Well, a good place to start would be in Chapter 46, which
is when the hyena savages the poor defenceless zebra. The description of the violence is
very graphic and rather disturbing as the hyena disembowels the zebra and mortally
wounds it. Consider the following description:
The zebra's attempts at self-preservation only
whipped the hyenea in to a frenzy of snarling and biting. It made a gaping wound in the
zebra's side. When it was no longer satisfied with the reach it had behind the zebra,
the heyna climbed onto its haunches. It started pulling out coils of intestines and
other viscera. There was no order to what it was doing. It bit here, swallowed there,
seemingly overwhelmed by the riches before
it.
Rather brutal stuff, but
what this does is to highlight the plight that Pi finds himself in. Whether you believe
that this is an allegory and Pi is actually talking about humans or not, this
description serves to highlight the desperate straits in which Pi finds himself and the
way that both humans and animals can react with a kind of violent madness to being
trapped on a lifeboat with no room to move and others around.
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