The Brilliance of Life of Pi, by Yann Martel

The brilliance of Life of Pi is that it can be translated in completely opposing ways. While some people may read it & find it genuinely religious, almost like watching Pi have a religious epiphany, another may read Pi’s story and think of it as a more realistic type of story. Nevertheless, there is a universal idea that the story repeats to all readers and that is to think & use logistics. Through Pi, the author wants to show how ultimately rewarding it can be to have a little bit of brain power when in any situation.

The novel Life of Pi, written by Yann Martel, portrays how reason helps the main character, Pi, survive in the worst of struggles. Pi is the only survivor of a shipwreck, and he stays with a Bengal tiger, Richard Parker in a lifeboat for 227 days. Reason is the power of the mind to think, understand, and to form practical, logical ideas, & Pi’s reasoning plays a large part, in comparison to his faith, in his ability to survive. Pi’s limitations are discovered by reason, when he starts eating meat. He only goes so far with his religious tendencies and faith, until reason comes to the rescue. Pi also seems to use reasonable thinking when in a tough situation, to make it better for both him and Richard Parker. Reasonable thinking comes into play when he decided to think like an animal, with the struggle for superiority and the right to be called the alpha male That’s how he really tamed the beast that was Richard Parker. These three main points directly explain why reason plays a life or death role in this book.

When Pi is in this predicament, the first couple of days on the boat with Richard Parker are terrible by his description. “Could Richard Parker burst through the tarpaulin? Fear & reason fought over the an...

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...inding a fatal flaw in the so-called paradise. Reasoning brought him to the conclusion that he would “prefer to set off in and perish in search of my own kind then to live a lonely half life of physical comfort and spiritual death” (Martel 313)

In a nutshell, reason is very important to help Pi survive. The reality of reason helps people to think rationally whenever they are in trouble. Besides that, Pi’s limitation is discovered and revealed with the help of reason. Pi is willing to do anything that can help him to survive, including those things that he was unable to do in the past. Apart from that, reason also helps Pi make some correct judgments and decisions that allow him to survive. In the process of surviving, reason plays a more important role compared to belief.

Works Cited

Martel, Yann. Life of Pi: A Novel. New York: Harcourt, 2001. Print.