Question #6: The ending that we MUST discuss

[[deleted user]]

Perhaps the best last question to ask about Life of Pi is an open-ended one: What is your interpretation of the ending?

Some food for thought: An essay by Yann Martel entitled "How Richard Parker came to get his name." http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html....

[Susan]

As you are now aware, I was not a fan of the book - but I LOVED the ending. It was a perfect way to silence the cynics who may have thought this all fantasy. Were they animals or people? I had a lot of empathy for the investigators trying to get Pi's story so that insurance could be settled up. And in the end I think Martel gives us an indication of how he wants us to perceive the book .. when they give him kudos for surviving that long with a Bengal tiger!

[Susan]

I think Life of Pi ends brilliantly, with Pi being given the opportunity to tell both stories and asking, "Which is the better story, the story with animals or the story without animals?" I choose to believe that what actually happened to Pi was so horrific that he needed an alternate story in order to survive the trauma. He was Richard Parker, and when the tiger walked away from Pi in Mexico without looking back, Pi was saying goodbye to that part of his life in order to be able to survive the future.

The better story has to be the one with animals, because in order to protect ourselves, we have to believe that humans can't possibly act as horribly as those animals did. The reality is that humans are far worse. We should think at a much higher and more moral level than animals, but in times of stress we often don't.

[Emily]

Susan wrote: "I think Life of Pi ends brilliantly, with Pi being given the opportunity to tell both stories and asking, "Which is the better story, the story with animals or the story without animals?" I choose ..."

I couldn't agree more with you, Susan! In addition to believing that the story was a fabrication to protect Pi against the trauma of his own experience and memory, I also think it was a brilliant device on the part of Martel, who tricked us all into thinking we were reading a whimsical book about zoo animals when we were actually reading a novel about the lengths of human desperation and cannibalism...!

[Kate]

It's great trick for sure and I like that bit of doubt there. Like Emily said, did we just read a nice story about zoo animals or a horrible story about being lost at sea? You can choose your own adventure but you, arguably, know what the better story is. It made me think of Pi's trifecta of religious beliefs too: religion involves a lot of story telling and Pi clearly loves listening to, and telling, a good story!

I thought it was brilliant and a really perfect way to end it.

[Sylvia]

Amen to all the insightful comments above! We seem pretty much in agreement. It was quite a trip! And now I am at the island scene in the Netflix movie-with the strange little meerkats -thanks everyone -enjoyed reading your opinions. Say hello to Yann Martel if you attend his talk.

[Allison]

I left my comments on the ending in the previous discussion thread, so I won't repeat them here.

The first time I read this book, i appreciated the ending for the confusion and doubt it created. At the time, it was perhaps one of the most open-ended books I had ever read. Now on my second reading, and thanks to this wonderful discussion and all of the fabulous and brilliant insights of you all, I have an even greater appreciation for it.

Hmmmm...maybe I will ask the author about it myself tonight...

Kate, I'm glad you sneaked a little bit of the religion theme and its connection to storytelling into the discussion. After all, the book opened with this as a story that would make you believe in God. And if that's not a nice bit of ring composition, I don't know what is! Which of the two stories (either one taken as the truth) would make you believe in God?

[Allison]

I just read that article linked above about the origins of the name Richard Parker. I have read this information before somewhere... In any case, I love that Martel closes his answer with the ambiguous sentence that his Richard Parker "is a victim too--or is he?" Brilliant.