You might find it a little odd, after pages of adventure, despair, and hope, to encounter a sort of Japanese comedy duo at the end.
However, the two investigators ask Pi some important questions and, more importantly, act as liaisons between the doubtful reader and the text. We're not sure if you experienced doubt when it came to Pi's narrative, but Martel increasingly tests the limits of his readers' faith. Maybe you grimaced before you even begin and say, "A boy and a tiger in a lifeboat? Like that could ever happen. I want realism. The Japanese investigators are right there with you.
They tell Pi flat out: "We don't believe your story" 3. Their admission gives Pi a chance to defend his tale. Pi remarks that his story does have a happy ending when he introduces him to his family: a wife and two young boys. This indicates that the agents chose to go with that story as well. Yes, the story narrated by Pi is quite confusing and may even sound unbelievable to many viewers. Which is why the Japanese investigators are right there with you. After given another chance to explain what really happened, Pi links his storytelling with faith.
He talks about how our understanding of the world shapes the facts we share about it. He explains the danger of reason on its own. On a theoretical level, Pi defends himself well. But the twist in the tail happens when he tells an alternative version of his story where he retells the shipwreck, his survival and his days at sea but excludes the part regarding the animals.
At the beginning of the film, we see how Pi is struggling to reconcile the differences between interpreting the different faiths like Hinduism, Christianity and Islam. He acknowledges that each one of them contained some valuable elements that together help him survive this terrible ordeal while at sea. The real question that you should be asking yourselves is: Which version do you prefer?
Pi proceeds to tell the Japanese men this improbable story of him and the tiger, and how they stumbled upon a mysterious island. The Japanese men are reluctant to write the story they have been told because it is too unbelievable. He tells them a different version of the story: one that uses humans instead of animals. Instead of the hyena killing the zebra and sweet orangutan, it was the cook. Then instead of the tiger killing the hyena, it is Pi who kills the cook out of revenge or self-preservation.
The orangutan represents his mother, the zebra represents some wounded Japanese sailor, the tiger is Pi, and all the other fantastical elements of the story were stripped away leaving a much more disturbing, but believable depiction.
In the movie, when the now grown-up Pi describes the human story, there is a great deal of anguish on his face. This may lead people to believe that the human story is the real story; however, this look is not present in the book. This leads me to believe that the animal story is the real story. After all, what reason does Pi have to make that up, especially when he is willing to tell both versions?
So although the human story makes a lot of sense, it was not intended to be a twist ending. The author leaves the question unanswered for the audience to draw their own conclusion, almost as if we are the Japanese men.
For Pi, surviving is a temporary state of mind. For Richard Parker, a wild animal, survival is a constant and continuous state. He ventures forth to his next challenge. They want a story they can believe. Pi understands their request:. That will confirm what you already know. That wont make you see higher or further or differently. You want a flat story. An immobile story. You want dry, yeastless factuality. He states that he survived along with his mother, the cook, and a Taiwanese sailor.
The sailor broke his leg in the sinking, but made it to the boat. As the leg became infected, the cook said it must be cut off. This is accomplished, and the sailor soon dies from the procedure. The cook then eats his flesh. Pi then kills the cook. From there he survives alone. The descriptions in this passage are horrific. The blood soaked boat and scenes of carnage and true, animalistic human evil will turn the stomach of any reader. And thus, Pi is Richard Parker.
Our own species makes sense to us, so we can somehow fathom that someone could truly be so evil and barbaric that they defy everything that is human.
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