Ben Bethers

IB English
Moosman Period 2
February 9, 2023

Life of Pi Whole Reflection

Having finished the Life of Pi, I can confidently say that this is one of my favorite books

that I have read alongside Education. I think that this book was not only entertaining in its subtle

humor, but I also immensely enjoyed how there were several major lessons that were revealed in

the last few chapters of the book.

Throughout the book, I had simply assumed that the story was correct and entirely true.

Only after I had learned the ending and we discussed it in class did I stop to consider whether or

not Pi had been telling the truth throughout the story. I learned from this story that sometimes

humanity likes to believe the most pleasant lie. I think that we like to convince ourselves that one

more pleasant thing is true in order to avoid the harsh reality. I think that Pi’s state of mind, in

which he might have deflected the reality of committing a vile act of cannibalism for self defense

and survival, shows this. I find that this reflects on a larger scale in humanity in history. I think

that we have, in general, tried to deny the ugly realities we face sometimes. Large groups of

people deny ugly events in our history such as slavery or the holocaust in order to convince

themselves that humanity as a whole is better than it is.

Another aspect of the book I find to be interesting is the theme of religion. I think that it

was fascinating in the beginning of the book how Pi came to belong to three different religions

regardless of how people told him that he couldn’t do that because of certain reasons. I think that

this was heartwarming in a way because we saw that Pi did not care about the smaller aspects or

reasons for why he couldn’t be in all three religions and simply adhered to the one thing that
mattered, his love of god. Here were three religions that all claimed to love god and strove to be

closer to him, and yet they forgot their common goal in order to try and distinguish themselves

so that they could prohibit their members from joining “opposing” religions. I think that Pi’s

general view of religion is quite refreshing, seeing how he can see the commonalities in all of

these religions and the things that make them unique and make it work in a way that genuinely

works for him regardless of what is said.

The final lesson I find to be extremely valuable in this book is the lesson that we should

never give up because there are always better times. After Pi was stranded at sea, we saw times

when Pi wanted to give up hope and just wished death beyond himself because it would have

been the path of least resistance. Yet, throughout the story, we see glimpses of Pi’s future in

which he has children, has gone to college, has a wife, and has a fantastic story to tell, yet if he

would have died he would have not gained all of these wonderful things. I think that Pi’s

hopelessness turning to resolve was inspiring and his future told the reader that, even if you may

feel like you are stranded now, better times will come.

Overall, I loved this book. It shared many important lessons about human nature and

hopefulness and I will most definitely read it again in the future.