Life of Pi's Survival with Richard Parker at Sea

Life of Pi, written by Yann Martel, is a riveting and extraordinary story of survival at sea. Pi Patel, a sixteen-year-old Indian boy survives at sea with a tiger for 227 days. Pi, born Piscine Molitor Patel, grows up in the South Indian city of Pondicherry, where his father runs a zoo. During his family’s trip too Canada, their boat sinks and Pi is stranded at sea in a life boat with Richard Parker, a Bengal tiger. The events that unfold while pi is at sea and how he was able to survive with Richard Parker are unbelievable.

When Pi finally makes it too land, many people are skeptical of his story of survival and Pi actually tells people two stories, one with animals and another with humans in place of the animals. Pi’s story of survival with Richard Parker is fiction that he creates in order to cope with reality because of the second story without the animals, there is no scientific evidence behind pi’s story, and Pi could have been hallucinating.

Pis story of survival with Richard parker is fiction because he provides a second story about what happened on the boat. The second story Pi tells replaces the animals with his mom, a sailor, the ship’s cook, and Pi himself. Japanese officers in the maritime department came to visit Pi in Mexico about the sinking of Tsimtsum and they do not believe Pi’s story with Richard Parker. Pi describes his second story as, “words that do not contradict reality/a flat story.

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An imobille story”(380). Then after Pi tells his second story he asks the Japanese officers, “which story is better, the one with animals or the one without animals”(398). In order to deal with the horrifying events that occur in the second story Pi replaces the humans with animals therefore it is easier for Pi to handle.

Another reason Pi’s story with Richard Parker is fiction is because there is no scientific evidence that backs up the events in his story. While being stranded at sea Pi and Richard Parker come across an island made completely out of algae. Pi describes the island as, “a free floating organism, a ball of algae”(343). As Pi continues to explore the island he finds out that the islandand trees are carnivorous. He discovers this by finding human teeth in the middle of the trees on the island. No one has ever discovered an island such as Pi’s and a carnivorous tree has never existed. The island proves that most of Pi’s story with the animals is false.

Finally, Pi’s story of survival with Richard Parker is fiction because Pi could have been imaging or hallucinating the occurrences. While at sea Pi goes blind, and in his sightless delirium, he hears a voice. The voice speaks to him, and Pi responds. Pi assumes he is hearing the voice of Richard Parker, “I hadn’t gone mad. It was Richard parker who was speaking too me'(310). Later Pi finds out that the voice is coming from another castaway on a lifeboat. Pi and the other castaway connect boats and the castaway jumps into Pi’s boat only to be eaten by Richard Parker. In This part of the book Pi is clearly hallucinating and imaging voices and people. This provides evidence that Pi could have been hallucinating for other parts in his story. Pi creates the story of survival with Richard parker to cope with the reality, because of Pi’s second story without animals, there is no scientific evidence behind Pi’s story, and Pi could have been hallucinating the events in his story.