The Two Stories In The Life Of Pi

     I was rewatching the movie Life Of Pi yesterday on cable TV when I remembered that I gave its book version as a gift eons ago. I heard that my prospective recipient loved books so the first gift I thought of giving was a book.  When I saw a copy of Life of Pi, I had no idea what it was about, but I remembered that its movie version was about to be shown in cinemas, so I figured it would be a nice book to give. Watching the movie and then reading the book to see if the film was faithful to the book, some people I know love doing that. So I  picked up the book,  paid for it, went out of the bookstore and after a few days, gave it away.

     I didn’t buy myself a copy of Life Of Pi so I still haven’t read the book but I have watched the movie thrice. And it’s quite brilliant and mesmerizing, the effects are good and there’s some fantastic imagery. In the movie, an Indian (and a very religious) young man named Pi and his family (parents and a brother) and their animals (they own a zoo in India and they’re planning to sell the animals in Canada) were  traveling to migrate to Canada when their ship sank during a thunderstorm. His family died but Pi was able to survive on a lifeboat together with an injured zebra, a hungry hyena, a female orangutan who lost a baby in the shipwreck,  and a ferocious Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. The zebra and the orangutan were later attacked and killed by the hyena, and the hyena was then killed by the tiger.  Pi and the tiger were lost in the sea for more than two hundred days.

     But apparently, this is just a story that Pi planted in his mind to deflect the horrible memories of what really transpired after their ship sank. So what really happened?

     Massive spoiler ahead.

     Pi, as the thunderstorm raged on and their ship started sinking, got on a boat together with his mother, an injured sailor, and a brutish cook. While lost on sea and without enough food, the cook killed the sailor and ate him, the cook also killed Pi’s mother, which seemingly brought out the ferocity in Pi. He, armed with a knife, killed the cook as revenge (and possibly, self-preservation), then, ate parts of the cook and used the other parts as fish bait. There are no visuals in the film for this part, thankfully.

     The orangutan was actually Pi's mother, the injured zebra was the sailor and the hyena the cook, and the Bengal tiger was really Pi.

     But Pi would rather tell people the story with the animals, which is a story of inspiration, one that warms the heart, one worth remembering, one which will strengthen your faith,  and one in which God didn’t abandon him.

     Everybody loves a story that inspires.

     PS: One of the imagery I like in the movie occurred when Pi was finally rescued on a shore.  Richard Parker casually walking away as Pi is being rescued, Pi wonders why it won’t even look back at him as it vanishes into the forest.  I interpret it as the end of Pi’s ferociousness, the tiger not looking back means that Pi will never resort to being wild and savage again.