming a hotter and hotter topic, this thesis takes it as the object of study.

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Chapter Two Theoretical Framework

2.1 Saussure’s Semiotics Theory Broadly speaking, semiotics is a discipline belonging to humanities to specialize in studying how signs convey meanings, which covers all fields of social life such as letter symbols, passwords, signals, ancient civilization signs and gesture language. In a narrow sense, semiotics refers to how signs turn into meanings to achieve the purpose of communication. As Ferdinand de Saussure is known as the father of modern semiotics, it is essential to illustrate Saussure’s semiotics theory.

2.1.1 Principles of Saussure’s Semiotics In Saussure’s Course in General Linguistics, semiotics is based on two important principles, namely, arbitrariness and linearity. First of all, Saussure (1996) points out the arbitrary nature of the sign. He thinks that the relationship between forms of linguistic signs and their meaning is arbitrary, which is a universal phenomenon in human language. For example, as for the English word ‘sister’, its signifier arbitrarily corresponds with its signified. At the same time, “it is the complete arbitrariness of linguistic signs that makes language become a very important branch of semiotic system”. (Hu Zhanglin, 2006:4-5) However, Saussure (1996) also elaborates that the arbitrariness of language signs is not arbitrary, which is the other side of the coin of arbitrariness, in other words, although there is no motivation between the signifier of a linguistic sign and its meaning, the link between them is still conventional. In addition, Saussure (1996) “also points out even if there are few exceptions in linguistic words like onomatopoeia and interjection, on the whole, the linguistic semiotic system is still arbitrary”. Then, Saussure (1996) also discusses the linear nature of the signifier of linguistic signs in his Course in General Linguistics, namely, the signifier has to appear one by one synchronously in its one-dimensional span. He emphasizes that although this principle is simple, it is fundamental and its consequences are immeasurable. At the same time, this principle is the pillar of the whole mechanism of

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language. In other words, linearity refers to the sequence of linguistic signs, and in most cases, according to it, people combine linguistic signs in succession into code. Therefore, linearity is the basis of language.

2.1.2 Theory of Sign In semiotics by Saussure, there are three important terms and specifically they are sign, signifier and signified. In his Course in General Linguistics, Saussure (1996) “defines the linguistic sign as the arbitrary combination of a concept and a sound-image”. To make it more concrete, the sound-image does not refer to the auditory sound in reality but the sensory impression of the physical sound in our mind, in other words, the sound-image itself has psychological character. By contrast, the term concept which opposes to the sound-image is much more abstract; only in this sense can we call the sound-image is “material”. In brief, intimately associated with each other, the sound-image and the concept combine into the linguistic sign. However, in most cases, there exists ambiguity among the three terms---sign, sound-image and concept. Therefore, in order to distinguish them from each other, Saussure comes up with another new group of propositions-sign, signifier and signified, among which sign still refers to the whole while signifier and signified are applied respectively to take place of the sound-image and the concept. For example, “as for the English word ‘tree’, the signifier is the psychological imprint of the sound /tr:/ while the signified refers to the concept of the signified, together, the linguistic sign ‘tree’ is the unit of the signifier and the signified.” (Saussure,1996:14)

2.2 Roland Barthes’ Semiotics Theory After Saussure, Roland Barthes is another pioneer in the field of semiotics in the 20th century. As a productive scholar, Roland Barthes elaborates his semiotics theory in Mythologies and Elements of Semiology. In Mythologies (1972), Roland Barthes (1972) “regards everything around him such as clothes, toys, food, advertisements, eating and sports as a kind of language and pays much attention to reveal the meaning behind these objects by applying the structuralist approaches”. While Elements of

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Semiology (1986) is a book to introduce semiotics systematically by Roland Barthes, in which he not only expounds semiotics on culture which has been introduced in Mythologies but also adds a series of new contents as follows.

2.2.1 Langue and Parole As a pair of dichotomic propositions, langue and parole is first distinguished by Saussure. In the point of Saussure, “langue is a system of written language that covers a series of rules and makes it possible that individuals can communicate with each other”( Saussure,1996:12). By contrast, parole refers to individual’s actual utterance to achieve communication in reality. In other words, from Saussure’s point of view, langue is a social institution. From this point, langue has been endowed with the characteristic of conventionality, in other words, it is collective and individuals have to accept it and comply with its rules if they want to succeed in communicating with others. In addition, as the collective contract in society, to some degree, langue is abstract, stationary and can not be modified frequently by individuals. Compared with langue, parole, generally speaking, is the application of langue by individuals in reality. In this sense, parole is an individual activity to express ideas and achieve communication in which individuals can not have to conform the grammatical rules of langue all the time and can add some fresh expressions to langue. Therefore, by contrast with langue which is social, abstract and fixed, parole is individual, specific and dynamic. On the basis of Saussure’s theory about langue and parole, Roland Barthes (1986) “puts forward that langue is not only a social institution but also a system of values” while parole is not just a pure creation but an individual activity on the basis of langue and individual’s ideas or feelings. As for the relationship between langue and parole, Roland Barthes (1986) “points out that they are a dialectical unity and they depend on each other for existence”, that is to say, there is no parole without langue, vice versa. Specifically speaking, langue is a collection of individual imprints by the practice of speech. Thus, in the point of individual speech, it is imperfect. At the same time, Roland Barthes(1986) “proves that langue is rooted in parole by citing the phenomena

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that historically parole always comes into being before langue and it is in the process of speaking that people acquire langue”. In a word, as a product of parole, langue is also a tool for people to communicate with each other, therefore, it is no use learning langue before parole or separating langue from parole when people pick up a language.

2.2.2 Signified and Signifier Saussure considers the linguistic sign as the unity of the signified and the signifier and the link between them is arbitrary. Like Saussure, Roland Barthes also holds that “the signified corresponds with the signifier in an arbitrary way”(Barthes,1986:35). However, Roland Barthes thinks that Saussure’s definition of signified is endowed with too much psychology. From the perspective of Roland Barthes, though opposite to each other, the signifier and the signified are two associated relata in the unity and make up the sign by the significance which makes Roland Barthes’ semiotics different from that of Saussure. Therefore, the signified can be defined as one of the two relata of the sign while the signifier is the other relatum; the only difference between them lies in that the signifier is a mediator. In Elements of Semiology(1986), Roland Barthes’ semiology pays much attention to the way in which the significance combines the signified and the signifier to make the sign produce meaning. In a word, Roland Barthes breaks the limitations of Saussure’s semiotics and builds up a two-layered significant system of the signified and the signifier in order to explore the mechanism of how sign producing meaning.

2.2.3 Syntagm and System In Course in General Linguistics, Saussure(1996) classifies the relations between linguistic signs into two distinct classes. On the one hand, according to the linear nature of the signifier of linguistic signs, in discourse the colloquial words are chained in sequence. Therefore, the syntagm refers to the combination supported by linearity, which is made up of at least two units. For example, “good students”, “God bless me”

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or “re-read” are all syntagms. What’s more, for syntagms, only when the unit is placed in appropriate place, can it gain its own value. On the other hand, as for the term system, Saussure names it as associative relations which are the co-ordinations of words only existing in the speaker’s brain. Usually, the coordinate words have something in common, for example, the words “skirt- dress-jupe” all belong to female clothes. To a large extent, Roland Barthes agrees with Saussure’s discussion on syntagm and system, however, he also puts forwards his own point of view about this topic. On the one hand, he points out that there exists non-continuity in the portfolio segment by citing the traffic signs for instance. Further, Roland Barthes easily extracts the segments of non-continuity in the syntagm. On the other hand, different from Saussure who only believes the absolute distinction of language, Roland Barthes comes up with the idea that besides the role of distinction, “the polymer makes a difference in indicating the similarity among linguistic signs”(Barthes,1986:43). Take the linguistic units “big apple” and “small apple” for example. As the material basis of the signified, the word “apple” plays a positive role to present the commonality while the two adjectives “big” and “small” play the role of variants to distinguish the two linguistic units. In short, each significant unit is composed of variants and the material basis of signification, in which the former and the latter respectively belong to distinct factor and positive factor.

2.2.4 Denotation and Connotation In Roland Barthes’ semiotics system, denotation and connotation are a pair of important propositions; the distinction between denotation and connotation can be expressed by Roland Bathes’ two-layered significant system in this way: 2 (Signifier)E→R←C(Signified) ↓ 1 (Signifier)E→R←C(Signified) Figure 2-1 Barthes’ Sign System (Roland Bathes, 1986:43)

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2 (Signifier)E→R←C(Signified) ↓ 1 (Signifier)E→R←C(Signified) Figure2-2 Barthes’ Sign System (Roland Bathes, 1986:43) In figure 2-1, the expression plane or the signifier in the second level is transformed from the first system, in other words, in this figure the second level can be expressed as (ERC) RC. In this way, it is obvious that the first level makes up the denotation plane while the second level forms the connotation plane. Similarly, in figure 2-2, the second level can be presented as ER(ERC). In another way, denotation exists on the first level that becomes the content plane or the signified of the second level where connotation forms. That is to say, “denotation refers to the literal meaning which is very specific and concrete, on the other hand, connotation refers to the deep or abstract meaning which is related to culture, background, situation and feelings or emotions of the users and can not be recognized just by its appearance”(Barthes,1986:95). Thus, from the perspective of Roland Barthes, the sign theory by Saussure is just about denotation and has nothing to do with connotation.

2.2.5 Roland Barthes’ Semiotics on Culture As a semiotician, Roland Barthes not only develops semiotics by Saussure but also applies semiotics to reveal or explain values contained in the mass culture covering the world of wrestling, films, theater, holidays, advertisements, toys, perfume, clothing, food, magazines, newspapers, exhibitions, shows, photographs, etc. In his Mythologies (1972), a collection of a series of eassays, Roland Barthes (1972) “makes full use of semiotics on culture especially his two-layered signifying system to find out the deep significance or meanings hiding in the surface meaning of the mass culture and the way of the dominant class permeating their own ideology through mass culture into the citizens’ thoughts”. In a word, in point of Roland Barthes, he considers myth as a language, a kind of speech or a combination of communication, therefore, “the process of seeking significant features under signs is

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equal to that of ‘demystification’; and the best method to achieve ‘demystification’ is the study of signs by means of the semiotic analysis on culture”(Barthes,1972:25). Since Roland Barthes (1972) regards the social cultural phenomena as a series of mythical signs and his cultural semiotics centers on the significance of ideology, he creates a two-layered signifying system to uncover the double system of the mythical signs (Figure 2-3) and then, to find out the essential significance of social cultural phenomena.

1 Signifier 1 Signified

1 (Sign)

2 Signifier 2 Signified

2 Sign

Figure 2-3 Double System of Mythical Signs ( Barthes, 1972:25) In the figure 2-3, there exists two levels and the sign consisting of signifier and signified in the first level is just the signifier in the secondary level, in other words, the signifier of the sign in the secondary level is transformed from the sign in the first level. Further, the first level composes the denotation plane expressing the literal meanings while the second level makes up the connotation plane referring to the deep significance of the mythological signs. Therefore, by adding the secondary plane of sign system, Roland Barthes (1972) “attempts to explore the deep meanings hiding in the mass culture or the trivia of the daily life”. At the same time, Roland Barthes (1972) “thinks that it is vital to interrogate the contemporary cultural phenomena and interpret the connotations under their myths”. As a matter of fact, in Mythologies Roland Barthes really analyzes a large number of mass cultural phenomena including wresting, films, toys, advertisements, etc. In a word, from the perspective of Roland Barthes, only by demystification of the cultural phenomena, can it be possible to reveal the true values disguised by bourgeoisie in mass culture and understand the influence of history on the modern cultural phenomena. In addition, by applying semiotics to analyzing mass culture, Roland Barthes extends the fields of semiotics and his semiotics on culture paves the

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way for the development of the cultural semiotics.

2.3 Lotman’s Cultural Semiotics As the head of Moscow-Tartu school, a far-reaching academic community, “Yuki Mikhailovich Lotman is the most prominent representative among the Soviet scholars who specialize in cultural semiotics” (Li, 2007:343). His achievements on cultural semiotics center on textual semiotics theory, cultural semiotics theory, communicative semiotics theory and semiotics systematology, all of which pushes cultural semiotics to its new zenith.

2.3.1 Textual Semiotics Theory As for the definition of text, Lotman first puts forward that in terms of cultural semiotics, “text is a reduced model of culture, which is different from the traditional text defined as a language segment”(Lotman,1990:56). More specifically speaking, text does not just refer to literary works, as a matter of fact, it appears in natural languages (i.e.English, French), artificial languages (physical language, biology language) as well as cultural structure system. In addition, anything which is included in culture is called text, no matter it is composed of linguistic signs, a picture or a series of actions. In this sense, text is a collection of cultural semiotics which can not only cover a tiny article but also refer to a country’s or an ethic’s cultures. Therefore, in terms of cultural semiotics, Lotman (1990) “regards text as a carrier of cultural semiotics or an invariant system of its inner components, in which message is produced, committed and stored”. In this way, Lotman broadens the field of textual signs by linking it with the semiosphere.

2.3.2 Cultural Semiotics Theory From the perspective of Lotman, culture is complementary to non-culture, namely, everything but non-culture is culture. By contrasting with non-culture, it is obvious to find that culture has such characteristics as the function to record human experiences, transitivity, plyability, symbolism,conventionality and posteriority.

