Life of Pi is a fantastic book. It’s full of interesting story line, adventure, and fantasy. A reader finds himself hooked when he begins reading it for one of two reasons: first of all, it’s an attention-grabbing story that is different than any other and attracts the senses; second, it contains many different points that can be analyzed for deeper meaning. Life of Pi by Yann Martel is viewed as a scientific novel because it deals with psychological, biological, and religious aspects; each a certain characteristic of science.
Psychologically, Life of Pi could be analyzed in many ways. Pi is stranded on a boat for many grueling days. Not only that, but he’s threatened by vicious animals on every side of him. First there’s the hyena and the zebra (though the zebra is not quite as menacing). Next comes the orang-utan who appears to be kind and nurturing, but also shows its aggressive animal nature. The ever-present Bengal tiger, Richard Parker, is also a major threat as well. On top of all these obstacles, Pi has to worry about sharks all around him and an engulfing ocean just daring him to take a swim. Talk about emotional overload! It’s a wonder that he survived as long as he did, not even mentioning the fact that he had little food and water. All these stresses were sure to perform wonders on his brain: not the happy type of wonders either. Because of all this psychological stress, the reader begins to question what is truth in Pi’s account. He tells the two interviewers his story as outlined throughout the whole book, but they don’t believe him. Because of this, he starts a different narrative that is actually quite gruesome. The reader begins to question: which account is true? Also, the two stories have parallels. Could he be mixing truth with what he wanted to be reality? Was his first account an interesting story to make his fate seem less tragic? Or could it be the other way around? Either way, this brings up an interesting question that one cannot overlook and takes a look at the psychological feature as presented throughout the story.
(This is just the first couple of paragraphs from my paper and definitely needs some touching up!)
It is a book that can be read purely for the story or for the meaning behind it, and this paragraph really showed that.
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