In this paper, I will show how Pi, in the film "Life of Pi," deals with imagination vs.
The film the Life of Pi is a story of a young boy named Pi who is stranded at sea for 227 days on a lifeboat after the ship he is traveling on with his family sinks in a storm. Pi is the only one to survive the wreck along with multiple animals, most notably a Bengal tiger, who he shares the lifeboat with the entire time. Pi tells a story with unbelievable events and visuals. At the end of the film, Pi is interviewed by a pair of Japanese officials looking to write a report about the shipwreck. They ask Pi multiple times what really happened, and in response Pi tells a story that would be far more believable and horrific. .
In Pi's second story the lifeboat doesn't include the Zebra, Hyena, Orangutan, or Tiger. Instead the lifeboat is occupied by Pi, his mother, a sailor, and the cook. Ultimately, the two reporters choose to believe Pi's animal story. Did Pi survive at sea with a Bengal tiger and other animals from his zoo? - Or did Pi create the animal story in his mind to escape the reality? This is what I will be discussing; Why Pi chose to create an alternative, imaginary story instead of accepting reality.
Reflection.
The difference between the two stories Pi tells us is one came from his imagination and the other is reality. The true story (reality) shows Pi, his mother, a sailor with a broken leg, and the cook. The animal story (imagination) shows Pi with an orangutan, a zebra with a broken leg, a hyena, and a tiger named Richard Parker. The cook killed the sailor and Pi's mother, just like the hyena had killed the zebra and the orangutan. The sailor had a broken leg, and the zebra had a broken leg. The cook ate the sailor, just like the hyena ate the zebra. Pi's mother fought off the cook as long as she could, just like the orangutan had held off the hyena as long as it could. In Pi's imagination, Pi does not kill the hyena, Richard Parker does.
