Life of Pi

Life of pi

Is it possible that Life of Pi introduces the theme that perspectives create stories? Do you think that Pi's story is not about author-narrator's perspective, but rather it is about the reader's concluding perspective? Would you say that Life of Pi introduces the central, story-shaping themes like truth, hunger, and faith to understand the world?

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The act of storytelling and narration is a significant theme throughout Life of Pi, but particularly in the narrative frame. That Pi’s story is just that—a story—is emphasized throughout, with interjections from the author, Pi’s own references to it, and the complete retelling of the story for the Japanese officials. (This is not to mention chapter ninety-seven, which contains two words: “The story.”) By including a semi-fictional “Author’s Note,” Martel draws the reader’s attention to the fact that not only within the novel is Pi’s tale of survival at sea an unverified story, but the entire novel itself, and even the author’s note, usually trustworthy, is a work of fiction.

This is not to say that Martel intends the reader to read Life of Pi through a lens of disbelief or uncertainty; rather, he emphasizes the nature of the book as a story to show that one can choose to believe in it anyway, just as one can choose to believe in God—because it is preferable to not believing, it is “the better story.”

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