Life of Pi- The Danger of Fiction

In the novel Life of Pi, Pi is faced with more stress in two years than most are exposed to in their entire life, and it is all Pi can do to put it into the back of his mind and stop reliving it every second of the day. The magnitude of the events weighs so heavily upon him that he cannot bear the load, and thus as most of the world does in times of crisis, Pi creates Richard Parker for the same reason a toddler creates an imaginary friend: escapism. Richard Parker is the recipient of all the stress that Pi just can't handle, and Pi is no longer scarred. Now, however, because of this division Pi is unstable, and even at the end of the book ends up hiding and hoarding food as if he will die if he doesn’t. This instability is made obvious at the end as Pi’s true point: fiction can be very dangerous.

When Pi’s suffering began he was cast away into the sea with a man with a broken leg according to the human story, and was sent out to sea. The entrance of Richard Parker is a symbol of the instincts Pi knows he will need to survive. From there he tries to survive with a near-insane cannibal who is slowly eating the broken-legged man. When “Orange Juice”, Pi’s mother, arrived, Pi at least has more company than the cannibal. But she will soon be killed by the psychotic threat, not able to repel him for long, and is soon eaten. This is when Pi begins to separate himself from Richard Parker.

When his mother is killed by the cannibal he is threatened by him as the next prey, and his instincts emerge as he ravages and kills him, eating him instead. This is where he really starts to accept “Richard Parker” as half of himself, and his escapist approach to life is revealed. Pi is now entering the trap so many stressed individuals fall into.

Pi is now alone and when flying fish jump, he sees food and cannot restrain his instincts and this shows how firmly he believes in his story. Supposedly while he ineptly fumbled about, Richard Parker
agilely swats many fish right out of the sky. Really his instincts have taken over and he went killer, annihilating fish after fish, as will be seen with the meerkats. Pi has truly split into two.

Pi uses this story to escape from the things he saw, to attempt to avoid the events he experienced. He doesn’t acknowledge that people are cruel without going insane because of the taste of a scar-free life. Taking back the truth and covering his weak spots is not possible