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At the same time, Lotman also holds that “culture is a semiotic system and the collective memory formed in the transformation from the practical reality to the texts”(Lotman,1990:63). In point of him, the two main perspectives to make up culture are respectively the culture texts and culture language. To be specific, culture texts focus on interpreting the existing texts by viewing them as an inseparable unit, by contrast, cultural language lays emphasis on designing new texts by abstracting language organism from its original text.

2.3.3 Communicative Semiotics Theory As for Lotman’s cultural semiotics, the most important is communicative semiotics theory featured with dynamics which associates text communication with language communication. In Universal of the Mind (1990), Lotman points out “if linguists focus on language structures while the general language receivers only center on the content”(Lotman,1990:66). As a result, both of them do not pay attention to the text, instead, they just regard it as a sort of “packing”. In terms of message receivers, the logic consistency is just as follows: Thought Thought ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ Encoding Mechanism of Language Decoding Mechanism of Language ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ Text Figure 2-4 Message Receivers’ Logic Consistency (Lotman,1990:67) In the figure 2-4, it is obvious that although it scarcely occurs in reality, “the equivalent transmission of message” is the basis of the process of message transfer from its sending to receiving. Just as Lotman points out, “the occurrence of ‘the equivalent transmission’ is limited by the condition that both the personality and the

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language code of the message receivers must be the same with those of the massage senders”(Lotman,1990:70). That is to say, “the equivalent transmission” is influenced by the discrepancies between message senders and receivers in memory capability, language experience, cultural traditions or habits as well as other elements. Therefore, Lotman concludes that only in the simplified language and the artificial language, can the equivalence of message transmission happen. In the following, the figure 2-5 shows the transmission process.

T2 T1 K

Figure 2-5 Equivalent Message Transmission (Lotman,1990:72)

In above figure, respectively, T1 and T2 is short for Text1 (Source Text) and Text2 (Transferable Text), while K stands for the single code. It is notable that Lotman stresses that since T2 is just synonymously transformed from T1, T2 can not be called a new one. However, Lotman also claims that literature translation is an exception. In literature translation, “personalities of translators, language’s creative functions as well as freedom in translation makeT2 become an interpretation of

T1”(Lotman,1990:74). Theoretically, any synonymous text is a possible interpretation of the original text just as the figure 2-5 shows.

T’2 K1

T1 T”2

K2

n T 2 Kn

Figure 2-6 Possible Interpretation of the Original Text ( Lotman,1990:74) In the figure 2-6, it is clear to find that given the fact that different translators

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may choose different codes ( K1, K2, Kn ) to interpret the original text, it’s impossible

n n to make T’2 , T”2 or T 2 back-transformed into T1. In another way, T’2 , T”2 or T 2 only can be transformed into T3 in the next turn. In conclusion, it is easy to find that in Lotman’s cultural semiotics, he first focuses on the problem how to describe the communication (especially the communication of text) in point of semiotics. In view of the different codes transformed from the original text and language’s creative functions, it is impossible to achieve the equivalent communication in reality. Therefore, as a matter of fact, receivers’ understanding in communication is just the possible interpretation of the senders’ original text.

2.3.4 Semiotics Systematology On the basis of general semiotic theory, Lotman builds up his own semiotics systematology which centers on the relations between signs. From the perspective of Lotman, “natural language (i.e.English, French), artificial language (physical language, biology language) and cultural structure language make up the whole sign world which is a modeling system having some rules to make the elements logical and significant”(Lotman,1990:76). In this sense, the natural language itself can be regarded as a modeling system of the real world or the primary modeling system; based on the natural language, artificial language system is a simplified system; compared with the natural language, the cultural structure language is the secondary modeling language. In addition, it is on the basis of the cultural structure language that Lotman makes his research on the cultural semiotics. In conclusion, this chapter primarily makes a review of semiotics from Saussure’s semiotics theory to Roland Barthes’ semiotics on culture and Lotsman’s cultural semiotics. To be specific, Saussure’s semiotics theory bases the base of cultural semiotics; Roland Barthes’ cultural semiotics is usually applied to explore the cultural connotations under cultural signs; Lotman’s cultural semiotics is mainly applied to analyze the textual cultural transmission. Considering that it is most

25 山东师范大学硕士学位论文 appropriate to apply Roland Barthes’ cultural semiotics to analyze cultural signs, in the following analysis, I mainly apply Roland Barthes’ cultural semiotics to delve into the cultural connotations contained in the cultural signs in the novel Life of Pi.

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Chapter Three Religious Culture in the Novel Life of Pi

The novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel covers different religious cultures including Hinduism, Christianity and Islam. Besides, although there exist religious conflicts among different religions, the protagonist Pi tries to understand the differences among different religions and believes in them simultaneously.

3.1 Different Religious Cultures From the perspective of Roland Barthes (1986), though opposite to each other, the signifier and the signified are two associated relata in the unity and make up the sign by the significance. At the same time, Roland Barthes (1972) “thinks that everything in daily life such as rituals, clothes, toys, food, advertisements, eating and sports is a kind of language”. Thus, in the novel Life of Pi, different religious cultures and doctrines can be represented by their respective religious symbols that are common in the daily life.

3.1.1 Hinduism Rooting in India culture, Hinduism is India’s native religion. In the novel Life of Pi, Hinduism is the first religion that the protagonist Pi Patel believes in.

3.1.1.1 Cultural Symbols of Hinduism Lotman (1990) thinks “text is a reduced model of culture, which is different from the traditional text defined as a language segment”. Therefore, as a text, the novel Life of Pi also spreads religious culture. In the novel Life of Pi, symbols of Hinduism are mainly represented by the Hindu rites and rituals, gods as well as some religious mythologies. In this sense, the literal meaning contained in the symbols of Hinduism refers to the denotation of the signs while the cultural connotations contained in the symbols of Hinduism are the connotations of the signs. In the following, I will

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introduce the symbols of Hinduism in the novel Life of Pi by listing some particular examples. First of all, Pi has ever wondered whether the Ramayana is just a classic to account one long, bad day for Ram. Then, when Pi was drifting on Pacific Ocean, he was disappointed for no scripture and sighed sadly “I was a disconsolate Ariuna in a battered chariot without the benefit of Krishna’s words.” (Martel, 2001: 262) Here, literally speaking, Ramayana (2015) is the classic in Hinduism while Rama and Krishna are important gods in Hinduism. Further, in terms of cultural semiotics, these two pieces of quotations respectively contain two religious stories: “Rama puts up with adversities” (Dimock Jr,1963:106) ; “when Ariuna has no courage to face an important war, it is Krishna who helps him to drive the chariot to meet challenges and preaches wisdom of Gospel Song in Ramayana”(Robert P. 2015:75). Additionally, in the Pondicherry zoo, the man with a knife attacked a mouse deer and defended that he just wanted to punish evil Ravana. Here, it covers another important Hindu mythology, according to the classic Ramayana, “in order to kidnap Sita, Rama’s wife, Ravana takes the form of a deer” (Robert P, 2015:75). Secondly, in the novel Life of Pi, there exist different Hindu rites, rituals and symbols. When Pi was just a new baby, his aunt brought him to attend a Hindu ceremony in a temple which was colored with Hindu atmosphere by the yellow turmeric nuggets, red kumkum powder, broken coconut, flowers, the standing elephant, the beating of drums as well as the fragrance of incense. Thirdly, in the novel Life of Pi there appear many important Hindu lords such as Ganesha, Nataraja, Krishana, Shakti and Parvati. When the author Yann Martel visited the protagonist Pi Patel, he found Pi’s house seemed a temple which hung the picture of Ganesha. According to Hinduism, “Ganesha with the elephant head is an important lord in Hinduism”(Narain,1991:54). As a matter of fact, as the incarnation of wisdom and intellect, Ganesha is worshiped widely in India. What’s more, in the protagonist Pi Patel’s house, there is a brass statue of Shiva as Nataraja on the television set. Here appears another important Hindu lord-Nataraja

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“who is the cosmic dancer and helps the god Brahma create the universe in Hindu mythology”(Ananda K,1958:31). In addition, in the protagonist Pi Patel’s house, there are also two pictures of Ganesha and Krishana, three silver murtis representing Lakshmi, Shakti and Krishna and a stone Shiva yoni linga. Here Krishna, Shakti, Parvati and Shiva yoni linga are all Hindu lords, at the same time, Shakti in the form of Parvati is the mother goddess while according to Hinduism, Shiva yoni linga symbolizes energies of the male and female in universe. In a word, just as Roland Barthes regards the social cultural phenomena as a series of mythical signs and his cultural semiotics centers on the significance of ideology, the Hindu symbols in the novel Life of Pi contain a two layered-signifying system and vividly reflect Hindu culture.

3.1.1.2 Doctrine of Hinduism In terms of cultural semiotics, Lotman(1990) “regards text as a carrier of cultural semiotics or an invariant system of its inner components, in which message is produced, committed and stored”. Thus, as the carrier of cultural semiotics, the novel Life of Pi also contains the Hindu doctrine. The doctrine of Hinduism is mainly represented by its practices, beliefs and institutions. According to Hinduism, “Brahman is the world soul and his cloth woven by warp and weft is decorated with the elements of time and space”(Renou and Louis,1967:56). Besides, in Huiduism, the universe is created by Krishna and in the novel Life of Pi the story of baby Krishna, wrongly accused by his friends of eating a bit of dirt, explains the origin of the universe as follows:“ ‘Tut! Tut! Open your mouth,’ orders Yashoda. Krishna does as he is told. He opens his mouth. Yashoda gasps. She sees in Krishna’s mouth the whole complete entire timeless universe.” (Martel, 2001: 69) At the same time, according to the doctrine of Hinduism, “the truth of the universe is Brahman nirguna” (Renou,Louis,1967:37) which can not be described by human’s poor words although human beings have created a series of philosophical terms such as Absolute, Unity, Ultimate Reality, Truth and Ground of Being to

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account it. Therefore, man can not understand the wisdom of universe in a reasonable

way. In addition, in Hinduism, “individual soul can feel the world soul by the particular articles on the earth”(Renou,Louis,1967:37); namely, “because everything has a trace of the divine in it”(Martel, 2001:61) and “The finite within the infinite, the infinite within the finite.” (Martel, 2001:61) In brief, the doctrine of Hinduism is the representation of Hindu culture and is clearly showed in the meditation of the protagonist Pi Patel and the Hindu stories.

3.1.2 Christianity Roland Barthes believes “denotation refers to the literal meaning which is very specific and concrete; on the other hand, connotation refers to the deep or abstract meaning which is related to culture, background, situation and feelings or emotions of the users and can not be recognized just by its appearance”(Barthes,1986:65). Thus, it is very important to understand the Christianity culture in the novel Life of Pi by figuring out its religious symbols and doctrine.

3.1.2.1 Cultural Symbols of Christianity In Christianity, in order to rescue and save man, “Jesus Christ-the only son of God was crucified on the cross to purge the humanity sin by his blood”(Holy Bible,2011:375). According to cultural semiotics, covered by literal meaning, cultural signs contain rich cultural connotations. Thus, in terms of Christianity, the three important religious symbols: cross, Jesus Christ and Bible all appear in the novel Life of Pi. Firstly, “on the wall opposite the picture is a plain wooden cross.” (Martel, 2001:57) From the perspective of Christianity, cross connotes the deed between man and God and also tells people to atone for their sin. Secondly, in the protagonist’s office there is “a wooden Christ on the Cross from Brazil on a wall.” (Martel, 2001: 58) “The Christ is expressive-He suffers.” (Martel, 2001: 58) In terms of Christianity, God lets his only son, Jesus Christ, come to the earth and pay the price of humanity sin, which represents the love of God for the

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mortals. Besides, when Pi confesses he can’t accept agnostics, he shows “We must all pass through the garden of Gethsemane” (Martel, 2001: 70). Here, “the garden of Gethsemane” is where Jesus Christ suffered torments and is a cultural symbol of Christianity. Thirdly, “The book on the beside table is a Bible.”(Martel, 2001: 76) Written by different people in different periods, Bible records the words of God and is regarded as the holy book to believe in God. In short, according to Roland Barthes’ semiotics system, “denotation refers to the obvious meaning of the sign or the common sense while connotation refers to the profound meaning under the social or cultural context” (Barthes, 1986:45). Thus, cross, Jesus Christ and Bible have much more deep meanings in Christianity.

3.1.2.2 Doctrine of Christianity According to Christianity, when it comes to the origin of universe, “it is God who created the universe in seven days”(Holy Bible,2011:1) just as the protagonist Pi in the novel Life of Pi said, “Christianity is a religion in a rush ”.(Martel, 2001: 72) As for the doctrine of Christianity, the novel Life of Pi primarily represents its two core points: Trinity and Salvation. To be specific, God, Son and Soul are Trinity, therefore, to believe in Jesus Christ is to believe in God; Salvation points out that God sacrificed his only son-Jesus Christ to rescue and save all the human beings. All these points can be obviously represented by the confusion of the protagonist Pi when he attempts to understand Christianity.

“The death of the Son must be real. Father Martin assured me that it was. But once a

dead God, always a dead God, even resurrected. The Son must have the taste of death

forever in His mouth. The Trinity must be tainted by it, there must be a certain stench at

the right hand of God the Father. The horror must be real. Why would God wish that

upon Himself? Why not leave death to the mortals? Why make dirty what is beautiful,

spoil what is perfect?

Love. That was Father Martin’s answer.”(Martel, 2001: 68)

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To sum up, according to Christianity, God loves all mortals, even sacrifice his only son to pay the price of humanity sin.

