Ivan Sutikno

Life of Pi essay

The message of the story is how our minds are strongly dependant on beliefs. During the
interview with the two Japanese officials at the end, Pi tells them his story. However,
they do not believe it. The Japanese officials represent the doubters, the people who
require facts and cannot accept imagination and creativity as an answer. These are the
type of people Pi despises, agnostics. Pi states that he cannot stomach agnostics because
even during their final moments, they will not take a leap of faith. Unlike other believers
and atheists they will never let go off their doubts, instead of imagining they will always
try to find a reason.

Pi decides to present them with another version where the animals are replaced with
humans, the zebra is an Asian girl, the hyena is a cook, the chimpanzee is his mother and
Richard Parker is Pi himself. Pi asks them which story they prefer and the officials
choose the first one. Pi they says Thank you. And so it goes with God. This baffles the
officials. The event can be interpreted as Pi confirming his view of humans. Humans,
from whatever culture and religion they belong to; will always want the better story.
The craving for a better story is why some people choose to be religious and believe in a
higher entity.

In the end, Pi concludes that religion is needed because it is the better story; it gives us
hope that something exists beyond our understanding. Without religion life would be
bleak and hopeless. Who would want to live a life knowing that their time is limited and
that nothing exists after their time on earth comes to an end?

I believe that the second version was the event that really took place. The moral of the
story and Pis message throughout the book tells us that the humans and even animals
are capable of believing in a better alternative in order to live a satisfying life. Pi, who
was forced to witness the death of his mother and a cannibalistic cook, decides to create
an alternate story, which suits him, better. Seeing the deaths of three other people would
be a traumatizing event and to be able to live with it for the rest of his life, Pi decides to
create the nicer version. The animal version is a happier story, a story filled with hope
and conflicts, it is natural for us to use animals in stories, and it is much more pleasant to
hear that a hungry hyena ate a zebra than to hear a cannibalistic cook eat a girl alive.

Pi latches on to a false reality because it shelters his mind. It fits perfectly, the
chimpanzee, the most human of the other animals and a mother of two, is an allegory of
his mother, the loving and caring. The chimpanzee looks down into the water looking
for her two children, this could be Pis brother and father.

But why would Pi not help the chimpanzee if it really were his mother? Maybe Pi wasnt
ready; he had not developed the sense of independence and therefore cowered in
silence. Once he saw his mother killed in front of his eyes, Pi unleashed his aggressive
side and killed the cook. To make sense of it all, Pi conveniently uses his fathers
business, zoo animals as replacements for the real event.

In the end what Yann Martel is trying to point out from this beautiful story is that we
need to broaden our minds. Non-believers usually claim theyre more open minded but
the truth is that they reject almost everything that cannot be explained. Pi loves religion
because it not only teaches important lessons but can also explain things that cannot be
explained scientifically. It is therefore in my opinion, more open minded if one believes
in something supernatural than to only latch onto facts.