Life Of Pi Storytelling Essay

The two crucial stories told by Piscine Molitor Patel, the main character of the novel Life Of Pi written by Yann Martel, contain completely different characters as well as different versions of events that took place while Pi was lost at sea. The differences of these two stories unite to form a commentary on religion, specifically religious tales, and the power of storytelling. In addition to their differences unveiling observations related to people’s beliefs, the similarities between the two also say something about how perception can change reality. The first more detailed story Pi tells includes a unique series events after a shipwreck which leaves the narrator stuck in a lifeboat with several animals, attempting to survive. The incidents that take …show more content…
In the second story, the events that occur on the lifeboat remain almost identical but the main characters in this tale are replaced with human beings. From the reader’s perspective what occurred on the lifeboat in the second story suddenly seems immensely more heartbreaking and disturbing compared to the original one. It is much harder to accept the tragedies that ensued on the boat when thinking about, for example, the cook murdering Pi’s mother because as human beings we do not like to believe we are capable of such atrocious acts. This difference in characters in the different descriptions of what happened to Pi at sea comment on the power of storytelling, specifically in religion. Yann Martel provides the reader with two stories with the same outcome, one of the versions sounding slightly unrealistic while the other sounding to gruesome to even believe. While the second story may be more realistic it still shares the same message as the first story which is the entire point of telling it. Martel does this as a way to show that although many religions contain several improbable stories, the lessons they teach with others is their purpose therefore they could possibly be more effective