3.1.3 Islam In point of Roland Barthes the sign has two levels in which “the sign consisting of signifier and signified in the first level is just the signifier in the secondary level”(Barthes, 1986:76). Thus, by adding the secondary plane of sign system, it is a good way to explore the cultural connotations of Islam hiding in the trivia of daily life.

3.1.3.1 Cultural Symbols of Islam Islam is a monotheistic religion. People who believe in Islam are called Muslims believing in Allah, angels, the classic and prophets. Fan Hongda (2007) “believes for Muslims, Mecca where the prophet Muhammad was persecuted is the holy city pilgrims yearn for; the Mosque is their public place to pray and Holy Qur’an is the classic to believe in God”. In Islam, according to Holy Qur’an(2011), “‘green’ is the traditional color, symbolizing peace, wisdom and pursuit of knowledge” (Emerick,2011:73). In the novel Life of Pi, there are several particular instances to embody symbols of Islam. Firstly, “We prayed together and we practised dhikr, the recitation of the ninety-nine revealed names of God. He was a Hafiz, one who knows the Qur’an by heart.” (Martel, 2001: 78) Here appears an very important symbol of Islam-the Qur’an, which is to Islam what Bible to Christianity. Besides, the prayer rite of Islam is also described vividly in the novel as follows:

“He stood straight. He muttered in Arabic. He brought his hands next to his ears, thumbs

touching the lobes, looking as if he were straining to hear Allah replying. He bent

forward. He stood straight again. He fell to his knees and brought his hands and

forehead to the floor. He sat up. He fell forward again. He stood. He started the whole

thing again.”(Martel, 2001:75-76)

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Secondly, in the second part of the novel Life of Pi, Pi had ever been mocked by his peers because his name “Pisine” was often mocked as “Pissing” so that he felt that he was like the persecuted prophet Muhammad in Mecca and made up his mind to escape to Medina. Here, it reflects the Islam story that in the process of preaching Islam, “the prophet Muhammad was persecuted in Mecca and then he escaped to Hejira where he further developed Muslims to build the basis of conquering the holy city Mecca”(Emerick,2011:156). In Islam, besides the only lord-Allah, there is another important personage-the prophet Muhammad. “The prophet Muhammad-peace be upon him-brought us the word of God without any undignified nonsense and died at a ripe old age.”(Martel, 2001:85 ) In the novel Life of Pi, just as Pi says, “Green is a lovely color. It is the color of Islam”. (Martel, 2001:323) While drifting on Pacific Ocean, Pi happened to meet a green island. It is the green island that saves Pi’s life at stake. To some extent, the heavenly green island is like the paradise in Islam. Finally, Islam’s classic is Holy Qur’an. In the novel Life of Pi, once Pi led the Muslim Santish Kumar to visit the Pondicherry zoo where Mr.Kumar marvelled at everything and quoted from the Holy Qur’an: “In all this there are messages indeed for a people who use their reason”(Martel, 2001: 104) to express his feelings. “In Islam, imam preaches and expounds the cults in Holy Qur’an; for Muslims, it is an essential book to read or recite”. (Michel,2004:75) Thus, Holy Qur’an is an important symbol of Islam.

3.1.3.2 Doctrine of Islam “Islam is a beautiful religion of brotherhood and devotion”, (Martel, 2001, 77) whose believers-Muslims-believe in Allah, prophets, angels and Qur’an. According to Qur’an(2011), Islam explains its doctrine. With different explanations of the classic, there exist different branches of Islam. As for Mr.Kumar, he is a Sufi as the novel says: “He was a Sufi, a Muslim mystic. He sought fana, union with God, and his relationship with God was personal and loving. ‘If you take two steps towards God,’

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he used to tell me, ‘God runs to you!’”(Martel, 2001: 77) Unlike Christianity, there exist many miracles to prove the existence of God, Islam sticks to “the essential miracle of existence”. (Martel, 2001: 85) For Muslims, “birds flying, rain falling, crops growing”(Martel, 2001: 85) are enough to prove the existence of God.

3.1.4 Pi’s Religious Pluralism From the perspective of Roland Barthes, “only by demystification of the cultural phenomena, can it be possible to reveal the true values in culture and understand the influence of history on the modern cultural phenomena”(Barthes,1972:45). The following analysis centers on the phenomena that the protagonist Pi Patel believes in Islam, Christianity and Hinduism simultaneously.

3.1.4.1 Pi Practicing Three Religions In the novel Life of Pi, although born in a family where his parents and older brother are all atheists, the protagonist Pi believes in Hinduism, Christianity and Islam simultaneously. The first religion Pi believes in is Hinduism. Influenced by his aunt Auti Rohini who was a pious Hindu, Pi was brought to a temple to attend a Hindu rite-samskara. At that time, Pi was just a little baby, but the atmosphere of Hinduism sowed the germ of religion in his heart. Gradually, with that germ germinating and growing up, Pi became a loyal Hindu. Then, at the age of 14, when Pi was on a holiday with his parents and older brother in Munnar, he met Jesus Christ. At the beginning of knowing about Christianity, Pi felt confused about why God let his only son pay the price of Humanity sins. However, through a series of doubts and exploration, he found that the more he wondered Christianity, the more he was interested in Christianity so that he could not leave it aside. In this way, through a series of doubts and the process of pondering, finally, Pi understood why God sacrificed his only son to save man and became a Christian on his last day in Munnar. In the following, when Pi was 15 years old, accidentally, he met Satish Kumar, a

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Sufi. Under the influence of Mr.Kumar, Pi gradually knew about Islam and believed in Islam. In this way, Pi became a pious Hindu, Christian and Muslim simultaneously.

3.1.4.2 Pi’s View about Religious Pluralism To some extent, Pi’s view about religious pluralism is similar to John Hick’s religious views. From the perspective of Hick, “he holds that in the universe there is only one divine Reality that has different names in different religions”(Wang, 1996:12). For example, “in Christianity the divine Reality is named as God while in Islam he is named as Allah”(John,2005:65). Similarly, in the novel Life of Pi, the protagonist Pi is in favor of religious pluralism in the aspect of religious belief. One day when Pi and his parents were having a walk with his parents, he met three wise men-the priest, the imam and the pandit simultaneously. After the three wise men realized that Pi was a Christian, Muslim and Hindu, all of them thought Pi should make a choice from the three religions. However, Pi said, “Bapu Gandhi said, ‘All religions are true,’ I just want to love God." (Martel, 2001: 87) In Pi’s point of view, Krishna in Hinduism, God in Christianity and Allah in Islam are the same, namely, all of them are just the different names of the sole divine Reality in the universe just as he refuted his mother, “If there’s only one nation in the sky, shouldn’t all passports be valid for it?”(Martel, 2001: 93) Thus, Pi believes that Hindus are the same as Christians and Muslims and all of them devote their life to loving God.

3.2 Religious Conflicts and Fusion Roland Barthes(1972) “regards the social cultural phenomena as a series of mythical signs and his cultural semiotics centers on the significance of ideology”, therefore, he creates a two-layered signifying system to uncover the double system of the mythical signs and then, to find out the essential significance of social cultural phenomena. From this perspective, in the novel Life of Pi, some religious conflicts and fusion exist in the common daily trivia.

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3.2.1 Religious Conflicts Since the appearance of religions, there appear religious conflicts. In the following, I will find out the particular examples of religious conflicts and summarize the reasons of religious conflicts in the novel Life of Pi.

3.2.1.1 Representation of Religious Conflicts As mentioned above, many kinds of elements lead to religious conflicts which are represented in many different ways. In the following, I will pick out several typical instances from the novel Life of Pi to show religious conflicts. First of all, in the novel Life of Pi, although the protagonist Pi studied in a Christian school, he had never been to a church, because he always heard about Christianity’s bad reputation for great severity and violence. Thus, with great prejudices against Christianity, when Pi first came to a church, he was very nervous and worried about that he would be evicted by a Christian angrily from the church. Secondly, with regard to Islam, knowing little about it, the protagonist Pi also have ever misunderstood it as a much crueler and more violent religion. At the same time, people always have the prejudice that all of Muslims are terrorists and they are the makers of riots, violence and terror. What’s more, in India, not only the pandits but also Indians exclude Muslams. For example, on the issue of Pi believing in Christianity, Islam and Hinduism simultaneously, Pi’s father thought “So all that I can sort of accept. But Muslim? It’s totally foreign to our tradition. They’re outsiders ”(Martel, 2001: 96). Last but not least, in the novel Life of Pi, the most obvious religious conflicts can be reflected by the scene of three wise men-a pandit, a priest and an imam-met and debated against each other on religious issues. The priest whispers, “Piscine, there is salvation only in Jesus”(Martel, 2001:85). The pandit retorted, “While Christians kneel before a white man! They are the flunkies of a foreign god. They are the nightmare of all non-white people”(Martel, 2001: 86). The priest snapped the imam, “Where’s God in your religion? You don’t have a single miracle to show for it! What kind of religion is that, without miracles?”(Martel, 2001: 85). The imam sneered the

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miracles of Christianity just like a circus and claimed “we Muslims stick to the essential miracle of existence”(Martel, 2001: 85). When the imam criticized Christianity to be violent and uncivilized and asserted the prophet Muhammad brought them the word of God without any undignified nonsense, the priest answered angrily “The word of God? Those were drooling epileptic fits brought on by the swaying of his camel, not divine revelation. That, or the sun frying his brains!”(Martel, 2001: 85). No matter the pandit, the imam or the priest, all of them are the venerable leaders in their own religious groups, however, they all just speak highly of their own religion and look down upon other religions whose merits are neglected. In a word, religious conflicts are attributed to many reasons and represented in many aspects. Nowadays, religious conflicts have become one of the most important sources of triggering local wars which directly pose a threat to the world peace. So, in order to maintain world peace and accelerate the pace of world development, it is essential to appease or clear up religious conflicts.

3.2.1.2 Reasons of Religious Conflicts As we all know, there are many reasons leading to religious conflicts which have come into being for a long time. Here, I will point out the reasons of religious conflicts from four important aspects. First of all, from the aspect of religious character, all religions are exclusive. “Each religion reclaims it is the sole divine Reality while other religions are false or imperfect”(John,2003:54). At the same time, all religions ask believers to only follow one singular religion. In the novel Life of Pi, although there exist many disagreements among the three wise men-the pandit, the priest and the imam, all of them agree on that “But he can’t be a Hindu, a Christian and a Muslim. It is impossible. He must choose.(Martel, 2001: 87)” Secondly, among different religions there are a large number of religious doctrines, rites and rituals. For example, “for Christians, they believe in God; for Muslims, they believe in Allah; for Hindus, they believe in many lords such as Krishna, Shakti and Parvati”(John,2003:46). At the same time, “Christians regard

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Bible as their holy book while Muslims take Qur’an as their classic”(John,2003:46). In the novel Life of Pi, obviously, the argument among the three wise men-the pandit, the imam and the priest-can reflect the differences in different religious doctrines. For example, the priest asked the imam “Where’s God in your religion? You don’t have a single miracle to show for it. What kind of religion is that, without miracles?(Martel, 2001:85)” What’s more, Christians usually go to churches; Muslims usually go to mosques while Hindus usually go to temples. Additionally, as for the way of praying, Muslims do a series of quick, necessary and striking physical movements and mutter to Allah while Christians just kneel on their knees, immobile and silent. In the novel Life of Pi, the protagonist Pi has ever vividly contrasted the ways of praying between Muslims and Christians as follows:

“So it went the first time I saw a Muslim pray-quick, necessary, physical, muttered,

striking. Next time I was praying in church-on my knees, immobile, silent before Christ

on the Cross-the image of this calisthenic communion with God in the middle of bags of

flour kept coming to my mind. ”(Martel, 2001:76)

Thirdly, ethnic problems have a great effect on religious conflicts. As a matter of fact, “the interweaving of religious conflicts and ethnic problems has aggravated religious conflicts, because every religion has its own constant ethnic groups and the prejudice for some ethnic groups can cause the prejudice of some religions”((John,2003:40). In the novel Life of Pi, when the three wise men-the pandit, the imam and the priest-debated with each other, in order to refute the imam’s idea that “the prophet Muhammad brought the word of God without any undignified nonsense and died at a ripe old age”, the priest said the merchant was illiterate and “those were drooling epileptic fits brought on by the swaying of his camel, not divine revelation”(Martel, 2001: 85). Besides, historically, India has ever been invaded by western countries, therefore, there have been ethnic conflicts between Indians and westerners for a long time. Further, “historical ethnic conflicts sharpens religious

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conflicts”(John,2003:60). For example, the pandit not only took Islam and Christianity as foreign religions but also regarded Christians as “the nightmare of all non-white people”(Martel, 2001: 86). Finally, different religions are lacking in communication. “Due to the religious exclusiveness, ethnic problems and barriers in languages and geography, lack of communication among religions has gradually resulted in serious religious prejudices and misunderstandings which further exacerbate religious conflicts”(John,2003:63). In the novel Life of Pi, through the debate among three wise men-a pandit, an imam and a priest-it is obvious that Muslims usually have a bad reputation for troublemakers and rebels; Hindus are regarded as idolaters; Christians are considered as cannibals.

3.2.2 Religious Fusion As for Lotman’s cultural semiotics, the most important is communicative semiotics theory featured with dynamics which contains that by communication different cultures can reduce conflicts and realize fusion.

