Comparing Yang Martel's 'Life Of Pi And Big Fish'

The Life of Pi, an award-winning novel by Yann Martel, tells the story of Pi Patel, a young boy stranded at sea with an adult Bengal tiger. Marooned on a tiny lifeboat adrift in the Pacific Ocean, Pi finds himself struggling to survive. Faced with imminent suffering and death brought on by hunger, thirst, and an unending battle with the elements, Pi must make a decision between upholding his and society’s strict set of morals and values, or letting his survival instincts take over. Through compelling language and imagery, Martel gives Pi’s conflict between morals, fear, and survival a sense of excitement, suspense, and climax.

Are fiction stories always based on imagination? Or does it come from someone’s reality? Have you ever asked yourself why people read fiction stories? Either told through movies or books, fiction stories are ways people find to escape from their reality. However, most of the fiction stories come from people’s life, or are based in a real fact in order to be credible. In some ways, the truth must be distorted to be understandable, because sometimes it can be too complex to be explained. Both Reading Lolita in Tehran, by Azar Nafisi, and How To Tell a True Story, by Tim O’Brien, attempt to discover the truth even if it was exemplified by fiction,

1. What are fictional stories? 2. Many people will say fictional stories are stories that are not true. 3. Yes, that is correct, but there are many more parts to fiction. 4. Per Kirszner and Mandell, “A work of fiction is a narrative that originates in the imagination of the author rather than in history or fact” (62) 5. Some examples of fiction are poems, epics, and novels. 6. Not all fiction is one hundred percent false, “some fiction focuses on real people and is grounded in actual events, but the way the characters interact, what they say, and how the plot unfolds are largely the author’s invention” (Kirszner and Mandell 62) 7. The plot, the setting, and the point of view of a fictional story are only three

What happens when an Individual seeks union with divinity Where the protagonist Piscine Molitor Patel “Pi” is visited by the most extraordinary dreams, trances, visions, thoughts, sensations, and remembrances. In this 2012 American survival drama film Life Of Pi written by David Magee and directed by Ang Lee, Pi is

Tim O’ Brien decided to write the novel as fiction because he wanted the reader to ask a plethora of questions and because the genre accurately exudes the emotions behind the story. Fiction also allows the writer to make the story whatever he wants. “Story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth,” (Tim O’Brien) is a paradox that was used in the “Good Form,” chapter. This statement was also backed up in O’Brien’s interview in which he states that, “Fiction is for getting at the truth when the truth isn’t sufficient for the truth” (Tim O’Brien). He also explains that the stories in the book that are not true are true in a sense, in the sense that the emotions in the book are factual and not in the same conditions. Another example is when he stated in

In the books A Million Little Pieces by James Frey, and The Things They Carried by Tim O’ Brien the authors use a mixture of truth and fiction in their storytelling. James’s book (which was labeled as a memoir) did not end up being as well liked as Tim’s (which was labeled as fiction) because of the mix. However, Tim’s turned out to be very successful, because unlike James he invented events that could’ve happened and that make you feel what It was like to be in the war. He explains this when the books says “I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth” (O’Brien 171). A Million Little Pieces on the other hand was based on what happened with the author’s drug addiction, but had very

After reading the Harry Potter series, U spent weeks anticipating a letter from a magical school that would reveal that I was in fact a wizard and was invited to attend their classes to learn magic. People tend to enjoy reading fiction so they can live vicariously through the characters in the story. Fiction, despite being “made-up”, often have close similarities to the real world. By taking a closer look at “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury and “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe, one can infer that fiction reveal a significant amount of truths about human nature.

There are facts but there are also lies that hold truth. In history, there are facts we are certain of. But, in history, we do not learn about the human experience, there are gaps missing that only literature can fill. In literature, sometimes things are not real but there is truth behind the words. In works of literature such as Of Mice and Men, Things They Carried, Night, and Fences, events in those stories, or play may not have really happen but they tell a story and there is truth behind the story. The truth is in the way people were treated, in the way people thought and felt, in the way that people 100 years ago are just like people today.The stories told help us see the truth in history because it allows us to connect with it, with the people that are part of the history

Life standed on the sea is very grueling and risky. Only a few are able to face the

When considering the novels Lord of the Flies by William Golding and Life of Pi by Yann Martel, the reader notices that they do not appear to be similar despite both being stories of becoming stranded and rescued. However, both books contain elements of religion that dramatically change the way each novel affects the reader. The reason that the characters in Lord of the Flies regress into evil behaviors and the main character in Life of Pi does not is due to a difference in devotion to religion.

“Life of Pi” by Yann Martel, and “The Tyger” by William Blake can be seen as comparable from numerous viewpoints.

Lord of the Flies and Life of Pi are two epic adventures with a bountiful amount of similarities and differences. William Golding writes Lord of the Flies in 1954, and Life of Pi is written by Yann Martel in 2001. Golding’s write is set up with boys who are stranded on a island and are left to take care of themselves with no one to answer to. They face many hardships and are left to make their own decisions. Yann Martel sets up his story with the main character Pi who faces his hardships after he is left stranded after a accident on the waters. Both of these two works accentuate the question of what happens to people when there is no one to answer to, and they must make decisions on their own. The two works reveal how the human condition is within

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

When writing, authors need to think of their audience and involve an element of surprise. Authors use plot twists in their writing to help them accomplish surprising the audience, allowing them to keep their audience’s interest. Not only do plot twists help keep the audience’s attention, they also make the audience question their beliefs about what they think of the story. Authors can use this tool to advance their themes. Yann Martel uses a crazy plot twist in his book, the Life of Pi, to suggest to readers that truth is relative.

In order for human kind to survive the painfully realistic days of existence, a sort of belief system is direly needed. As shown through Pi Patel from Life of Pi and Chuck Noland from Cast Away, holding onto a belief of something provides one with the determination to survive the worst conditions. Both the novel and the book share the story of two castaways who depend on their belief in something to survive and conquer their respective challenges – Pi Patel who depends on his faith in religion, and Chuck Noland with his faith in returning to civilization back to his loved one. At one point, they both lose this faith that keeps them