What is truth? How visible must be the line between facts and one’s mind’s interference? Does it matter at all? Whatever synopsis of Yann Martel’s novel Life of Pi claims on the back of the book, the story it contains does not focus on God, but rather on the author’s theory about irrelevance of reality, if someone comes up with a more interesting story. In a nutshell, everything is just a story, as simple as that. And if it is a well-crafted one, then it should be more preferable than reality. That is why Martel leaves us not believing in any kind of gods, but for substitution suggests that people should embrace religion or any fiction just because those are so colorful and enriching, regardless of their relation to scientific knowledge. Who would want to listen to “dry, yeastless factuality”, if it does not fit in to cozy chat in front of a fire-place (Martel 302)? Well, I would, as anybody reasonable and mature enough to deal with life as it is and not hiding under warm, fuzzy blanket of pathetic lies. Truth is truth, and it does matter.
The author’s lack of understanding such a simple fact is the reason of both his ignorance and my frustration. What he thought was a clever twist, was in fact a push for me to groan and throw his book at the wall, because it turned out, that I invested my spare time into reading 292 pages of something Pi actually made up for the sake of sanity. Did not I gain anything from his hallucinations? Absolutely: I was almost crying at Richard Parker’s desperate struggle to survive and his conciliation with this young boy, as blind and starving as himself. But when Martel takes away the Bengal tiger, what am I left with? A little liar, who is definitely not as appealing as any mentioned animal, including ...
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...ly interrupts: “Oh, yeah, by the way, everything was fake. Hyena is the cook, orangutan is Pi’s mother, zebra is Happy Buddhist and Richard Parker is Pi himself. So, which story do you like more?” Should we stick to magical tale, even if it is one giant lie? Should we go with more boring and plain story, which actually follows rules of reality? Finishing on a such cowardly note, Martel does not notice that his Pi is more immobile than any agnostic, as we are stuck not knowing anything about the end and wondering about the overall purpose of the novel. At least, agnostics acknowledge not having all answers and leave their minds opened for anything presented to them. That is far more honest than being lazy and saying that we should look for “the better story”, since there is no difference anyway. Because there is: it does not make a good story out of Martel’s own one.
Faith is defined by acquiring substantial confidence in something that cannot be explained using definite material proof. Although faith is often mentioned when speaking of religion, one can have faith in anything. In Yann Martel’s Life of Pi and John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany, both authors acknowledge the importance of faith in family, friends, and oneself; however, the main focus of faith in both novels is centered on religion. Both novels emphasize that a strong faith is fundamental in overcoming both emotional and physical obstacles. In the novels Life of Pi and A Prayer for Owen Meany, this is expressed through symbolism, characterization, and plot.
With the lifeboat symbolising faith and Richard Parker as Pi’s primal instinct, Martel depicts Pi’s prolonged fight for survival as assuming the behaviour of a tiger allows him to endure the voyage. By foreshadowing Pi’s tense relationship with a tiger and the tragic sinking of the ship, the audience speculates that Pi will persevere, despite his unfortunate circumstances. Lastly, the recurring motif of food, water and territory requires both castaways to respect and depend on each other for their survival. Through the literary techniques of symbolism, foreshadowing and motifs, Martel enables the audience to explore the central theme of survival as they too experience being a castaway in the Pacific Ocean through Pi’s life
In the book the Life of Pi by Yann Martel, religion plays an important role in Pi’s life. When on the lifeboat, Pi used his faith as a way to motivate himself to live. Without his religious beliefs, there is no way to guarantee he would have made it off the lifeboat.
Religion is and always has been a sensitive topic. Some choose to acknowledge that there is a God and some choose to deny this fact to the death. For those who deny the presence of a higher being, “Life of Pi” will most likely change your thought process concerning this issue. Yann Martel’s, “Life of Pi”, is a compelling story that shows the importance of obtaining religion and faith. Piscine (Pi) Patel is both the protagonist and the narrator of Martell’s religious eye-opener who undergoes a chain effect of unbelievable catastrophes. Each of these catastrophic events leaving him religiously stronger because he knows that in order to endure what he has endured, there has got to be a God somewhere.