3.2.2.1 Representation of Religious Fusion In the novel Life of Pi, the process in which the protagonist Pi breaks all kinds of obstacles to practice three religions-Christianity, Islam and Hinduism-simultaneously, is also the process of realizing religious fusion. Here are some prominent instances to represent religious fusion. First of all, in the novel Life of Pi, by visiting a church and communicating with Father Martin, the protagonist Pi was moved by what he had seen and heard so that all of his prejudices against Christianity were eliminated. Then, Pi attempted to comprehend Christianity, however, in which he encountered a lot of confusion confronting the conflicts between Christianity and Hinduism. Just as Pi confessed “The first thing that drew me was disbelief ”(Martel, 2001: 67), he racked his brains to find the answer to why “ it’s God’s who pays the price” (Martel, 2001: 67) for

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Humanity sins. On the one hand, comparing Jesus Christ in Christianity with the mighty gods in Hinduism, Pi comprehended that any God in any religion should own the mighty to endure difficulties and sufferings; on the other hand, contrasting Vishnu and Rama in Hinduism with God in Christianity, Pi held “That is God as God should be. With shine and power and might. Such as can rescue and save and put down evil”(Martel, 2001:70). Confronting Pi’s a series of such questions and puzzles, Father Martin’s answer was “Love”. Although this Son bothered Pi, with learning more and more about Him, gradually, he couldn’t get Him out of his head. So, after experiencing doubts and suffering a lot in the process of pondering over numbers of questions, Pi believed in Christianity. Secondly, after Pi became a Hindu and Christian, under the guidance of Satish Kumar, a pious Muslim, he also believed in Islam. By a chance, when Pi was exploring his hometown, he stepped in a Muslim quarter where he met Satish Kumar who was friendly to him. When Pi asked what Islam is about, Mr. Kumar told him Islam is about Beloved, which helped Pi get rid of bias against Islam. By learning Qur’an and listening to the imam, Pi really believed Islam is about devotion and brotherhood and he finally became a Muslim, Hindu and Christian simultaneously. Thirdly, the religious fusion can be harmoniously represented by Pi’s religious view-the core and nature of all religions are the same. Here is a particular example. When Pi “would like to be baptized”(Martel, 2001: 91) to be a Christian and “would like a prayer rug”(Martel, 2001, 91) to pray to Allah, his farther surprisingly answered “You can’t be both. You must be either one or the other”(Martel, 2001:91). Pi refuted “Why can’t I be both? They both claim Abraham as theirs. Muslims say the God of Hebrews and Christians is the same as the God of Muslims. They recognize David, Moses and Jesus as prophets”(Martel, 2001: 91), which reflected that Pi found out the common things between Islam and Christianity and comprehended the essence of them in spite of their different rites and rituals. What’s more, when Pi and his family met with shipwreck on the way to Canada, feeling helpless and desperate, he prayed “Vishnu preserved me, Allah protect me,

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Christ save me, I can’t bear it!”(Martel, 2001: 122) Therefore, it is obvious all the three religions-Hinduism, Islam and Christianity-have become the One unconsciously in his heart. In a word, for Pi, the nature of Islam, Christianity and Hinduism is the same; all of these three religions ask their believers to love God, their brothers and sisters.

3.2.2.2 Reasons of Religious Fusion In spite of innumerable frictions, conflicts, contradictions and misunderstandings among various religions, there still exists possibility to realize religious fusion, the reasons of which can be summed up into three points as follows. To begin with, “contacts among different religions contribute to clearing up religious misunderstandings, prejudices and stereotypes which derive from lack of knowledge about each other”(Huang,1995:127). In the novel Life of Pi, with the help of his aunt who was a Hindu, there were no barriers or bias impeding him to have a good knowledge of Hinduism and naturally, Pi first believed in Hinduism. However, influenced by rumors and lacking in knowledge of Christianity and Islam, gradually Pi had prejudices against these two religions, which has ever blocked Pi to become a Christian and Muslim. However, by a chance, he mustered the courage to walk in a church and was moved by what he had seen. The next day, when Pi went to the church again, Father Martin treated him and told him a story about Christianity, which not only removed Pi’s bias against Christianity but also helped Pi know more about it. In this way, Pi became a Christian. Secondly, “mutual understanding among different religions can not only help them find that there is something in common among them but also make them learn from each other” (Wang, 2002:27). Through a series of doubts and profound meditation, finally Pi found the sole divine Reality was the common core of the three different religions. For example, although there are many differences in prayer rituals between Christianity and Islam, the essence is the same, namely, to love God. Last but not least, “religious fusion relies on religious tolerance which is the basis of religious contacts and mutual understanding”(Wang, 2002:26). Naturally,

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different religions are different from each other in some aspects, however, owing to religious exclusiveness, all religions usually negate others without hesitation in front of religious differences. In the novel Life of Pi, in the beginning of touching Christianity, every time Pi felt confused, what he always did is not to criticize Christianity but to ponder over those religious questions again and again. With questions being solved, he did understand Christianity and became a Christian. All in all, on the basis of contacts, mutual understanding and tolerance among different religions, it is possible to make religious fusion come true, which can help all religions learn from each other and make great progress. To sum up, by analyzing symbols and doctrine of Hinduism, Christianity and Islam as well as Pi’s religious pluralism represented in the novel Life of Pi, this chapter concludes that the novel is endowed with rich religious connotations under a series of religious rites and rituals. At the same time, by analyzing the process in which the protagonist Pi breaks innumerable obstacles to believe in Hinduism, Christianity and Islam simultaneously, this chapter not only points out phenomena of religious conflicts and reasons for religious conflicts but also finds out representation of religious fusion as well as the way to reach it.

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Chapter Four Cultural Connotations of Names in the Novel Life

of Pi

In Roland Barthes’ semiotics system, “denotation and connotation are a pair of important propositions; denotation refers to the literal meaning which is very specific and concrete; on the other hand, connotation refers to the deep or abstract meaning which is related to culture, background, situation and feelings or emotions of the users and can not be recognized just by its appearance”(Barthes,1986:95). From the perspective of cultural semiotics, this chapter analyzes profound cultural connotations endowed in the names of the characters such as the protagonist Pi, the tiger Richard Parker, Mr. Kumar and the ship Tsimtsum.

4.1 Pi’s Names According to Roland Barthes, everythxing including names in daily life is cultural sign which is also a mysterious myth. By combing the cultural context, it is possible to achieve “demystification”. In the novel Life of Pi, the protagonist Pi’s original name is Piscine Molitor Patel. However, because“Piscine” is usually pronounced as “Pissing” easily, Pi feels so embarrassed that he decides to do some changes on his name to save his dignity. In this way, his new name Pi Patel came into being.

4.1.1 Pi’s Original Name In the novel Life of Pi, Pi’s original name, Piscine Moliter Patel, is named after a swimming pool, Piscine Moliter, by Francis Adirubasamy whom Pi usually calls Mamaji. The French meaning of “Piscine” is “pool”, in this sense, Pi is doomed to be bound up with water. Specifically speaking, on the one hand, when Pi was only seven, Mamaji began teaching him swimming; on the other hand, after encountering shipwreck on the way to Canada, Pi drifted with an adult Bengal tiger on Pacific Ocean.

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Piscine Moliter is Pi’s uncle’s favorite swimming pool. In this sense, naming Pi after a glorious swimming pool, Piscine Moliter, Mamaji and Pi’s parents must have great expectations for Pi. To some extent, they might hope Pi to add glory into the family. From the perspective of Mamaji, the swimming pool Piscine Moliter is so pure and clean that even “gods would have delighted to swim in”, which makes Piscine Moliter be colored with religious color. Later, when Pi was drifting on Pacific Ocean, in order to make himself get rid of desperateness and elevate himself, he “would point to Richard Parker and say aloud, ‘THIS IS GOD’S CAT!’ (Martel, 2001: 263) and “would point at the sky and say aloud, ‘THIS IS GOD’S EAR!’ ”(Martel, 2001:263) In this way, it is reasonable to consider Piscine Moliter as God’s swimming pool. Therefore, Pi’s original name Piscine Moliter Patel predicts Pi’s destiny, namely, he will have some relations with religion and be a pious religious believer. At the same time, Piscine Moliter is made up of two pools: one is indoor; the other is outdoor. Both of them are like “two small oceans”(Martel, 2001: 14), which makes a bridge to relate the swimming pool with Pacific Ocean. Further, it associates Pi’s original name with Pacific Ocean and Pi’s fate. All in all, by combing specific cultural contexts to analyze Pi’s original name Piscine Moliter Patel, it is certain to conclude that Piscine Moliter Patel not only contains rich cultural connotations but also provides a secret clue to Pi’s destiny.

4.1.2 Pi’s New Name In English, the pronunciation of “Piscine” is similar to that of “Pissing”. When studying in St.Joseph’s, in order to laugh at Pi, Pi’s classmates call Pi as Pissing Patel deliberately. Although Pi’s original name Piscine Moliter Patel stems from a famous swimming pool symbolizing glory, in the mock and satire of Pi’s peers, it becomes filthy. Therefore, after graduating from St.Joseph, on the first day of Petit Seminaire, Pi decides to find a refuge to escape from ridicule and irony and have a new start by giving himself a new name Pi Patel. In the novel Life of Pi, on the first day of new semester, by drawing a circle with

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a diameter, Pi declared seriously his new name Pi Patel like a religious ceremony. Here, although “Pi” is short for “Piscine”, it is also endowed with special cultural meanings. First of all, “pi refers to the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter and usually is indicated by the Greek letter  ”(Beckman,1993:5). Specifically speaking, ubiquitously existing in mathematics and physics, it is a vital constant to figure out the circumference, area and volume of some geometry such as circles, spheres and cones. Further, it relates Pi’s life with circles. When Pi was drifting on Pacific Ocean, with fear, rage, madness, hopelessness, apathy, he was “a point perpetually at the centre of a circle” (Martel, 2001: 272) caught in a harrowing ballet of circles. Secondly, as a matter of fact, represented by  , “pi indicates an irrational number whose decimal form is an infinite non-repeating decimal”(Beckman,1993:23). Interestingly, it is this irrational number that makes the universe rational and orderly. To be specific, as a vital constant, the number pi is usually applied to solve a series of questions in the process of exploring the universe. In this sense, “the number pi implies the philosophy that the irrational within the rational, the rational within the irrational”(Beckman,1993:17). Similarly, for ordinary people, it is irrational to be a Hindu, Muslim and Christian simultaneously. Theretofore, in appearance, it appears that Pi Patel who believes in Hinduism, Islam and Christianity simultaneously is as irrational as the irrational number pi. However, from the perspective of Pi’s religious pluralism, his religious view not only is rational but also contributes to accelerating religious fusion and reducing religious conflicts by religious contacts, mutual understanding and religious tolerance, which helps the world get rid of religious conflicts and disputes and become peaceful. In a word, no matter the number pi or the protagonist Pi Patel, they appear to be irrational superficially, as a matter of fact, both of them make the universe rational. Thirdly, the way Pi declares his new name Pi Patel is similar to a religious ceremony. When Pi writes his name on the blackboard, his classmates read it out together along with Pi’s writing like the choir singing psalms in the church. Here, the

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boys singing hymns along with Pi’s writing seem to make up a choir; for Pi, he seems to be baptized in a serious ceremony and get his rebirth. Finally, “representing the number pi,  is the 16th Greek letter”(Beckman,1993:2). On the one hand, in the novel Life of Pi, it is when Pi was 16 years old that he met with shipwreck and adventured on Pacific Ocean. Thus, Pi’s new name also contains the code of his fate. On the other hand, the irrational number pi is approximately equal to the fraction 22/7. Coincidentally, in the novel Life of Pi, Pi drifted on Pacific Ocean for 227 days exactly. To sum up, Pi’s new name Pi Patel contains abundant cultural connotations covering religion, mathematics, philosophy and literary.

4.2 Tigers’ Names In history, there are many famous poems mentioning tiger. In the poem The Tiger by William Blank, tiger is described as the masterpiece of God while in poem In Me, Past, Present, Future Meet by Siegfried Sassoon, “In Me the Tiger Sniffs the Rose”, here, in a sense, tiger symbolizes lust, evils or instinct in humanity. In the novel Life of Pi, there are two tigers: the tiger Richard Parker and the tiger Mahusha. In the following, the emphasis will be laid on the cultural connotations contained in the names of these two tigers.

4.2.1 The Tiger Richard Parker According to cultural semiotics, “denotation refers to the literal meaning which is very specific and concrete, on the other hand, connotation refers to the deep or abstract meaning which is related to culture, background, situation and feelings or emotions of the users and cannot be recognized just by its appearance”(Barthes,1986:56). Therefore, in the novel Life of Pi, although the protagonist Pi Patel explained that the tiger Richard Parker got its name by chance, the name Richard Parker contains rich cultural connotations.

