Life of Pi Essay
Discuss the importance of believability in this novel.
In Yann Martel’s surreal novel, ‘Life of Pi’, views the measure of how an individual uses their intrinsic knowledge to face up to life’s riveting challenges. Martel portrays the protagonist, Pi Patel, as an individual who explores his own intrinsic identity through imagination, religion & faith as well as the fundamental difference between fact and fiction. Throughout the text, Martel, attempts to question the readers understanding of believability and how we construct reality through the unconventional structure shaped by Yann Martel. Evidently, discussing the importance of fulfilment in faith as well as the importance of truth in our everyday lives, through the eyes of Pi Patel.
Martel begins the novel through a fictitious author’s note. The author begins by explaining "this book was born as I was hungry”. Not literally hungry, but keen to write a novel of importance to someone. Even though its only six pages long, it gives a great insight on how Martel came about the story of Pi. The author’s note blurs the boundary between fact and fiction, stating that ‘fiction’ is the ‘selective transformation of reality.’ Martel intends to do this, to suspend our belief and invest in ourselves more fully in the story we are about to read. Martel’s author’s note also creates an imaginary scenario to delight and entice the readers by laying the foundation for the novel’s central theme: storytelling, so that we do not “sacrifice our imagination on the altar of crude reality” or “end up believing in nothing and having worthless dreams.”
The author searches for different ways to challenge the reader’s beliefs through the connection of storytelling and religion. As he portrays religion as if ‘fiction is an escape hatch’ or a gentler version of the truth, stating that ‘religion is a lifeboat’ that keeps us afloat ‘in the face of our own mortality’. Through Pi, he aims to compare the stories discovered within each
In Yann Martel’s surreal novel, ‘Life of Pi’, views the measure of how an individual uses their intrinsic knowledge to face up to life’s riveting challenges. Martel portrays the protagonist, Pi Patel, as an individual who explores his own intrinsic identity through imagination, religion & faith as well as the fundamental difference between fact and fiction. Throughout the text, Martel, attempts to question the readers understanding of believability and how we construct reality through the unconventional structure shaped by Yann Martel. Evidently, discussing the importance of fulfilment in faith as well as the importance of truth in our everyday lives, through the eyes of Pi Patel.
Martel begins the novel through a fictitious author’s note. The author begins by explaining "this book was born as I was hungry”. Not literally hungry, but keen to write a novel of importance to someone. Even though its only six pages long, it gives a great insight on how Martel came about the story of Pi. The author’s note blurs the boundary between fact and fiction, stating that ‘fiction’ is the ‘selective transformation of reality.’ Martel intends to do this, to suspend our belief and invest in ourselves more fully in the story we are about to read. Martel’s author’s note also creates an imaginary scenario to delight and entice the readers by laying the foundation for the novel’s central theme: storytelling, so that we do not “sacrifice our imagination on the altar of crude reality” or “end up believing in nothing and having worthless dreams.”
The author searches for different ways to challenge the reader’s beliefs through the connection of storytelling and religion. As he portrays religion as if ‘fiction is an escape hatch’ or a gentler version of the truth, stating that ‘religion is a lifeboat’ that keeps us afloat ‘in the face of our own mortality’. Through Pi, he aims to compare the stories discovered within each