Pi And The Ark?

I personally feel that Yann Martel’s intent was to establish a theme around mental boundaries. The two different forms of Pi’s story when he was stuck out in the middle of the ocean differ drastically. In one story there is the plot where Pi is stuck on a lifeboat with wild animals, and then in another story the boat is full of real people. The assumption is that Pi only substituted all the people with animals to create a more fictional version of the harsh reality that his family either died or was killed on that lifeboat. Keep this is mind when you consider the plot especially in parts two and three of the novel.

Most people don’t have to suffer trauma in a lifeboat all by themselves. Further, most people don’t have to retell their story years after with accuracy. That is exactly what Pi has to do in Yann Martel’s novel Life of Pi. There are many challenges that Pi goes through that Pi goes through that could make him an unreliable narrator including a lack of written records, trauma, loneliness, and the effects dehydration and malnutrition has in a person. Furthermore, by considering Pi’s unreliability the reader comes to understand that the truth of his story remains irrefutable and therefore the truth is more important than the facts. Pi could be assumed by the reader to be an unreliable narrator through a lack of written record of his experiences from the past, his trauma and loneliness at sea, and the mental effects of dehydration, malnutrition and hallucinations.

Once Pi has finished telling both of his stories, he asks which one the men prefer to believe, since neither of them make a difference (317). They both reply that the story with the animals makes for a much more interesting story (317) and then reference that story in their official report (319). Each person decides what they believe and that decides what becomes truth to them. To every individual what is true can be completely different based on their thoughts and

Pi’s life before the boat crashing was full of hope and wonder. His presence was ethereal, making a purpose out of everything around him. His family ran a zoo, which gave him a tight-knit relationship with animals. Pi loved to try new things. He met new people which led to his exploration

In Yann Martel’s novel Life of Pi, he wants the reader to decipher whether his first story or his second story is real. The first story consists of the protagonist, Piscine Patel, being trapped on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger, Richard Parker, and many other animals from his father’s zoo after they were lost together at sea. In the second story, Piscine re-tells a different story with a chef, his mother, and a sailor, this was to give the Japanese investigators “a story that wont surprise them (you)” (Martel 302). Martel clearly wishes the reader to understand why “Pi” might

To begin with, storytelling is used to enhance both tell tales and make them more palatable to the audience. It is used as a coping mechanism for the characters in the novels, which gives them perspective of their struggles. In Life of Pi, the animals are replaced by human beings in the form of an orangutan, zebra, and hyena; each individually representing Pi Patel’s

Pis motivations to help the man figure out what happened to the boat, causes him to tell the story of what he went though this time with people instead of animals. Pi spins the tale of the cook, the sailor, his mother and Himself, how they were left in the lifeboat and their interaction between them, until Pi is the only one left alive. These two stories are left to the reader to decide for himself which tale they prefer. Yann Martel shows that although Pi believes, in his heart, that the story with Richard Parker is what really happened, but wants to know what happened to the boat and why his family died, was willing to tell a tale that completely disregarded the story of Richard Parker. This shows the dedication Pi has to his

He starts out with a zebra, hyena, an orangutan, and a tiger, but the animals slowly diminish leaving only Pi and Richard Parker. Pi works to tame and care for Richard Parker, and the two survive for two hundred twenty-seven days. Pi encounters a fellow French castaway who is eaten by Richard Parker (Martel 311-320). Pi also comes across a man-eating island (Martel 322-358). The events that take place are fairly far-fetched, and the probability of all of them occurring to the same person in the period of time given is even less believable. The second story, on the other hand, is a perhaps more believable retelling of the original story. Pi relates the second tale upon the request of his interviewers for “‘a story without animals’” (Martel 381). In this story the animals are replaced with human representatives including an injured Chinese sailor, a French cook, Pi’s mother, and Pi himself. The second story, like the first, begins with many passengers on the boat, but in the end it leaves only Pi to survive by himself after brutally murdering and eating the cook who killed both the sailor and Pi’s own mother (Martel 381-391). Unlike Pi’s first story, this account is dark, desperate, and harshly realistic, without any sense of hope to counter it all. After relating both of these stories to his interviewers, Pi asks them which story they think is better (Martel 398). Although the

I believe the author presented Pi Patel’s story in these two different versions not only because of his background and knowledge of animals, but also because of his love of multiple religions and beliefs. While both stories are told in completely different ways, they both contain important components that in the

When Pi witnessed his family die as well as the Frenchman losing all sense of humanity, he cannot bare to narrate the events. That is why he devises an imaginative story about animals killing each other, because it is natural in them and less heart-breaking.

In Life of Pi, is from two people's perspective if you count the author's note before the actual chapters start. The first man is the person who 'wrote' about Pi's story and made it into a book. This isn't the actual author of Life of Pi, this is the fictional author in the story who writes Pi's story. This author tells us this story that he has written isn't going to be about him but about a boy named Piscine Patel. The author tells the story as if Piscine was telling the story himself, and every so often, the author

This passage is an excerpt from Mr. Okamoto's official report and is the last paragraph of the book. Yann Martel concludes his entire message of the book in these few sentences. Pi has recounted two versions of what occurred after the ship sank. Although Mr Okamoto believes the second story (without animals), he and Mr. Chiba concede that the story with the animals is the better story.

Pi tells the second story because the chinese investigators need a story that people will believe. He knows that the human story is much more believable. It is simply not plausible for a tiger and a human to survive for that long on a boat together. The best story isn't always the one that we believe no matter how much we want it to be true it just would not be logical.

The Japanese diplomats refusal to believe Pi’s story due to the sole reason that it is not likely to be “realistic” shows us how a person thinks like that misses the point of stories: “So tell me, since it makes no factual difference to you and you can’t prove the question either way, which story do you prefer? Which is the better story, the story with animals or the story without animals”? (352). Stories are not meant to be a manifestation of reality, making it so would rob the story of all of its meaning that cannot be expressed through material. Sometimes, truth can be stranger than fiction, but truth can never reach the breadth that fiction is able

First, Pi tells them the story about his survival with wild animals while drifting at sea. However, the officials disbelieve it as it is rather far-fetched in their views. Noticing this reaction, Pi tells them another version of his story, which replaces animals with humans. They notice some similarities between the two stories, which increases their confusion. Such a deceitful behavior of distorting a story represents the human nature to exaggerate and alter the truth to avoid being judged and punished. The reason why he gives a second version to his story is to satisfy the two confused officials, but in fact, his second story confuses them even more, which shows that deceit does not help to clarify a difficult situation and it only complicates communication. In other words, deceit is a trait that humans succumb to more often than they should, which explains why the human society is not