Having just experienced the sinking of his family’s ship, and being put onto a life boat with only a hyena, Pi felt completely lost and alone. When he sees Richard Parker, the Bengal tiger from his family’s zoo, it is a familiar face to him. His initial reaction is to save the life of his familiar friend so that he may have a companion, and a protector aboard the lifeboat. Suddenly Pi realizes just what he is doing. He is saving the life of Richard Parker, by welcoming him, a 450 pound Bengal tiger, onto the small lifeboat. He experiences a change of heart when helping the tiger onto the boat. Pi realizes that he is now posing a threat on his own life. With Richard Parker on the boat, Pi is faced with not only the fight to survive stranded in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, but the fight to survive living with a meat eating tiger. The change of heart that Pi experiences might possibly mean that he is an impulsive thinker. It may mean that he often does something on impulse without thinking it through, and then later regrets his actions.
The son of a zookeeper, Pi Patel has an encyclopedic knowledge of animal behavior and a fervent love of stories. When Pi is sixteen, his family emigrates from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship, along with their zoo animals bound for new homes. The ship sinks. Pi finds himself alone in a lifeboat, his only companions a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and Richard Parker, a 450-pound Bengal tiger. Soon the tiger has dispatched all but Pi, whose fear, knowledge, and cunning allow him to coexist with Richard Parker for 227 days while lost at sea. When they finally reach the coast of Mexico, Richard Parker flees to the jungle, never to be seen again. The Japanese authorities that interrogate Pi refuse to believe his story and press him to tell them "the truth." After hours of coercion, Pi tells a second story, a story much less fantastical, much more conventional — but is it more true?
On its surface, Martel’s Life of Pi proceeds as a far-fetched yet not completely unbelievable tale about a young Indian boy named Pi who survives after two hundred twenty-seven days on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. It is an uplifting and entertaining story, with a few themes about companionship and survival sprinkled throughout. The ending, however, reveals a second story – a more realistic and dark account replacing the animals from the beginning with crude human counterparts. Suddenly, Life of Pi becomes more than an inspiring tale and transforms into a point to be made about rationality, faith, and how storytelling correlates the two. The point of the book is not for the reader to decide which story he or she thinks is true, but rather what story he or she thinks is the better story. In real life, this applies in a very similar way to common belief systems and religion. Whether or not God is real or a religion is true is not exactly the point, but rather whether someone chooses to believe so because it adds meaning and fulfillment to his or her life. Life of Pi is relevant to life in its demonstration of storytelling as a means of experiencing life through “the better story.”
The Life of Pi, written by Yann Martel, is the story of a young man, Piscine, or Pi for short, who experiences unbelievable and unrealistic events, which are so unrealistic ambiguity is aroused amongst the reader. Duality reoccurs over the course of the novel through every aspect of Pi’s world view and is particularly seen in the two contradictory stories, which displays the brutal nature of the world. Martel wonderfully crafts and image of duality and skepticism though each story incorporated in this novel.
The protagonist, Pi is initially apprehensive to accept Richard Parker on the raft, but later comes to appreciate the tiger once he realizes this animal’s presence is crucial for his survival on the boat. First, Pi is scared and reluctant to accept his shadow self because it conflicts with his character and complicates his beliefs. This is evident when he says, “Together? We’ll be together? Have I gone mad? I woke up to what I was doing […]. Let go […] Richard Parker […] I don’t want you here […]. Get lost. Drown! Drown!!” (Martel 123). Though Pi recognizes his shadow self by encouraging Richard Parker to come on the boat, he soon realizes that he is about to accept his shadow self. He instantly regrets his decision and throws an oar at him in an effort to stop Richard Parker. His action symbolizes his denial and confusion he feels towards the extent of br...
Martel’s novel is about the journey of a young man being forced to test his limits in order to survive the unthinkable predicament of being lost at sea alongside an adult Bengal tiger. Life of Pi starts out by introducing an anonymous author on a quest to find his next big story and goes to a man by the name of Piscine Molitor Patel who supposedly has a story worth hearing. Patel begins his story talking about his childhood and the main events that shaped him such as his family’s zoo, the constant curiosity in religion he sought as a young boy and also how he got his nickname Pi. Mr. Patel continues explaining how his father contracts a Japanese ship to transport his family, along with a number of their zoo animals, from India to Canada in order to avoid political upheaval. While traveling the ship began sinking and Pi was the only one to manage to make it onto the life boat and survive the wreck. The disaster left Pi along with a fe...