4.2.1.1 The Fate of Richard Parker’s Namesakes in History

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In history, there are several famous Richard Parker’s namesakes who were victims of shipwrecks and died of cannibalism. The first victim named Richard Parker is a character existing in The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (1838) written by Edgar Allen Poe. In that novel, Edgar Allen Poe (1838) lets Pym experienced many kinds of adventures and misadventures such as mutiny, cannibalism and shipwreck. Once Pym and his partners encountered a shipwreck in which only four of them survived. Unfortunately, lacking in food, they decided to kill one of them to eat by drawing lots. In this way, the person named Richard Parker was killed and eaten. Although this Richard Parker in The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (1838) is just an imaginary fictional character, in reality, there are victims named Richard Parker meeting with similar tragic fate. In 1846, a ship named “the Francis Speight” foundered. In this shipwreck, injures, deaths and cannibalism appeared. Amomg all the unlucky victims, one is Richard Parker. Another famous shipwreck which is famous for “the case of Mignonette” happened to a yacht titled Mignonette when it was sailing for Australia. Short of provisions and desperate, the captain Dudley and a sailor Stephens murdered the sick and unconscious cabin boy and ate him with another survivor Brooks. Coincidentally, in the cannibalism, the name of the victim is also Richard Parker. By the way, after reaching England, the survivors were rescued and tried for murder, which has a great effect on British legislation because it sets a legal precedent that murder committed under desperate situations in order to sustain life is also illegal. In a word, the famous namesakes of Richard Parker in history are tragic and they almost victims of shipwrecks or cannibalism.

4.2.1.2 Richard Parker in the Novel Life of Pi In the novel Life of Pi, the name of the tiger Richard Parker comes from a clerical error. At first, the tiger Richard Parker is baptized as Thirsty because the first time the hunter Richard Parker met it, it was just a tiger cub and “rushed to drink in the water”(Martel, 2001: 167). However, the befuddled shipping clerk mistook the

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name of the hunter for that of the tiger cub. From then on, “Richard Parker’s name had stuck”(Martel, 2001: 168). Specifically, on the one hand, as for Thirsty, the original name of the tiger Richard Parker, it associates the tiger Richard Parker with Christianity closely, because in Bible, when Jesus Christ was nailed on the cross, he only complained that he was “Thirsty” while in the novel Life of Pi, “Thirsty” becomes the tiger Richard Parker’s baptized name. On the other hand, it implies that water plays an important role in the destiny of the tiger Richard Parker. First of all, because of thirst, when it “rushed to drink in the water”(Martel, 2001: 167), the tiger cub and its mother was captured and brought to the Pondicherry Zoo. Then, sailing for Canada, the ship Tsimtsum sank; drifting on the lifeboat for 227 days, due to lack of fresh water, the most challenging threat the tiger Richard Parker confronted was thirst. During that period, it was the protagonist Pi who was the supplier of fresh water, naturally, Pi became the master of Richard Parker. When it comes to the name Richard Parker, it is obvious to find that tiger cub Thirsty has grown up and become a handsome and mighty adult Bengal tiger. In the novel Life of Pi, the protagonist Pi has ever sighed with admiration, “What a stunning creature. Such a noble mien. How apt that in full it is a Royal Bengal tiger”(Martel, 2001:220). As a matter of fact, here, Richard Parker, the grown-up Bengal tiger, is more like “that commanding, brilliant and mighty tiger in the poem The Tiger written by William Blank”(Liu and Wang,2007:115). That’s why in the novel Life of Pi, although the tiger Richard Parker encountered shipwrecks, it did not repeat the fate of the famous namesakes of Richard Parker in history. Thirdly, in the novel Life of Pi, “the tiger Richard Parker not only is endowed with a human name but also is personified”(Cole,2004:23). Especially, after the ship Tsimtsum foundered, the protagonist Pi was thrown in a lifeboat; when he saw the tiger Richard Parker in the water, in order to encourage and save it, the discourse easily makes readers mistake the tiger Richard Parker for a person. For example,

“Swim, swim! You’re a strong swimmer.” “Richard Parker, can you believe what has

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happened to us? Tell me it’s a bad dream. Tell me it’s not real.” “His nose and mouth

kept dipping underwater. Only his eyes were steadily on me.” “Hold on tight, I’ll pull

you in. Don’t let go. Pull with your eyes while I pull with my hands.” ( Martel, 2001:121)

Thus, in this way, the distinction distinguishing animals from humans is vague, which foreshadows the correspondence between the tiger Richard Parker and the protagonist Pi in the two stories of the novel Life of Pi. Furthermore, in the novel Life of Pi, Richard Parker helped Pi to get rid of despair, calm him down and make him feel peaceful and hopeful. In other words, it was with companion of the tiger Richard Parker that the protagonist Pi survived. Therefore, the tiger Richard Parker and the famous namesakes of Richard Parker are common in that they all symbolize salvation. In history, several namesakes of Richard Parker were sacrificed to provide nutriments for the other survivors. In this sense, these victims were like Jesus Christ who sacrifices himself to save man in Christianity. While in the novel Life of Pi, as the enemy of Pi Patel, by stopping Pi from thinking too much about his family and his tragic circumstances, the tiger Richard Parker made Pi get rid of despair and have the will to live on. At the same time, the color of the tiger Richard Parker is orange which is a color to give people hope and vigor. So it was the tiger Richard Parker that pushed Pi to continue living. All in all, no matter Richard Parkers dying of cannibalism in history or the tiger Richard Parker in the novel Life of Pi, they all save the other survivors by providing physical energy or spiritual spirits for survivors.

4.2.2 The Tiger Mahisha From the perspective of cultural semiotics, the meanings of the sign are made up of connotation and denotation. Denotation is the literal meaning while connotation is the deep meaning under its common sense. “As a sign, the name Mahisha also has its own cultural connotations in history, mythology and legends”(Wei,2013:44). In the novel Life of Pi, Pi’s father managed a zoo and he deeply believed that in

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the zoo, for people, animals as seen through human eyes were the most dangerous. When Pi was 8 years old, he had a tendency to anthropomorphize animals and always poked his noses everywhere like boys at that age. In order to protect Pi and his older brother Ravi from being hurt by animals, Pi’s father led them to visit the stimulative conditions in the wild and gave them a vivid lesson they would never forget in the rest of their life. In that indelible lesson, the tiger Mahisha was the protagonist. Pi’s father let a zookeeper, Babu, put an alive goat into the tiger’s cage. After being starved for three days, the tiger Mahisha killed the bleating and desperate goat and satiated itself. Throughout his life, Pi benefited from that cruel scene which taught Pi an important lesson that an animal is an animal, practically and essentially removed from man. In Hindu mythology, according to Mahabharata, “Mahisha was a mighty demon king of Asuras. With the force of Asuras growing more and more powerful, Mahisha nearly became unconquerable and posed a threat to the world”(R.K.Narayan,2001:76). As the enemy of Mahisha, “the leader of Devas Skanda who was also known as Mahasena, Subrahmanya, Kumara and Kartikeya in other India legends, felt the threat of Mahisha”(R.K.Narayan,2001:80). Thus, a cruel and fierce battle between Asuras and Devas broke out. With the help of Hindu gods, finally, Skanda vanquished Mahisha. In this sense, the cultural connotations contained the name of the tiger Manhisha in the novel Life of Pi, can be dated back to the mighty, cruel and fierce demon king Mahisha in Hindu legend.

4.3 Mr.Kumar In the novel Life of Pi, there are two important namesakes of Santish Kumar who have great effects on the destiny of the protagonist Pi. Among them, one is a pious Muslim who leads Pi to believe in Islam; the other is a fanatical atheist and Communist who teaches Pi biology and stimulates Pi’s interest in zoology.

4.3.1 Mr.Kumar in History Roland Barthes(1972) regards the social cultural phenomena as a series of

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mythical signs and his cultural semiotics centers on the significance of ideology. Thus, before making a sense of the name Mr.Kumar, it is possible to review the namesakes of Mr.Kumar in history. In history, there is a celebrated Santish Kumar who is known for advocating and initiating a nuclear disarmament movement. Throughout his life, he is a legendary personage. Born in India, he had ever been a monk in a temple, which made his political views endowed with religious philosophy. He firmly believed that politics and society should revere nature and the advancement of human civilization should be based on respect for nature. In order to summon the nuclear-weapon states to join the multilateral talks on nuclear disarmament, he walked for peace and went canvassing in several nuclear-weapon states. In brief, this Santish Kumar in history not only had his own firm belief but also tried his best to put it into practice. Similarly, in the novel Life of Pi, no matter the devout Muslim Santish Kumar or the crazy atheist Santish Kumar, both of them are also loyal to their own belief in spirit and behavior. From this point, hidden in the cover of the name Santish Kumar, there exist lots of cultural connotations and it is not just a plain coincidence that Yann Martel names his characters Santish Kumar.

4.3.2 Opposition and Harmony Between Namesakes of Mr.Kumar in the Novel Life of Pi As the head of Moscow-Tartu school, Lotman(1990) “puts forwards textual semiotics theory which regards text as a reduced model of culture”. Thus, in order to find out the profound meanings of the name Mr.Kumar, it is essential to interpret it by combing the text of the novel Life of Pi.

4.3.2.1 Opposition Between Namesakes of Mr.Kumar In the novel Life of Pi, there exist two distinct characters who share the same name Santish Kumar. One is Pi’s biological teacher, an atheist and Communist; the other is Pi’s spiritual tutor, a baker and Muslim. One has an impressive and peculiar appearance which is indelible even in a passer-by’s memory; the other has a plain

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appearance so that it is hard for acquaintances to recognize him from crowds. One believes in science and reason; the other believes in Islam. By the way, the construction of the atheist Mr.Kumar is geometric: “he looked like two triangles, a small one and a larger one, balanced on two parallel lines”(Martel, 2001: 32). As a matter of fact, he has ever suffered from polio and what saved him is not God but medicine. Thus, like other atheists, he considers reason and science as his prophets. In order to verify his biological theory, he is the frequent visitor of Pondicherry zoo. And every time he leaves the zoo, he feels scientifically refreshed. Although Mr. and Mr.Kumar don’t know each other, in Pondicherry zoo, once they met each other unexpectedly. Obviously,when they were together, opposites and contrasts between them became much more prominent. It was the first time for the Muslim Santish Kumar to visit Pondicherry zoo, therefore, “He marvelled at everything”. In order to express his delight, he quoted the Holy Qur’an: “In all this there are messages indeed for a person who use their reason”(Martel, 2001:104). In the following, when Pi led the Muslim Mr.Kumar to the zebras, they encountered the other Mr. Kumar, Pi’s biological teacher, an atheist and Communist. In front of the zebras, the Muslim Mr. Kumar is dumbfounded at the strips on them and sighed “What a wondrous creature”(Martel, 2001:106) while the atheist Mr. Kumar compared them with “The Rolls-Royce of equids”(Martel, 2001:106); the Muslim eulogized the creation of Allah “Allahu akbar”(Martel, 2001:106) while the atheist named their scientific name precisely in Latin “Equus burchelli boehmi”.(Martel, 2001:106) Obviously, the baker Mr.Kumar is a pious Muslim who regards animals as the marvelous creation of Allah while Pi’s biological teacher Mr.Kumar is an enthusiastic atheist who believes in Darwinism and takes everything as the result of natural selection. Further, in essence, the contrasts and opposites between the Muslim Mr.Kumar and the atheist Mr.Kumar reflect those between religion and science.

4.3.2.2 Harmony Between Namesakes of Mr.Kumar In the novel Life of Pi, the protagonist Pi majors in religious studies and zoology

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simultaneously in university, which reflects the harmony between religion and science. Pi attributes his choice of academic studies in university to his spiritual tutor Mr.Kumar and his biological teacher Mr.Kumar. From this point, it is harmonious that the Muslim Mr.Kumar and the atheist Mr.Kumar have the same name Santish Kumar. As a famous physical scientist, Albert Einstein, has ever said “science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind”(Einstein,1941:2). In the novel Life of Pi, the atheist Mr.Kumar is a cripple, which symbolizes that without religious belief, the atheist is lame in spirits. Additionally, the loyal Muslim Mr.Kumar is lacking in scientific common sense when he saw the zebras for the first time, he was confused and asked “Have they been painted with a brush? What happens when it rains? The strips don’t melt?” (Martel, 2001: 105) In this sense, due to lack of scientific knowledge, the devout Muslim Mr.Kumar is blind. In a word, besides contrasts and opposites between two namesakes of Mr.Kumar, they can also exist harmoniously in a dual unity. Further, essentially speaking, religion and science should be united in a unity harmoniously.

4.4 Other Names in the Novel Life of Pi Roland Barthes(1986) “makes full use of semiotics on culture especially his two-layered signifying system to reveal or explain the deep significance of cultural signs”. At the same time, he also thinks that it is vital to combine history, mythology, legends, folklore and philosophy to find out the values hidden in cultural signs. Therefore, from the perspective of cultural semiotics, some other minor names containing cultural connotations in the novel Life of Pi will be analyzed in the following.

4.4.1 The Ship Tsimtsum In the novel Life of Pi, it was the Japanese cargo ship named Tsimtsum that carried Pi and his family as well as their animals to sail for Canada. However, on the way to Canada, after the ship Tsimtsum foundered, as the only survivor of the shipwreck, Pi lost all his family and drifted on Pacific Ocean for 227 days.

