An essay response to the novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Throughout the duration of the novel Life of Pi, Pi Patel--a young Indian boy who has a very strong faith--tells his life story through two different, yet parallel, stories due to the human nature of covering up his natural flaws. In the first story told through animals, Pi's character is portrayed through himself, and a beautiful Bengal tiger at the same time. While in contrast, in the second story displayed through humans, Pi is actually himself. Piscine made up these stories to make his life seem better than it actually is, to cover up his mistakes, and to make it seem like he is still the innocent, pure boy he said he was. This young Indian boy believes that it is okay to make up a story, describing his life's journey, to cover up his horrible time on the Pacific Ocean. Life is a story. In your head it's a fantasy, but in reality, it's much more complex and challenging; Pi first tells the story in his head.
While experiencing his adventurous life on the Pacific, Pi discusses with himself, because everyone else has left him one way or another, about everything that has happened on his journey. In one section during the first story, Richard Parker and Pi, in way both Pi just talking to himself(a little hard to understand, consider revision), talk about a terrible, sad thing: murder. Richard Parker, Pi's alter ego, admitted that in fact, he has killed two men in his life. If Richard Parker displays Pi's worse side, then Pi himself has killed two men--an act that obviously goes against his beliefs. "That's what fiction is about, isn't it, the selective transforming of reality." (p.VIII) Since he has gone so far in the opposite direction of religion and living by the 10 Commandments, Pi thinks that the only way to make it seem like he is still the innocent, religious boy he was, is to make up another story, covering his faults.
During the first story of Pi's life, there were animals, along with Pi, aboard the life boat; unfortunately, it soon became just Pi by himself. Right after the ship sank, Pi was thrown onto a lifeboat with an injured zebra, a raging hyena, and his alter ego, the Bengal tiger, Richard Parker. Soon after the group had experienced the torture on the ocean, the zebra was nearly dead, so the hyena took it into his own hands to take the suffering animal out of its misery. In the wild, animals survive on their own kind; humans see killing other humans as revolting, but in an essence, this is what has just happened. After the death of the zebra, Richard Parker was hungry, so he decided to kill the hyena. Soon it became Pi along with his other half, Richard Parker. Throughout the second story, it was Pi, his mother, and the ship's cook who were put onto the life boat, fending for themselves. In this case, Pi's mother had the injured leg, and the cook took it into his hands to take her leg, when it really wasn't necessary for it to be amputated. Pi had just experienced part of his mother dying; he didn't know he'd soon see all of his mother die. After some long, grueling days, the cook killed his mother and used her flesh for bait. The young boy was so revolted at this terrible crime, that he ended up killing the cook, leaving himself to find food. "I will confess that I caught one of his arms with the gaff and used his flesh as bait. I will further confess that, driven by the extremity of my need and the madness to which it pushed me, I ate some of his flesh. I mean small pieces, little strips that I meant for the gaff's hook that, when dried by the sun, looked like ordinary animal flesh." (p.256) Pi used to be a pure vegetarian, but he has become another person, a cannibal. While becoming this horrible person, he made up his second story--this story has animals killing each other instead of humans because it seems less horrible to have animals committing such acts.
After seeing these terrible things, Pi has become aware of the sins he's committed, his ignorance toward them, and longs to hide what has been done. While living in India, in a modest family home, Pi was a strict vegetarian; living on the Pacific ocean has created something out of him of which he had never envisioned--a person who eats animal's and their meat. "Lord, to think that I'm a strict vegetarian. To think that when I was a child I always shuddered when I snapped open a banana because it sounded to me like the breaking of an animal's neck. I descended to a level of savagery I never imagined possible." (p.197) His unique journey has showed how much surviving without natural resources, that we take for granted, can impact our beliefs as well as our character. Throughout Pi's first story of life, he has killed animals left and right. He somehow crafts a completely different story to plaster over all that he is ashamed of; Pi's reputation is of great importance to him. To cover up his flaws, Pi displays the cook as a bad person and describes him killing Pi's poor mother. Although Pi is still eating animals, he feels as if it isn't as bad when someone else was pushed so far as to do the same. In our lives as humans, everyone makes mistakes, it's just natural. We sometimes even lie about what we did to protect ourselves from the consequences that may come along with our actions; Pi is doing the same, harmless thing. Pi still wants to be the good, perfect little boy, but he realizes that it is very hard to contain that image while living a life as a salvage; he finds no wrong in making a story to cover up his sins because it protects who he is and his reputation as a modest Indian boy.
