Piscine from Life of Pi by Yann Martel gives two depictions or versions of the story of

his ordeal at sea; of these two stories his second story is more believable and plausible and his
first story is more amusing and entertaining. Piscine Molitor Patel, also known as Pi, is a young
man from India who while moving to Canada via ship with his family becomes shipwrecked and
stranded on a lifeboat for 227 days. Piscine relays his whole tribulation to the reader in two
stories. The first story is the animal story and the second story is the human story. These two
stories parallel each other yet are completely different. The animal story is unbelievable and
fantastic, but it is extremely enthralling. The human story is more realistic and understandable;
however it is a horrible and disconcerting story.
In the first story after the sinking of the ship that Pi and his family were on Pi eventually
ends up on a large life boat with a hyena, a zebra, a tiger, named Richard Parker, and an
orangutan, named Orange Juice. All of the animals eventually die one by one except for Pi and
the tiger, Richard Parker. Throughout their 227 days at sea in the first story Pi and Richard
Parker encounter phenomena such as a blind castaway on another life boat to floating islands
made if acidic algae. Finally Pi and Richard Parker reach Mexico and they each go their separate
ways. Richard Parker goes into the Mexican jungle and Pi ends up in a Mexican hospital. While
Pi is at the hospital, two officials from the Maritime Department in the Japanese Ministry of
Transport come to talk to Pi about how the ship sank and Pis insurance money. When the two
officials asked Pi about what had happened to him, Pi tells them the whole first story, the animal
story. Afterwards the two officials tell Pi that they do not believe his first story and that they
want to know what really happened. Pi then tells the two officials a second story without any
animals. In the second story after the sinking of the ship Pi ends up on a life boat with his
mother, a Chinese sailor, and a French cook. Pi substitutes each animal from the first story with a
human in the second. Pi has his mother replace the orangutan, and he has the sailor replace the
zebra. He has the cook replace the hyena, and he has himself replace Richard Parker. In this story
the cook kills the Chinese sailor and eats pieces of him. The cook also kills and beheads Pis
mother, and afterwards Pi kills the cook. Pi then eats the cooks corpse and continues to survive
at sea in solitude.
Out of these two stories the more believable story is the second or the human story.
Although the second story is less likable, morbid, and gruesome, it is much more realistic. For
most of society seeing is believing; society tends to believe the dry, yeastless factuality over
the extraordinary or fantastic. It is much easier to wrap ones head around the second story than
the first story. The human story is unappealing because its a tale of murder, cannibalism,
revenge and solitude; however it is not unheard of. Humans have committed murder or acts of
cannibalism before. The fact that both stories parallel each other in characters also suggests that
Pi may have made up the first story as a coping mechanism because the experience of the second
story was so gruesome. This also augments the plausibility of the second story. Compared to the
animal story the human story is so much more feasible and acceptable.
Pis animal story seems farfetched and unreasonable. The whole first story seems
improbable as it moves along but once Pi and Richard Parker encounter the island of acidic algae
the story becomes impossible and illogical because a floating carnivorous island of algae is
unrealistic. It is also very hard to believe that Pi could survive for 227 days at sea with a tiger. It
is unlikely for two blind castaways to meet up in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Most of the
major events that occurred in Pis first story like the encounter with the blind Frenchman and the
finding of the algae island are improbable. There are so many factors in the animal story that
makes it too hard to believe as a whole, which is why the second story, the human story, is more
believable.
However although the second story is more believable the first story, the animal story, is
considerably more entertaining than the second. The first story is more engaging and exciting
than the second story. The animal story is filled with extraordinary occurrences like the finding
of the algae island and all the animals being on the life boat that makes the story fantastic,
enjoyable, and amusing even though there are hardships throughout the first story. After hearing
the second story the two Japanese officials agree that the story with the animals is better.
Whereas the two officials thought that the second story was a horrible story. The second story
is sad, distressing, and disconcerting. It is filled with murder, fighting, violence, revenge, and
acts of cannibalism, but what makes it worse is that the characters in the story are humans. If the
characters in the second story are animals then the story would not be so upsetting and
disturbing. Society does not like to see humans characterized as animal-like. This is why for
most of society the second story is unenjoyable. Compared to the second story the first story is
much more enthralling and entertaining.
Piscines stories are two creative, clever and different versions of the same event. For
most of society Piscines horrid account of survival in his second story is more believable than
his extraordinary and farfetched tale that he depicted in his first story. However the fantastical
depictions in his first chronicle are much more enjoyable and entertaining than the gut-
wrenching depictions in his second story.



Works Cited
Martel, Yann. Life of Pi: A Novel. New York: Harcourt, 2001. Print.