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When it comes to “tsimtsum”, deriving from Hebrew, “tsimtsum” is an important religious concept in the Kabbalistic school and is further systematically studied by Issac Luria, a great sixteenth-century Kabbalist from Safed. Meaning “shrinking” or “contracting”, the term “tsimtsum” in the Kabbalistic school expounds “why the omniscient God created a finite world”(Luria,1987:23). From the perspective of Issac Luria, “because God and his energy are infinite and ubiquitous, in order to create the world, at first, he had to withdraw himself to make it possible that something else exists”(Luria,1987:24). In this way, a primordial universe came into being. By coincidence, in the novel Life of Pi, the protagonist Pi Patel is very interested in cosmogony theory of Isaac Luria who is an excellent representative of Kabbalistic school, especially in developing the concept of “tsimtsum”. Further more, the connotations of the term “tsimtsum” is also related to Pi’s destiny of drifting on the sea lonely. After the cargo ship Tsimtsum sank, “I looked about for my family, for survivors, for another lifeboat, for anything that might bring me hope. There was nothing. Only rain, marauding waves of black ocean and the flotsam of tragedy”(Martel, 2001: 134). All of a sudden, losing his family, Pi felt himself being abandoned on the vast sea. In a sense, the disappearing of the ship Tsimtsum and his family represents the withdrawal of God from Pi’s adventure on the sea. Although he tried to remind himself of God’s creation and his place in it by many ways like pointing at the sky and saying “THIS IS GOD’S EAR!”(Martel, 2001: 264), as a matter of fact, God did not hear it, not mention to help him. Since the foundering of the ship Tsimtsum, with the absence of God from his life, Pi had achieved enough room to become an independent individual. On the vast sea, confronting the cruel natural environment and threats of death, he tried to make a living to live on as possible as he could. Even, as a vegetarian, he was used to evils like killing flying fishes, dorados and turtles for food just as Pi described “You may be astonished that in such a short period of time I could go from weeping over the muffled killing of a flying fish to gleefully bludgeoning to death a dorado”(Martel, 2001: 234). Thus, after God withdrawing himself from Pi’s life, in order to have much more room to further develop himself, Pi

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had to shrink into his Self, which is connected with the implications of the term “tsimtsum” once more. Additionally, according to the theory of Kabbalistic school, “when God shrinking, some vessels used to collect his energy may break, which is the origin of evils in the world. Only by believing in God, can man repair the broken vessels and clear up evils”(Luria,1987:43). Thus, drifting on the vast sea, with the withdrawing of God from his life, Pi shrank into his Self and evils in his humanity came out. However, after he returns to human society, he believes in God loyally once again, which helps him to clear up evils in his heart and become a pious Hinduism, Christian and Muslim anew. In conclusion, according to the religious concept “tsimtsum” created by Kabnalists, on the way to become an independent individual, everyone has to experience the withdrawal of God and to be exiled. The Japanese cargo ship’s name Tsimtsum predicts that it is Pi’s doom to encounter the shipwreck and drift lonely on the boundless sea.

4.4.2 The Female Orangutan Orange Juice In the novel Life of Pi, Orange Juice is the name of the female orangutan on the lifeboat. To some extent, the name “Orange Juice” is similar to the word “orangutan” in pronunciation. From this point, Yann Martel plays a game with words. However, according to Pi, the reason why the female orangutan on the lifeboat is named as Orange Juice is because she tends to drool, which not only adds humorous color into the novel but also makes the female orangutan more like a woman by using personification. Besides, there is an important cultural element contained in the name Orange Juice-the color of orange. As the blend of red and yellow, orange symbolizes hope, joy and warmth, at the same time, as the color of the second Hindu chakara, orange represents the spirits to accept challenge. In this sense, the name Orange Juice symbolizes hope and Pi can get rid of predicaments and survive. In the novel Life of Pi, due to seasickness, Orange Juice’s the funny behaviors

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and expressions made Pi laugh. “The poor dear looked so humanly sick! It is a particularly funny thing to read human traits in animals, especially in apes and monkeys, where it is so easy.”(Martel, 2001:152) At that time, despite the tragedy afflicting him, Pi let out a laughter like a volcano of happiness breaking out in him. Besides, because there are some similarities between the female orangutan Orange Juice and Pi’s mother, Mrs.Patel, Orange Juice easily made Pi recall his mother who brought him spiritual comfort. In the novel Life of Pi, Mrs.Patel brought up two sons-Pi’s older brother, Ravi and Pi while Orange Juice was also the mother of two boys: one was eight; the other was five. Additionally, with the glory of maternity, both Mrs.Patel and Orange Juice were gentle and tender. Thus, the similarities between Orange Juice and Mrs.Patel comforted Pi’s broken heart. Further more, the courage of the female orangutan Orange Juice cheered Pi up and encouraged him to fight against all kinds of difficulties. In the novel Life of Pi, facing the cruel hyena, Orange Juice was brave enough to fight back against its attack. “She thumped the beast on the head. It was something shocking. It made my heart melt with love and admiration and fear.” (Martel, 2001: 162) From this point, Pi was inspired by Orange Juice’s braveness and courage so that he chose to face adversity bravely and tried his best to go on living with hope even in the desperate environment. To sum up, just like the cultural implications in the name of Orange Juice, the appearance of the female orangutan Orange Juice on the lifeboat not only brings Pi joy, happiness and spiritual consolation but also fills him with hope.

4.4.3 Pi’s Relatives By applying cultural semiotics, it is obvious to find that the names of Pi’s relatives such as Pi’s mother Gita, Pi’s father Santosh, Pi’s older brother Ravi, Pi’s son Nikhil and daughter Usha contain rich cultural connotations and are related to the theme of the novel Life of Pi.

4.4.3.1 Pi’s Mother Gita In the novel Life of Pi, the name of Pi’s Mother is Gita. With Sanskrit origin,

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Gita is a common name for women in India, meaning “nice”, which is fit for Pi’s mother who was kind, gentle and gracious and always tried to protect Pi and Ravi from being hurt and cared for others. When Pi was opposed to practicing Islam, Hinduism and Christianity simultaneously, she defended Pi “He’s taken it to heart, and it’s not doing anyone any harm”(Martel, 2001: 95-96). In the second story of the novel Life of Pi, Pi’s mother cared for the injured sailor carefully and “When he wept, Mother held his head in her lap”. Further more, Gita is short for Bhagavad Gita, which is a Hindu scripture in the Hindu epic Mahabharata. In Bhagavad Gita, “by expounding a series of philosophical concepts, Krishna solved the moral dilemma and confusion of Arjuna, the Pandava prince, and persuaded him to fight the war between Pandava and Kaurava”(Miller,1986:56). In India, Bhagavad Gita has ever encouraged many famous political leaders to lead Indians to fight for freedom and independence. For example, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi took Gita as his “spiritual dictionary”. In the novel Life of Pi, Pi’s parents advocated New India built up by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi who led India Independence Movement for independence and freedom. At the same time, they objected to Mrs.Gandhi and specifically, it was “Mrs.Gandhi’s dictatorial takeover of the nation” (Martel, 2001: 99 ) that compelled Pi’s family to immigrate to Canada. Actually, they always believed in “Mrs.Gandhi and her foolishness will pass. The New India will come”(Martel, 2001: 95). In this point, the cultural implications in the name Gita also represent a kind of political stand, namely, supporting freedom and opposing dictatorship. In a word, the cultural implications contained in the name Gita not only help to shape the image of Pi’s mother but also indirectly point out Pi’s parents’ political views.

4.4.3.2 Pi’s Son Nikhil In the novel Life of Pi, the adult Pi Patel has a vigorous son named Nikhil. As a Sanskrit word, Nikhil is usually used as a male name in Sanskrit-derived languages, implying a man who is “‘Resilient’ and ‘Complete’”(Nesselroth,1996:257). In history,

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there are several celebrities named Nikhil such as Nikhil Chopra-a retired cricketer, Nikhil Kumar-an Indian politician, and Nikhil Kuhuganti-an Indian entrepreneur(Nesselroth,1996:257). In the novel Life of Pi, when Pi’s son Nikhil appeared for the first time, “He’s wearing a baseball uniform and carrying baseball equipment, and he’s in a hurry”(Martel, 2001: 116). Here, it is easy to find he is a vigorous athlete. Besides, when Pi was young, he admired his older brother, Ravi, who was good at cricket. From this point, perhaps, Pi names his son Nikhil after the retired cricketer Nikhil Chopra and hopes his son to become a famous sportsman or just does well in sports like his older brother Ravi in the future. As a matter of fact, the cultural implications in the name Nikhil not only expresses his best wishes for his son but also reflects his own fate. When drifting lonely on the Pacific Ocean, Pi was tough and tensile; in order to survive, Pi had to shrink into his Self and killed for food. However, after being saved, Pi became a loyal religious believer. In this sense, he has resilient characteristics, which is why he could survive in the shipwreck and becomes a vegetarian and a pious Muslim, Christian and Hindu again in the rest of his life. At the same time, although Pi lost his family in perils at sea and suffered a lot on the Pacific Ocean, finally, in Canada the adult Pi not only got married with a pretty woman Meena but also had a son Nikhil and a daughter Usha. Thus, in the end, Pi has a complete and happy family and his life is complete and happy. Therefore, by analyzing the cultural connotations of the name Nikhil, it is much easier to interpret the protagonist Pi’s destiny in the novel Life of Pi.

4.4.3.3 Pi’s Daughter Usha In the novel Life of Pi, the adult Pi has a lovely and pretty little girl whose name is Usha. In Sanskrit, “Usha” means “Dawn”(Nesselroth,1996:255). The dawn predicts the coming of a new day, the new beginning and hope. In the novel Life of Pi, Pi names his little daughter Usha, perhaps he hopes each day in his daughter’s life is new and full of hope like the “dawn” of a day.

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At the same time, in Hindu mythology, Usha is a beautiful Vedic goddess who wards off evils in the evening (Robert P,2015:157). Thus, she usually is called as “the Dawns” and considered as “the medium of the awakening”. Today, many Indians still worship the goddess Usha in their Chhath Puja festival. Therefore, in the novel Life of Pi, expecting her to be kind, upright and brave enough to fight against evils, Pi names his little daughter after the goddess Usha. To some extent, the cultural implications in the name Usha can also be reflected in Pi’s life. As the only survivor of the shipwreck, Pi began his new life in Canada where he finished his university and built up a happy family. In this sense, after the shipwreck on Pacific Ocean, Pi welcomes his dawn of life in Canada.

4.4.4 Pi’s Pets In the novel Life of Pi, in the adult Pi Patel’s family, there are two pets: the dog is named Tata and the cat is named Moccasin. Combining Roland Barthes’ cultural semiotics, the names of these two pets will be analyzed in detail.

4.4.4.1 The Pet Dog Tata In the novel Life of Pi, in Canada, the pet dog in the adult Pi’s house is a small mongrel mutt called Tata. Originally, in terms of geographical names, Jamshedpur, a city in India, is also known as Tata; in terms of personal surnames, in India, there is an influential family, Tata family, whose family members include Jamsetji Tata-the father of Indian industry, Dorabji Tata-an Indian industrialist and philanthropist, Ratanji Tata-a financier and philanthropist, and J.R.D Tata-an Indian pioneer aviator and founder of Tata Airline; in terms of corporate names, in India, there is a Tata Group which is owned by Tata family. Thus, the pet name Tata is associated closely with Indian spot, Indian family and Indian company. As a matter of fact, a Tata tea factory affiliated with Tata Group appears in the novel Life of Pi. It was when Pi was 14 years old, Pi and his family went on a vacation in Munnar where they visited a Tata tes factory. Furthermore, in the novel Life of Pi, both Pi and his mother were nostalgic for India. Before sailing for Canada,

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his mother “pointed at a cigarette wallah and earnestly asked, ‘Should we get a pack or two?’”(Martel, 2001: 115) As for Pi, he was also nostalgic for the monsoons, rice fields, stone temples, bullock carts, colorful trucks and friends in India. Therefore, related closely with India, the pet dog Tata’s cultural implications express Pi’s nostalgia for his motherland-India.

4.4.4.2 The Pet Cat Moccasin In the novel Life of Pi, besides a pet dog Tata, the adult Pi also has a pet cat, Moccasin. The word “moccasin” originates from Algonquian language; in dictionary, it refers to a kind of soft leather shoes originally worn by Native Americans in North America or a kind of huge poisonous serpents living in North America. In short, the cultural connotations implied in the cat’s name Moccasin is linked closely with North America. Thus, in a sense, after the adult Pi began his new life in Canada, he also accepted North American culture gradually. Besides, the color of moccasins changed from brown in the 1880s to cream color in the contemporary era. Here, changes in the color of moccasins also happens to Pi’s little daughter, Usha. As a Canadian of East Indian descent, Usha has brown complexion. However, as the second generation, only knowing a little about India, Usha is soaked in North American culture completely. In this sense, brown in appearance, she becomes cream-colored in culture. Thus, through the cultural connotations in the adult Pi’s pet cat name Moccasin, it is clear to find that not only has the adult Pi accepted North American culture, but also his little daughter nearly has become a native Canadian in culture. In conclusion, by analyzing the cultural connotations contained in the names of characters, this chapter further decodes the codes of the characters’ destiny hidden in their names and find that the names of the characters not only have the mighty to change or predict their fates but also provide important clues to predict the development of the plots of the novel Life of Pi.

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Chapter Five Other Cultural Elements in the Novel Life of Pi

The novel Life of Pi contains abundant cultural elements and Chapter Three and Chapter Four respectively lay emphasis on religious culture and cultural connotations of names. In this chapter, on the basis of cultural semiotics, much more attention will be paid to some other important cultural elements such as the colors ‘orange’ and ‘green’, the image of water, drift, lifeboat as well as several animals.

5.1 Colors According to Roland Barthes’ semiotics on culture, “denotation refers to the literal meaning which is very specific and concrete, on the other hand, connotation refers to the deep or abstract meaning which is related to culture, background, situation and feelings or emotions of the users and can not be recognized just by its appearance”(Barthes,1986:95). Therefore, on the basis of cultural semiotics, by analyzing the cultural connotations contained in the colors ‘orange’ and ‘green’, the reasons why ‘orange’ and ‘green’ come into sight over and over again in the novel Life of Pi will be expounded profoundly.