And according to this line from the author’s note: “the elderly man said: ‘I have a story that will make you believe on God.’” (Martel, ix), the book wants the reader to believe in god in some way. In the author’s note, after this line from the elderly man the author questions the process of how the story “make you believe in God”, likely the same question in the reader’s mind. When the reader finishes the book, the reader can also choose which story to believe. The reader picked the animal story, the goal of the book was achieved.
In the bildungsroman novel, Life of Pi, Yann Martel uses the experiences of the protagonist, Pi Patel, to broaden the reader’s awareness about the concept of reality and what is possible. Pi’s reality, for the first sixteen years of his life, is as a vegeterian boy living a comfortable life in Pondicherry, India. His family has money and standing in the community and Pi attends good schools in his neighbourhood. He has the freedom and desire to explore and practice three different religions simutaneously. Yann Martel explains in an interview with Sabine Sielke that when a person is immersed so completely in their reality they do not know there are other ways to experience life until something happens to change their current thinking ( pg. 18). While moving from India to Canada, Pi experiences a dramatic change in his reality, which alters how he thinks about his life, when the Japanese cargo ship, Tsimtsum, sinks and thrusts him into a world where he must leave all his comforts behind and embrace the life that lies before him. Pi learns that reality changes and when it does he must accept the new version and redefine it when neccessary.
The projection of Richard Parker helps Pi to be aware of this current situation, which was him being stranded in the ocean on a lifeboat in comparison to his beliefs in his religions. His fear towards Richard Parker was one of the reasons of his survival. Pi says, “Fear and reason fought over answer. Fear said yes. He was a fierce, 450-pound carnivore. Each of his claws was sharp as a knife” (Martel 108). Pi describes Richard Parker as an extremely dangerous, fearful, and vicious predator. This causes Pi keep aware because he is on a boat with a deadly carnivore. He tries to keep awake at night while being on the lifeboat with Richard Parker from the fear of being attacked and eaten by the Bengal tiger. However, since Richard Parker is Pi’s id, it was actually him keeping himself aware and alive. Pi states, “If I still had the will to live, it was thanks to Richard Parker. He kept me from thinking too much about my family and my tragic circumstances” (Martel 164). This shows how Richard Parker occupies Pi’s mind and influences his thoughts about the tragic incident that has happened. The will to live for Pi is no longer his family, but Richard Parker, his id. Richard Parker taught Pi how to survive based on his instincts an...
Right before the men depart, Pi asks them this question, “In both stories the ship sinks, my entire family dies, and I suffer… Which is a better story?” (Page 398). He points out that there is no factual difference either way, so it makes the most sense to tell the more compelling tale. It is more intriguing for listeners, and easier for Pi to cope with having to talk about the situation. Immediately, after he makes this point, when told the men will be watching out for Richard Parker, the tiger, Pi explains, “He’s hiding somewhere you’ll never find him.” (Page 399). Richard Parker symbolizes Pi when he is on the lifeboat; The part of him he doesn’t want to admit is there and wants to forget. By using illusion to tell his story he is able to reference that the part of him he thinks of as the tiger is now gone for good. Proven by this, Pi relies deeply on illusion to portray his inner feelings instead of telling them as they
The Life of Pi by Yann Martel was a fascinating and exciting narrative that described the journey of a young boys life starting with the formation of his beliefs moving all the way through an adventure that changed his life forever. I found it extremely engaging on both a philosophical level and a psychological level as I saw Pi, a young boy, curious about life, discover both religion and go through an extremely traumatic experience. I found Pi's devotion to God to be an uplifting example that many people throughout the world should see. Although I do believe that Pi was confused about how to best love God, I admire his efforts and believe that his dedication is sincere. I also found the psychological aspect of Pi to be almost as fascinating as religion. I could see from the beginning that Pi was quite thoughtful and always tried to think before he acted. However, what I found even more fascinating than his pre-planning cognitive abilities was how he thought when he was under great stress. Perhaps the best example of how he coped with stress was towards the end of the book when he tells what may be the true story, and we can see that he may have represented everyone as an animal in order to deal with the situation. This provides valuable insight into Pi's mind and opens a whole new area of possibilities when considering how Pi thinks. This ending leaves how Pi thinks open to interpreting which adds a intriguing aspect to the book. Beyond the religious and theoretical aspects of the book, the adventure seen kept me on the edge of my seat until the very end. Every time it seemed Pi was about to die or give up hope, an astounding miracle would suddenly save him. I found the effect of these suspenseful moments to cause me to want to...