Have you ever been through a serious trauma? Many people have been and have a multitude of ways to deal with it. In the book The Life of Pi, Pi suffers an extremely traumatic experience which he copes with by making a story. The second more realistic story is the reality, the first story is Pi’s way of coping. The reasons behind this conclusion are the impracticality of the first story, the apparent use of a coping strategy, and is written to take the reader's attention. The first story, involving the animals, does not have enough factual backing to be the true story. The ability to live with a tiger for that long, while it starves is impossible. Pi even speaks of his fear of Richard Parker swimming to him. “He might not be afraid of the
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Consequently he makes up the story changing the people into animals to disassociate himself. He uses Richard Parker as a way to cope with the horrible things he did himself. Pi even speaks of how horrible and mad he felt as after he broke down and ate human flesh. “I will further confess that, driven by the extremity of my need and the madness to which it pushed me, I ate some of his flesh” ( 265). Without this second story Pi may have lost his mind with guilt and stress.
The argument that the first story is more likely due to have more detail is not necessarily a true argument. The book is written around the fantasy that Pi creates. He wants it to be more realist because he is not only trying to get others to believe it but also trying to convince himself. The story is meant to be the reader's main interest. The way Pi describes The second story in this quote shows how the second story is not for entertainment. “You want a flat story. An immobile story. You want dry yeastless factuality” (302). The author also wants an interesting story, a story about a tiger on a lifeboat is much more interesting than the basic survival story.
The true story in the book The Life of Pi is the 2nd story. The 1st story is an obvious coping strategy, is more realistic, and is made to be the main focus. Don’t believe me? Read the book for yourself. Write your own
Consequently he makes up the story changing the people into animals to disassociate himself. He uses Richard Parker as a way to cope with the horrible things he did himself. Pi even speaks of how horrible and mad he felt as after he broke down and ate human flesh. “I will further confess that, driven by the extremity of my need and the madness to which it pushed me, I ate some of his flesh” ( 265). Without this second story Pi may have lost his mind with guilt and stress.
The argument that the first story is more likely due to have more detail is not necessarily a true argument. The book is written around the fantasy that Pi creates. He wants it to be more realist because he is not only trying to get others to believe it but also trying to convince himself. The story is meant to be the reader's main interest. The way Pi describes The second story in this quote shows how the second story is not for entertainment. “You want a flat story. An immobile story. You want dry yeastless factuality” (302). The author also wants an interesting story, a story about a tiger on a lifeboat is much more interesting than the basic survival story.
The true story in the book The Life of Pi is the 2nd story. The 1st story is an obvious coping strategy, is more realistic, and is made to be the main focus. Don’t believe me? Read the book for yourself. Write your own