5.1.1 The Color ‘Orange’ As an important cultural element in Indian culture, the color ‘orange’ turns up again and again in the novel Life of Pi. In the following, on the basis of Indian culture, this section primarily analyzes the cultural implications of the color ‘orange’ in the novel Life of Pi.

5.1.1.1The Color ‘Orange’ in India Culture Generally speaking, India is a country obsessed with colorful colors, which is one of the important factors to attract visitors from all over the world. Particularly, “in Indian culture, the color ‘orange’ represents good luck or auspice, thus, Indians love wearing orange clothes, decorating their houses with orange ornaments and choosing

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orange articles to celebrate festivals”. (Zhao, 2011:111-112) Besides, the cultural connotations in the color ‘orange’ are also related closely with religions and traditions. To be specific, in Hinduism, ‘orange’ is the color of ecclesiastical robe, representing courage, commitment and unselfishness. In Sikhism, the color ‘orange’ symbolizes the courage to fight against injustice, similarly, in India, warriors also regard the color ‘orange’ as the symbol of just fights which can bring harmony and justice(Berkeley,1969:23). At the same time, as a religious sign, in the shrines of Sikhism or Hinduism, orange burgee usually flutters in the air. Besides, for Indians, the color ‘orange’ also refers to fire and purity, because it is in fire that all the impure is reduced to ashes. Additionally, the color ‘orange’ also means seeking for independence, peace and promising future. Therefore, with so many positive cultural connotations, ‘orange’ is chosen as one of colors on the National Flag of India.

5.1.1.2 The Color ‘Orange’ in the Novel Life of Pi Just as mentioned above, since the color ‘orange’ has a lot of positive cultural implications, it has become Indians’ favorite color. In the novel Life of Pi, on the lifeboat, the whole inside of the boat is bight and almost everything aboard is orange: the orange life jacket with an orange, beadless whistle, the bright orange tarpaulin, the bright oars, the bright lifebuoy, the orange plastic buckets, the orange plastic bailing cups as well as some other important bright objects. Thus, “It seems orange-such a nice Hindu color-is the color of survival”(Martel, 2001:174), which inspires Pi to go on living when he is alone and orphaned on the Pacific Ocean. As a matter of fact, the color ‘orange’ also connotes hope and like a ray of bright light in darkness, it encourages people to fight against adversities in desperate situations (Berkeley,1969:23). In the novel Life of Pi, when the sun broke across the horizon, looking like an electrically lit orange, it not only brought Pi warmth but also filled him with hope just as Pi described “With the very first rays of light it came alive in me: hope” (Martel, 2001:150). Bathed in the sunshine of the early morning sun, everything emerged in outline and was full of color, which bred new hope in Pi’s heart.

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In this way, hope bred hope and increased constantly. Thus, inspired by the early sun’s bight light, Pi was hopeful about survival. Furthermore, on the lifeboat, Pi was also accompanied by an orange adult Bengal tiger, Richard Parker, without which Pi would be left alone with despair. Avoiding being the prey of the tiger Richard Parker, Pi not only had to catch fish and turtles for food but also racked his brains to provide water for it. Thus, this orange adult Bengal tiger kept Pi busy, prevented Pi paying much attention to his tragic situations and compelled him to move on. In a word, with much cultural connotations, the color ‘orange’ is a kind of favorite color in Indian culture, implying good luck, justice, peace, fire, purity and hope. In the novel Life of Pi, the color ‘orange’ not only comforts Pi’s broken heart, brings Pi hope and inspires him to overcome adversities to survive but also predicts the story in the novel will have a happy ending.

5.1.2 The Color ‘Green’ In the novel Life of Pi, only second to the color ‘orange’, ‘green’ is another important color. By analyzing the cultural connotations of the color ‘green’ in Islam, this section aims to interpret the profound meanings hidden in the green mysterious cannibal island the protagonist Pi ran into accidentally while he was drifting on Pacific Ocean.

5.1.2.1 The Color ‘Green’ in Islam Culture In general, there are many cultural connotations in the color ‘green’. “For many countries, the color ‘green’ represents independence, hope, life, prosperity, confidence and productivity”(Berkeley,1969:30). Thus, considering the positive cultural connotations in the color ‘green’, many countries choose ‘green’ as the color of their National Flag. For example, ‘green’ is one of colors appearing on the National Flag of India. In addition, the color ‘green’ also contains negative cultural implications such as devils, monsters, envy, jealousy and misfortune. Further more, the color ‘green’ is closely associated with Islam, which is the key point to discuss in the following.

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To begin with, in Islam, the color ‘green’ symbolizes “peace, wisdom and pursuit of knowledge”(Liu,2014:26). As the traditional color of Islam, ‘green’ is used as the color of Islam’s banner. Even ‘green’ is also regarded as the color of the National Flag of many countries such as Afghanistan, Iran, Mauritania, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. What’s more, according to the Holy Qur’an, the classic of Islam, Muhammad has ever said “water, greenery and a beautiful face are the most valuable things in the world”(Emerick,2011:215). At the same time, according to the Koran, after death, those kind and pious Muslims in reality will live in paradise where they wear the green silk robes. Additionally, in the Holy Qur’an, there is an important figure named Al-Khidr. As a negotiator and diplomat, his name Al-Khidr means “The Green One”. In addition, in Islam, the color ‘green’ also symbolizes the bridge between light and obscurity. In a word, in Islam, because the color ‘green’ is endowed with large numbers of nice cultural connotations, it is taken as one important symbol of Islam in the world.

5.1.2.2 The Green Island in the Novel Life of Pi In the novel Life of Pi, when Pi was drifting on Pacific Ocean, he occasionally found a cannibal island which looked like a heavenly paradise in appearance. The color of the whole island is green just as Pi described “It was nothing but shining green algae and shining green trees”(Martel, 2001: 342). Thus, based on the Islam cultural connotations in the color ‘green’, this section tries to uncover the veil of the mysterious cannibal island in the novel Life of Pi. The survival manual on lifeboat suggests looking for ‘green’ which represents life and hope. In despair, Pi happened to discover a green island which was the chlorophyll heaven and provided Pi with enough provisions to survive. Besides, Pi also found out that the whole island was covered with the algae and in its center was a great plateau with a great forest surrounded by identically sized ponds. Just as Pi described “Green is a lovely color. It is the color of Islam.”(Martel, 2001: 323) Thus, peaceful, harmonious and pure, this heavenly green island is like the paradise in

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Islam. In addition, on the green island, there were innumerable meerkats which were the only animate animals before Pi and the tiger Richard Parker landed there. In the novel Life of Pi, by using personification, the meerkats were endowed with human characteristics. For example, when they made their front paws hang before them, the earnest expression on their faces “made them look either like children self-consciously posing for a photographer or patients in a doctor’s office stripped naked and demurely trying to cover their genitals”(Martel, 2001: 335). What’s more, “seeing so many beings bending down at the same time”( Martel, 2001:335), the image of “prayer time in a mosque” (Martel, 2001: 335) emerged in Pi’s mind. Additionally, the scene in which hundreds of meerkats crazily dived into ponds to catch fish at the same time makes people remind of “Muslims’ collective frenzy-like suicide attacks made by Muslims in conflicts”(Yu,2013:7). Thus, docile and meek, the meerkats on the heavenly green island symbolize the devout Muslims in paradise, which further demonstrates the fantasy green island represents the paradise of Muslims in Islam. Furthermore, Islam is a religion admiring peace, which can be reflected by the fact that Islam uses ‘green’ as the color of its banner. However, “when Muslims are persecuted and harmed, Islam allows Muslims resisting and fighting with violence”(Li,2006:13). Coincidentally, in the novel Life of Pi, appearing harmonious and peaceful, the small green island looking like the paradise of Muslims is carnivorous. As a matter of fact, in the day, the small island looked like a paradise; but at night, it turned highly acidic and digested any animals on the ground. That’s why the meerkats slept in the trees and there was nothing but algae on the island. This green island also has two sides: the paradise of Muslims and the violence of resisting in order to protect its own interests. In brief, combining the cultural connotations of the color ‘green’ in Islam, the small green island Pi happened to meet in the process of drifting on Pacific Ocean is the epitome of the paradise of Muslims in Islam, at the same time, the meek meerkats on the heavenly green island are the miniatures of loyal Muslims.

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5.2 The Image of Pacific Ocean, Drift and Lifeboat According to cultural semiotics, “denotation refers to the literal meaning which is very specific and concrete while connotation refers to the deep or abstract meaning which is related to culture, background, situation and feelings or emotions of the users and can not be recognized just by its appearance”(Barthes,1986:95). In the novel Life of Pi, as important cultural elements, Pacific Ocean, drift, ship and lifeboat contain rich cultural connotations. Combining the Biblical archetype, this section mainly lays much emphasis on the cultural implications in the image of Pacific Ocean, drift, ship and lifeboat in the novel Life of Pi.

5.2.1 The Biblical Archetype of Water, Drift, and Ship The Biblical archetype of Pacific Ocean, drift, ship and lifeboat is associated closely with the story of Noah’s Ark in Bible. According to The Genesis in Holy Bible, with population on earth multiplying and spirit of God disappearing in man’s heart, man became more and more wicked. “Since the heart of man was filled with evils and corruptness and violence was here and there, God decided to destroy man he had created on earth.”(Na,2012:2) However, God was satisfied with Noah who was a righteous man, perfect in his generations. Although God decided to destroy man by making a flood on earth, he still wanted to keep Noah and his family alive. Thus, he ordered Noah to make an ark for him, his family as well as one couple of male and female in each kind of living things to escape from the overwhelming flood. As God commanded, the honest Noah built a large solid ark. Seven days after Noah made everything ready and brought his family, chosen animals and food along with him into the ark, God caused it rain for 40 days and nights to form a destructive flood on earth. Facing the overwhelming flood, Noah’s ark floated safely on it. The flood lasted for 150 days and nights on earth. After the flood fading away, Noah led his family and the chosen animals to step out of the ark into the new world and began a new life. Thus, “in Holy Bible, Noah and his family along with the chosen animals were saved in the ark; the flood destroyed all wickedness, evils and violence and refreshed

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a new world, which means the beginning of a new life”(Na,2012:3). In this sense, the image of Pacific Ocean, drift, ship and lifeboat in the novel Life of Pi derives from the Biblical archetype of flood and Noah’s Ark and is endowed with much more underlying meanings.

5.2.2 The Image of Pacific Ocean, Drift and Lifeboat in the Novel Life of Pi In the novel Life of Pi, after encountering the shipwreck, Pi drifted lonely with an adult Bengal tiger in a lifeboat on the Pacific Ocean for 227 days. In the end, he was rescued after landing on Mexico. Then, he welcomed his new life in Canada where after finishing his university, he got married and had a happy family. Compared with the story of Noah’s Ark in Holy Bible, the Japanese cargo ship Tsimtsum carrying Pi and his family along with their animals is like Noak’s ark sailing on Pacific Ocean. Ironically, in this ark, except Pi, all the other passengers were not devout Christians like Noah and on the way to Canada, the ship Tsimtsum ran into the shipwreck and foundered on Pacific Ocean. In this sense, water in the Pacific Ocean is similar to the flood of waters caused by God to destroy all the wicked as well as those who do not believe in Him. As a matter of fact, in Pi’s family, Pi is the only pious Christian while his parents and his older brother did not believe in God and all of them were atheists. From this point, perhaps God just wanted to punish those who did not walk with Him and caused the cargo ship Tsimtsum to sink in Pacific Ocean and that was why only Pi who was loyal to God survived in the shipwreck while his closest relatives in his family lost their lives. Furthermore, after the Japanese cargo ship Tsimtsum floundered in the shipwreck, Pi escaped to a lifeboat and drifted on Pacific Ocean with an adult Bengal tiger. Here, the image of Pacific Ocean, drift, lifeboat, Pi and a tiger is more like the Biblical archetype that Noah in his ark floated on the flood of waters. Pi, the pious religious believer, is the same as Noah; the tiger and Pacific Ocean respectively represent the chosen animals and the flood of waters in Holy Bible. In the novel Life of Pi, on Pacific Ocean, in order to cheer himself up, Pi has ever pointed at his lifeboat and cried out that “THIS IS GOD’S ARK”(Martel, 2001:264) and similarly, pointed to the

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tiger Richard Parker and spoke out that “THIS IS GOD’S CAT”(Martel, 2001: 264). At the same time, according to The Genesis, in Noah’s ark, Noah and his family as well as the chosen animals floated on the flood of waters for 150 days and nights while Pi drifted on Pacific Ocean along with a tiger in a lifeboat for 227 days and nights. Furthermore, in Holy Bible, after the flood, “all wickedness and violence on earth disappeared, thus, it was a new world again and Noah along with his family began their new life”(Zheng,2009:94). Similarly, in the novel Life of Pi, after ending the drift on Pacific Ocean, finally, Pi went to Canada and began his new life in a new world. Therefore, as devout Christians, both Noah and Pi are rescued in disasters, which implies that only belief can help man get rid of calamities and save man. At the same time, just like Noah beginning his new life after the flood, Pi started a new life in Canada after the journey on Pacific Ocean. In this sense, if man destroy evils in disasters, after disasters they will welcome their new life in a new world.

