Madison Jordan
Phil 101

The life of pie

Based on the best-selling novel by Yann Martel, this remarkable film is an adventure set in the land of magical realism, and centers on an Indian boy named Pi Patel, the son of a cautious zoo keeper. The family decides to move from India to Canada, bringing many of the animals with them. When the vessel carrying the family hits a storm, Pi is left adrift on a lifeboat, lost in the Pacific Ocean, in the company of a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan and a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker – all striving in a ugly competition for survival. Some of the animals kill and eat each other, and Pi himself goes from being a vegetarian to eating meat in desperation. At the end, Pi and the tiger are the only survivors and they both go their own way to living life. Pi is later questioned by Japanese investigators and when he gives them the animal story, they don’t quite take it as realistic. The boy then gives them alternative story, without the tiger and the other animals; instead…with a sailor with a broken leg, a French cook, Pi, and Pi’s mother. This story seem to be unsatisfying but acceptable to the investigators as they leave Pi alone. Later in life Pi is visited by an author who wants to write about Pi’s journey in the ocean. Pi shares with him both stories and then simply asks the author, “Which story do you prefer?” The author clearly chooses the story with the tiger, and Pi’s response to that is “And so it goes with God.” The true meaning of the film lies beneath the surface of the story. To understand the wisdom deep within the story you need to actually understand that it is not about wrestling with a true tiger, but with a metaphoric one…with questions of meaning and faith. The story is all about how can one find spirituality and meaning of life in times of all things horrible and terrible in the world