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Life of Pi Essay Extra Credit

At the end of Life of Pi, a quote is presented that ties the whole story together. That quote is, “In both stories the ship sinks, my entire family dies, and I suffer. Which is the better story, the story with animals or the story without animals?” The men have a preference towards the animal story, but don’t have a lot of evidence of either story. Then Pi says, “And so it goes with God.” This quote gives a choice to the characters and readers. It allows them to experience how different narratives can affect the way they think about and experience the world. "Life of Pi" uses the juxtaposition of Pi's narratives to explore the contrasting perspectives of suffering within the contexts of belief and disbelief, delves into the human experience of finding meaning amidst trauma and chaos, and ultimately suggests that our interpretation of suffering is deeply intertwined with our belief systems.

Pi juxtaposes the less believable story with animals to the more believable but most traumatic story with real people. This is a parallel to life with religion and life without religion. Life with religion is like the story with the animals, there is still suffering, but there is at least some meaning to the suffering. It’s less rational but more digestible. In this Pi’s scenario, we can imagine Richard Parker representing God in a sense. Pi is both scared to death and comforted by Richard Parker. Richard Parker could have easily killed Pi many times, but he showed mercy to Pi. In the same way, in a Christian worldview, God has complete power of us but chooses not to destroy us. Pi takes comfort in this the way an abused takes comfort in their abuser. Having gone through a traumatic event ties them closer together, even though they weren’t necessarily on the same side, they just wanted to survive.

In the more realistic story, things take a turning for the worse very quickly for no apparent reason. The French chef turns cannibalistic, Pi’s mom gets killed by the French chef, and eventually, Pi even kills the French chef. All these events happened for seemingly unreasonable reasons in an irrational context which would be hard for anyone to wrap their heads around. This is parallel to the world without religion. The world without religion would seem unreasonably cruel for no apparent reason. In our world today, we can see unreasonable cruelity happen for little to no reason. War, natural disasters, poverty, cancer etc. All these exist and cause great suffering. The suffering is so great in things like war that most humans can’t even begin to comprehend the consequences and fallout of it.

Pi says “And so it goes with God,” to signify that the story he chose to believe and the Japanese men liked to hear was the more religious one. They chose the story that “goes with God.” This can be extrapolated to say that religion facilitates stories that make life more interesting and more livable. Religions like Christianity have a positive narrative that its believers can turn to during tough time. Because of their belief, they will always have someone who loves them and something that they can fall back on. That someone is God/Jesus and that something is salvation. Religions give a relatively clear meaning to the lives of its members, and like it did for Pi, can be the light at the end of the tunnel.

In the end, whether one believed in the more traumatic story or one believed the still traumatic but more fascinating story, the power of storytelling is clearly understood. They can make or break a person, because when faced with tough situations, a person’s response is usually determined upon the stories they’ve heard. Stories about God, stories about themselves, stories about overcoming challenges. It is through these stories that people get the motivation to get through life. "Life of Pi" explores the contrasting perspectives of suffering depending on what one believes in, delves into the human experience of finding meaning in an unmerciful life situations, and shows that one’s perspective on suffering depends largely upon one’s beliefs.