5.3 Animals Roland Bathes builds up a two-layered significant system in which “a sign in the first system is just a mere signifier or signified of the secondary system”(Barthes,1972:43). In the novel Life of Pi, the tiger Richard Parker and the hyena in the first story respectively correspond the protagonist Pi Patel and the French cook in the second story. On the basis of cultural semiotics by Roland Barthes, the cultural connotations contained in the tiger and the hyena will be analyzed in detail in the following.

5.3.1 The Tiger In the novel Life of Pi, there appear two mighty and fierce tigers which play an important role in the protagonist Pi’s life because one taught Pi the impressive lesson that animals are animals and the other accompanied Pi and pushed him to live through hard times. Therefore, in the following section, on the basis of the cultural connotations of tiger, the thesis lays emphasis on the profound significance of tigers

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in the novel Life of Pi.

5.3.1.1 Cultural Connotations of the Tiger On the whole, different cultures have different interpretations on tiger. This section primarily illustrates the representative cultural connotations of tiger from the perspective of religions, legends and literature works. To start with, in Hinduism, “tiger is the symbol of courage, braveness and status” (Renou and Louis,1967:135). For example, as an popular incarnation of Devi, Durga rides the tigress into battle, which represents her braveness; at the same time, as an important Hindu deity, he also sits on tiger skin and wears tiger skin, which shows his elite status. Differently, in Buddhism, as a member of the Three Senseless Creatures, tiger represents anger. Secondly, “in some Chinese myths, tiger is regarded as the ancestor of Chinese who take it as the totem to admire; in other myths, tiger is shaped as the God who created the world or the guardian angel who has the mighty to protect man from natural disasters and evils”. (Wang, 2010:73-75) In general, with so many positive cultural connotations, in Chinese long history of several thousands, tiger has gradually become the symbol of justice, braveness, power and authority. Thirdly, in British literature, tiger emerges in two famous poems which respectively are The Tiger written by William Blank and In Me, Past, Present, Future Meet written by Siegfried Sassoon. “Tiger!Tiger!Burning bright, In the forests of the night, Could frame the fearful symmetry?”(Blake,1971:45). The poem The Tiger by William Blank not only portrays the beauty and strength of a mighty tiger but also shows the cruelty and fierce the tiger. In other words, as a masterpiece of God, the tiger also represents a kind of destructive force, which forms distinct contrasts with the pure and meek lamb that symbolizes Jesus Christ in the poem The Lamb by

William Blank in his Songs of Innocence. By contrast, the tiger in the poem In Me, Past, Present, Future Meet by Siegfried Sassoon, symbolizes cruelty, desire, greedy and evils in humanity. The poem expresses the contradiction between the inborn brutish nature in humanity and nice qualities like kindness, loyalty, tolerance and

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purity. In short, the image tiger contains both positive and negative cultural connotations in religions, myths and literature works.

5.3.1.2 Tigers in the Novel Life of Pi In the novel Life of Pi, there are two tigers; both of them are mighty, handsome, cruel and fierce. The first one is the tiger Mahisha that killed a docile lamb in the simulate conditions, which not only echo the fierce tiger in the poem The Tiger written by William Blank but also foreshadow the real identity of the tiger Richard Parker in the later part of the novel Life of Pi. The second one is the tiger Richard Parker in the first story of the novel Life of Pi, who accompanied Pi and helped him get rid of desperate situations. While at the end of the novel Life of Pi, after hearing two stories from Pi, the two Japanese investigators of the Maritime Department in the Japanese Ministry of Transport corresponded the tiger Richard Parker in the first beautiful story with the protagonist Pi who killed the cruel and fierce French cook in the second bloody story, because in the first story when Pi was about to be killed successively by the hyena and another strange castaway with French accent, the tiger Richard Parker saved Pi and killed that castaway for food while in the second story after the disgusting and cruel French cook killed Pi’s mother, Pi killed him to revenge for his mother and defend himself.

“On the basis of cultural connotations of tiger in the poem In Me, Past, Present, Future Meet by Siegfried Sassoon, representing the evils in humanity”( Liu and Wang, 2007:113-116), “the tiger Richard Parker is the reflection of the evils in Pi’s heart” (Wei, 2013:43-44), just as Pi said “Why do we cling to our evil ways?” (Martel, 2001, 390) Even creepier, after the evils came out from his heart, Pi not only killed the French cook but also ate him as he described “It tasted delicious, far better than turtle”(Martel, 2001, 391) and “Worse still, he met evil in me-selfishness, anger, ruthlessness. I must live with that”(Martel, 2001: 391). Here it is clear how horrifying evils in man’s heart is. Therefore, with the help of the cultural connotations of tiger, it is easy to find out

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the tigers in the novel Life of Pi represent an overwhelmingly destructive force, the evils and terrific darkness in man’s heart.

5.3.2 The Hyena In the novel Life of Pi, after the Japanese cargo ship Tsimtsum sunk down, on the sole lifeboat, the hyena was a cruel killer who killed the zebra and orangutan successively. Coincidentally, at the end of the novel Life of Pi, the author corresponded the fierce zebra in the first story with the cruel French cook in the second story. Thus, it is necessary to combine the cultural connotations of zebra to find out the profound implications behind that cruel and ugly zebra in the novel Life of Pi.

5.3.2.1 Cultural Connotations of Hyena In general, no matter in folklore, myths or in literature works, there are hints of hyenas among which many cultural connotations of hyena are negative. First of all, according to Western African myths, spotted hyenas represent immorality, violation of standards, wicked habits and treacherous behaviors. Thus, Western Africans usually compare evil Muslims as spotted hyenas. Besides, in Tanzania, it is believed that “spotted hyenas are used as the mounts of witches and the child who was born at night when a hyena was crying would be a thief in the future”(Frembgen,1998:333). In addition, “according to a mythical African tribe, some wicked people have the ability to turn into hyenas”(Frembgen,1998:332). Similarly, in Mansoa, the legend says that when discovered, once “werehyenas” are killed, they could not revert to human form. Then, in Middle Eastern legends and folklore, “stripped hyenas also symbolize negative traits such as craftiness, betrayal and silliness” (Mounir R,2006:68). Further more, stripped hyenas are described as “vampiric creatures sucking flood from brave people and the monsters harming their enemies with witchcraft” (Woodward,1979:256). Similarly, in Greece, it is said that in battlefield, like vampiric hyenas, corpses of “werewolves” could also drink blood from dying soldiers.

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In conclusion, with so many notorious cultural implications, the ugly necrophagous hyenas usually give people bad impressions.

5.3.2.2 The Hyena in the Novel Life of Pi In the novel Life of Pi, the disgusting and wicked traits of the hyena profoundly portrayed in the first story are in accord with those of the French cook in the second story. The specific analysis is as follows: First of all, both the hyena and the French cook are also very disgusting. The protagonist Pi is not one to hold a prejudice against any animal, however, as most people, he still feels sick of the hyena’s appearance and holds “It is ugly beyond redemption”(Martel, 2001: 145). Thus, traditionally, just from appearance, the hyena belongs to a kind of disgusting animals. Besides, the hyenas is a glutton; it has never been particular about food and it even eats carrion or “snacks on the excrement of herbivores with clucks of pleasure”( Martel, 2001:147). Similarly, the French cook is also a disgusting man having many wicked habits and “His mouth had the discrimination of a garbage heap”(Martel, 2001: 382), because he even caught flies to eat and cut rats up and dried it in the sun for food. Thus, just as Western African folklore describes, the hyena represents violation of standards and has wicked behaviors. As the epitome of the hyena, so does the French cook. Secondly, both the hyena and the French cook are cruel, immoral and evil. In the first story, the hyena pulled out coils of intestines and other viscera from the alive zebra, so the zebra was eaten alive from the inside. Then, the hyena attacked the orangutan; it “let go of her wrist and expertly got to her throat”(Martel, 2001:164), then, the orangutan was beheaded. Similarly, in the second story, like the hyena killed the zebra alive, the French cook murdered the handsome young sailor and promptly butchered him; he even dried strips of flesh and pieces of organs from the sailor. Later, as the hyena attacked the orangutan, when the French cook quarreled with Pi’s mother, he stabbed her and cut off her head. Therefore, like the hyena, the French cook is evil and immoral in the Western African myths. Thirdly, just as the Middle Eastern legends describe, the hyena is sly, sinister and

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treacherous; so is the French cook. In the first story, as Pi narrated that in order to catch the young animals, the hyena distracted them from their mother, thus, even they could eat young rhinoceros and young lions while in the second story, ill-tempered and hypocritical, the French cook was a brute because he stole food and water when he cheated Pi and his mother into scanning the horizon for an island. Thus, like the cunning and deceitful hyena in the Middle Eastern legends, the French cook is a immorally bald-faced thief. In a word, in the novel Life of Pi, the hyena is just a cultural symbol, under the mantle of which there exist plenty of cultural implications. Thus, by combining the cultural connotations of the hyena with the treacherous French cook, it is obvious to find out that the hyena in the first story actually is the French cook in the second story. In conclusion, according to Roland Barthes’ semiotics on culture, the social cultural phenomena are a series of mythical signs and the task of cultural semiotics centers on the significance of ideology under the signs. By finding out the cultural significance hidden in the symbols including colors, the image of water, drift and lifeboat as well as the typical animals, this chapter interprets the novel Life of Pi profoundly once again.

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Conclusion

Major Findings Based on the cultural semiotics, this thesis makes a study of the cultural elements in the novel Life of Pi such as different religious cultures, religious conflicts and fusion, colors, the names of characters, Biblical allusions. The major findings of this study are as follows: First of all, by analyzing the different religious cultural phenomena in the novel Life of Pi, it is obvious to find that although there are a lot of differences among different religions, by mutual contacts and communication, religious conflicts can be avoided and different religious cultures can exist harmoniously in the world. At the same time, with more and more chances to communicate with each other, different religions can learn from each other, which can not only reduce the wars caused by religious conflicts but also contribute to the cultural prosperity and world peace. Secondly, on the basis of probing into the rich cultural connotations contained in the names of the characters in the novel Life of Pi from the perspective of cultural semiotics, it is clear to find that the names of the characters not only have the mighty to change or predict characters’ fates but also promote and foresee the development of the novel’s plots. For example, Piscine Moliter derives from the name of a famous French swimming pool, thus, he is doomed to be caught in the vast waters-Pacific Ocean; the famous namesakes of Richard Parker in history are the tragic victims of shipwrecks, therefore, the tiger’s name Richard Parker signifies that it could not get rid of the fate to meet with the shipwreck. Thirdly, in terms of cultural semiotics, it is clear to find out that the reasons why the colors ‘orange’ and ‘green’ appear again and again in the novel Life of Pi are closely related to one of the novel’s themes-hope. At the same time, the cultural connotations contained in the tiger and the hyena explain the reasons why in the novel Life of Pi, the tiger Richard Parker and the hyena in the first story respectively correspond with the protagonist Pi Patel and the cruel French cook in the second story.

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In addition, another important finding is that the image of the Pi Patel drifting with an adult Bengal tiger on Pacific Ocean derives from the Biblical archetype of Noah’s Ark, which also contributes to interpreting the novel Life of Pi from a new aspect.

Implications of the Study The two important implications of the study on the novel Life of Pi are as follows: First of all, as there are many cultural elements appearing in the novel Life of Pi, the present study can help to interpret the novel profoundly from the perspective of cultural semiotics. Secondly, with the development of globalization, the present study can provide more and more chances for different cultures to contact and communicate with each other, which can accelerate the multicultural communication and reduce cultural conflicts.

Limitations of the Study As for the present study on the novel Life of Pi, there also exist some limitations except for its major findings and implications. First of all, there are a large number of cultural elements in the novel Life of Pi, however, only some important objects and examples are analyzed in detail in the present study. Some other cultural elements that are also worthy of being analyzed are not listed in this thesis. Secondly, limited by my cultural knowledge storage, there exist some limitations in the analysis of the listed cultural elements in this thesis.

Suggestions for the Further Study There are some suggestions for the further study on the novel Life of Pi. First, in the novel Life of Pi, there still remain some other important cultural elements to be further studied in detail. Secondly, according to cultural semiotics, it is essential to interpret the cultural

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elements in the novel Life of Pi by applying cultural traditions, religions and local customs in different regions. Thirdly, it is also necessary to combine analyzing the cultural elements in the novel Life of Pi with interpreting the novel’s theme, accelerating multicultural communication and reducing the cultural conflicts.

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Acknowledgements

At the end of this thesis, I want to express my thanks to all the people who have given me encouragement and support. First of all, I ought to thank Professor Hui Min for her initial spark, encouragement and valuable suggestions in writing this thesis. Thanks to her academic guidance, I can collect academic materials to make enough preparations for thesis writing and overcome many difficulties in the process of thesis writing. Bedsides her profound knowledge, her serious and genuine academic attitude also leaves me an impressive impression. What’s more, I should also express my sincere thanks to Associate Professor Liu Zhen for his academic suggestions and inspiration. At the same time,during my postgraduate study all the other teachers of me not only provided me with academic inspiration and academic research ways but also help me to develop serious academic habits and attitude. Last but not least, I am very grateful to my dear parents and friends who have offered me love, care, encouragement and support during those hard days when I wrote this thesis.

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发表学术论文

[1] 从文化符号学视角解读小说《少年派的奇幻漂流》，《大众文艺》，独立， 2014 （18）. [2] 自然主义对西奥多.德莱赛《嘉莉妹妹》中女主人公命运的影响，《安徽文学》， 独立，2014（9）. [3] 《少年派的奇幻漂流》：小说与电影的对比，《齐齐哈尔师范高等专科学校学 报》，独立，2014（4）.

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