Life of PI by Yann Martel - Essay Example

Question One In the Novel ‘Life of PI’ By Yann Martel, at the end of the book, Pi tells his story to the two investigators by the name Mr. Okamoto and Mr. Chiba. The two belong to the Maritime Department of the Japanese Ministry of Transport. However, on telling them the story, they disbelieve what he says. They say that they find his story quite interesting but express their disbelief. The two officers use their reasoning and find the story untrue. They do not understand how Pi survived for all that long time living with a tiger in the boat. Okamoto says that he finds the aspects of the story impossible and contradicting the law of nature. Chiba commented and says that the tress Pi mentioned were botanically impossible to occur. Upon the dislike of Pi’s story by the two investigators, they insisted to know what happened exactly. Pi told them another story an asked the investigators to choose the better story (Martel 295). The plot of the story was similar to the first story but this time he used human beings characters. The two understand the similarities between the two stories and Pi asked them which story they preferred. Both of them agreed that they preferred the first story. Martel speaks about the truth and reason in a very unique way. When Pi told the first story, the investigators did not believe his story because they used reasoning instead of finding the truth in it. In the second story, they did not find the truth and reality in it but decided to reason and figure out the story that made sense to them. On the other hand, Pi did not take it as a responsibility to tell which story was true. It was upon the investigators to choose the tale they felt as true. Martel brings out the animals in their real normal way of behaving just as they are different in their species. He portrays them as real animals and the tiger as a tamed animal, which is very possible. Using the animals in their reality makes Martel brings out believability of the animal story. In the story, Martel enables Pi to bring out the truth about the encounter with the Richard Parker, the tiger as a true scenario despite the fact that it is impossible in the normal reasoning. In addition, Martel elaborates that human beings are not very different from the animals when deprived their basic needs. He uses the second story narrated by Pi to support the truth about how human beings can behave like animals when they do not get what they need to survive. Use of the two stories, Martel brings illustrates how people choose to believe something horrible and impossible as true. Pi reveals to the officers the ability of human beings to imagine and invent as a mechanism for self-defense. Truth and reason in the story is established using two versions of the story. One of the story is true and the other one is true too but using other characters. Considering that, Pi gave the animal story first; make the story the true encounter. Upon giving the second story having the same plot as the first, the listeners reason it as a supporting material for the truth in the first story. Initially, Okamoto and Chiba did not find the first story to be true but upon hearing the second story, they reason together using the similarities in the two stories but find the first story suitable as the true one. Martel shows that he had no exact id of the supposed truth of Pi’s tragic experience. He gives the readers of the book a choice to choose the true story according to their reasoning. Remember that the book gave the readers a corresponding for the religious choices. It is upon one to show great faith in the religion for on to understand that impossible happen to those who believe in God. Question Two According to author Martel, Pi kept his morality intact up to the end. Pi believes in three religions, which are Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. He has a deep understanding of morality and kindness towards all the living things. However, during the period he is faced with starvation and death, he does not abandon his morality in order to survive the harsh circumstances. When the investigators approach him to find out the truth of the happenings in the ocean, he describes some extraordinary series of events, which show that only a superior being could make it happen. Upon pressure from the authorities to tell them exactly what happened to him, Pi describes a more morbid and realistic story. The first story using animals as the characters have a human counterparts who relate in actions. It is likely that Pi used animals in the first story as defense mechanisms to enable him survive the situations and events that happened to him in the ocean. At the same time, Pi used the animal characters in the first story as a way of preserving his morality sense. The two stories portray the defense mechanism used by the protagonist Pi to defend him to have preserved his morality all through. There is likelihood that the story using human characters is true but to save his own humanity, Pi sees people as similar to animals. Martel represents that Pi held to his morality and sanity in the entire episode and that made him survive in the challenging events. He tries to defend Pi that he could not make it to do all the animalistic actions and that he managed to survive. Considering that he survived together with the tiger kept him alive and this shows that he was able to preserve his mind and morality even at terrible circumstances. Martel uses the tiger as a symbol for salvation. Pi keeps on saying that the tiger helped him survive and that it saved him. It is clear that the tiger helped the hero to survive all the challenges that came his way. Pi believed that his faith in God helped him release the animalistic in him. He did not kill the tiger or the rest of the animals. The author says that he will tell of a story that will help people believe in God. However, there are several criticisms relating to the story of Pi. When narrating his story, Pi does not mention God, faith, or any religion related issue. The report from the Japanese Ministry of Transport does not reveal or refer to faith, God or a religious matter (Martel 400). The story is unique but does not indicate that Pi believed in God. The question asked by Pi to the investigators is subjective and does not solve the truth bit of the events (Martel 398 – 399). Pi states that all went with God and in this case, he means that God is the better story but not to him being a true person. Pi equates God with the better story, he distorts and trivializes the omnipotent and omniscient characteristics of God by reducing the God’s existence question as an an aesthetic preference. Martel and Pi accept Okamoto’s report as true and they believe in the story instead of believing in God. Therefore, Martel managed to how that Pi believed in God and maintained his morality intact but the reader is left in doubt because of the last part of the two stories, which bring confusion, and questions about Pi’s moral status. It could have been better if Pi mentioned to the readers which story was true. Work Cited Martel, Yann. Life of Pi: A Novel. New York: Harcourt, 2001. Print. Read More