Life of Pi: My interpretation.

I have read the book and watched the movie. I cannot describe how awesome it but also can not help realise how disturbing it is.

The story starts off by making a promise to you. “This story will make you believe in god”.

Did it delivered the promise to me?... Well, we will see. I am a Hindu by birth and agnostic by choice. So this story gave me an idea as to what exactly it means to have faith in something, logic aside. And this has been a more psychological journey for me, rather than spiritual.

Let me give you the synopsis of Story: Pi (Piscine Molitor Patel) born and bought up in Pondicherry his father owns a zoo, and that is also the family home where he lives with his father mother and one older brother.

Pi is raised in a non-religious fairly forward thinking family, but his religious and spiritual curiosity developed at a very young age, and he starts practices 3 religions. When Pi is 17 his family run in to loss and they decide to move to Canada to start a new life by selling the zoo animals to foreign countries. So the family packs and transports their animals with a Japanese freighter Tsimtsum.

The Tsimtsum sinks in the pacific. Pi is the sole survivor and ends up on a life boat along with a hyena, an injured zebra, an orang-utan named orange juice and an adult Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. By obvious turn of events, the last remaining ones on the life boat are Pi and Richard Parker.

Here the story tells us about Pi’s painful, difficult yet courageous story of how he first establishes a territory with Parker, provides food and water to it and then develops deep bond with the Tiger. It also involves them stumbling up on a carnivorous island filled with a huge population of meerkats.

After deciding that the island would only kill Pi, he decides to go back in to ocean however painful it is. (This act tells us a lot about Pi’s mental built, and will to and let go move on to find land). After more suffering at the hands of ocean, the life boat reaches the shores of Mexico; Pi makes it to the shore and is barely alive. He then sees Richard Parker disappear in to the jungle on the beach. Soon the locals find Pi and his oceanic suffering ends.

When the Japanese officials meet Pi to get their report, they try to gather facts on how the Tsimtsum sunk. Here Pi tells them his story. The Japanese officials refuse to believe him. After a while Pi now tells a different story, a story that is more believable, very disturbing story with no animals but the survivors are all humans.

The 2^nd story:  Pi, a French cook with creepy taste buds, an injured Taiwanese sailor and Pi’s mother are the ones that make it to the life boat. Pi describes the French cook as a nasty man who despite plenty of emergency food on boat, killed a rat dried it in the sun and ate it. The injured Taiwanese sailor is in deep pain. The French cook convinces Pi and his mother to help him cut off the injured leg, makes them believe that this act will help the sailor survive. However the act doesn’t go well. Post amputation, the sailor dies an extremely painful and a very slow death. Pi’s mother later on gets killed by the cook when she confronts him about his cannibalism. She spots him eating the dead sailors flesh. Witnessing these actions on the boat and losing his mother are too much for Pi.

He later on gets in to argument with the cook, and ends up killing him as part of self-defence and also to get even for killing his mother.

Now Pi is alone on the life boat, he goes through extreme starvation and painful fight with elements of nature. It is indicated that Pi might have indulged in cannibalism as a result of unbearable starvation.

Being a vegetarian boy who was well sheltered and being raised in a rich culture, these series of ordeals were just way too much for him.

The Interpretation:

Richard Parker was Pi. The hyena was the French cook, the orang-utan was his mother and injured zebra was the injured Taiwanese sailor.

Now Pi does not confirm which story is true he simply asks the Japanese officials (the readers as well) to pick a story.

He just asks us which story we prefer.

Here is what I feel. I like the story with the tiger, but I have a strong belief that the 2^nd story is actually what happened with Pi.

The tiger acted as an incredible shock absorber for Pi to live through the events, survive, and recover from this indescribable pain and suffering.

Reality and rationality is important to survive, but what will you do if you are faced with a reality that is made up of stuff even your nightmares refuse to show you?

The mind needs to adapt and let go, it needs to protect itself. By transferring certain action as the actions of Richard Parker the Tiger, he was able to cope with certain heinous events he had to face under desperate circumstances.

By my understanding that is fate. When you cannot handle the burden of life that is so cruel you share you burden with a higher power and that helps you cope with the disturbing reality. Sometimes, in certain situations reality can be deeply scaring and does more damage. Reality will not let a person survive an adversity and worst the reality of that doesn’t let him move on.

Being aware of reality and transforming it to help you move on is one thing and forgetting the reality altogether is different.

So in a way Richard parker helps him cope and it represents faith.