While Pi is used to living a modest life, living on the ocean has taught him many important things, and has forced him to make difficult decisions that could affect who he is. Even though he's made these decisions, he continues to cover them up so no one will ever know what he did to stay alive, and to protect the reputation he has with his family. Pi's reputation and who he as a person is very important to him, and it's the only way he will be happy. Due to the human nature of covering up flaws, Pi Patel tells his life story through two different stories, to make his life seem like it isn't as horrible as his real life.
While experiencing his adventurous life on the Pacific, Pi discusses with himself, because everyone else has left him one way or another, about everything that has happened on his journey. In one section during the first story, Richard Parker and Pi, in way both Pi just talking to himself(a little hard to understand, consider revision), talk about a terrible, sad thing: murder. Richard Parker, Pi's alter ego, admitted that in fact, he has killed two men in his life. If Richard Parker displays Pi's worse side, then Pi himself has killed two men--an act that obviously goes against his beliefs. "That's what fiction is about, isn't it, the selective transforming of reality." (p.VIII) Since he has gone so far in the opposite direction of religion and living by the 10 Commandments, Pi thinks that the only way to make it seem like he is still the innocent, religious boy he was, is to make up another story, covering his faults.
During the first story of Pi's life, there were animals, along with Pi, aboard the life boat; unfortunately, it soon became just Pi by himself. Right after the ship sank, Pi was thrown onto a lifeboat with an injured zebra, a raging hyena, and his alter ego, the Bengal tiger, Richard Parker. Soon after the group had experienced the torture on the ocean, the zebra was nearly dead, so the hyena took it into his own hands to take the suffering animal out of its misery. In the wild, animals survive on their own kind; humans see killing other humans as revolting, but in an essence, this is what has just happened. After the death of the zebra, Richard Parker was hungry, so he decided to kill the hyena. Soon it became Pi along with his other half, Richard Parker. Throughout the second story, it was Pi, his mother, and the ship's cook who were put onto the life boat, fending for themselves. In this case, Pi's mother had the injured leg, and the cook took it into his hands to take her leg, when it really wasn't necessary for it to be amputated. Pi had just experienced part of his mother dying; he didn't know he'd soon see all of his mother die. After some long, grueling days, the cook killed his mother and used her flesh for bait. The young boy was so revolted at this terrible crime, that he ended up killing the cook, leaving himself to find food. "I will confess that I caught one of his arms with the gaff and used his flesh as bait. I will further confess that, driven by the extremity of my need and the madness to which it pushed me, I ate some of his flesh. I mean small pieces, little strips that I meant for the gaff's hook that, when dried by the sun, looked like ordinary animal flesh." (p.256) Pi used to be a pure vegetarian, but he has become another person, a cannibal. While becoming this horrible person, he made up his second story--this story has animals killing each other instead of humans because it seems less horrible to have animals committing such acts.
After seeing these terrible things, Pi has become aware of the sins he's committed, his ignorance toward them, and longs to hide what has been done. While living in India, in a modest family home, Pi was a strict vegetarian; living on the Pacific ocean has created something out of him of which he had never envisioned--a person who eats animal's and their meat. "Lord, to think that I'm a strict vegetarian. To think that when I was a child I always shuddered when I snapped open a banana because it sounded to me like the breaking of an animal's neck. I descended to a level of savagery I never imagined possible." (p.197) His unique journey has showed how much surviving without natural resources, that we take for granted, can impact our beliefs as well as our character. Throughout Pi's first story of life, he has killed animals left and right. He somehow crafts a completely different story to plaster over all that he is ashamed of; Pi's reputation is of great importance to him. To cover up his flaws, Pi displays the cook as a bad person and describes him killing Pi's poor mother. Although Pi is still eating animals, he feels as if it isn't as bad when someone else was pushed so far as to do the same. In our lives as humans, everyone makes mistakes, it's just natural. We sometimes even lie about what we did to protect ourselves from the consequences that may come along with our actions; Pi is doing the same, harmless thing. Pi still wants to be the good, perfect little boy, but he realizes that it is very hard to contain that image while living a life as a salvage; he finds no wrong in making a story to cover up his sins because it protects who he is and his reputation as a modest Indian boy.
While Pi is used to living a modest life, living on the ocean has taught him many important things, and has forced him to make difficult decisions that could affect who he is. Even though he's made these decisions, he continues to cover them up so no one will ever know what he did to stay alive, and to protect the reputation he has with his family. Pi's reputation and who he as a person is very important to him, and it's the only way he will be happy. Due to the human nature of covering up flaws, Pi Patel tells his life story through two different stories, to make his life seem like it isn't as horrible as his real life.
