Life of Pi, Yann Martel

The last time I read the book, the year was 2005 and I was hooked.  This time round, armed with foresight, I made sure I paid particular attention to detail.  The island still baffles me.  I have heard people say they believe the island’s purpose is simply as a reprieve for Pi and “Richard Parker”.  I tend to agree.

I fall firmly in the camp that the ‘people’ version was true, and Pi created the animal version in his head to allow himself to deal with the horrors he faced.  Not that I am professionally qualified, but I would say it is possibly similar to when a personality splits in order to cope with severe trauma and tragedy.  If you saw someone being killed and devoured by another human being, wouldn’t you want to have an alternative reality to retreat to?  I know I would.  And I’m glad that Martel gave us this alternative for the entire story, only revealing a glimpse of the truth in the last ten pages.  Fantastic.  Most of the appeal in this book lies in those last few pages for me. 

Why do I believe the ‘people’ version?  A number of reasons really.  Pi’s father had the keys to the animals’ cages and he went down with the ship.  If the father had the keys, and he died, then no animals escaped from the cages.  If no animals escaped from the cages, there were no animals in a lifeboat.  And frankly, being adrift at sea for seven months would be enough for anyone’s reality to be skewed, specifically after witnessing heinous acts such as murder and cannibalism.  For Pi, a devout vegetarian and God-worshipping young man, the act of killing another human and eating their flesh, whether for survival or not, would simply be too much to bear and I understand why he would prefer to live with the ‘animal’ version.  How else would you carry on?

As a side note and a point of interest, Richard Parker is the name of several people in real life and fiction who became shipwrecked, with some of them subsequently being cannibalised by their fellow seamen.

All in all, I enjoyed the book a second-time round.  I’m not entirely sure it made me believe in God though.  It made me believe in human survival.  Perhaps it’s through Pi’s belief in his Gods that he has made peace with what he had to do.