Here's from Matt:
Last night I watched the film, read the comments and analysis on this page, and contemplated. Here are my thoughts.
The true story is without a doubt the “human” story.
However, the question we are asked is not which story is true, but which story we prefer.
The “animal” story is purely symbolic. Everything in the “animal” story has meaning, while the “human” story is merely a retelling of actual events. There is no hidden meaning in the “human” story; it is a brutal and devastating tale of a boy who encountered events none of us can even imagine. The “animal” story transmits almost the same tale, but gives meaning and symbolism to every part.
The question then becomes do we prefer an outlook on life that is symbolic, that has meaning, gives direction, and is not simply a set of random events. Or do we prefer the opposite, a realistic viewpoint in which we view the world “as is” and the events in our lives as ones without underlying meaning. Hence, the story that God prefers is the one that gives meaning to life.
Deeper analysis – Richard Parker vs. Pi = Animal vs. Human = Primitive nature vs. Rational nature.
Richard Parker represents our primitive nature, our animal qualities of survival. Pi cannot come to terms with the “true” story because he had to resort to cannibalism in order to survive (the psychological terror he faced with the fact that he had to eat the remains of his mother to stay alive). When Pi kills the fish for the first time, he thanks God for coming in the form of a fish in order to save “us”, which shows that Pi and Richard Parker are indeed one person. He feeds the fish to Richard Parker to keep “himself” alive.
The process of “training” Richard Parker symbolizes our dual nature even further. If he did not release his primitive instincts, the hyena or cook would have killed him. If he did not control his primitive nature, it would consume him. If he did not rescue his primitive nature (Richard Parker was drowning), his rational self would die because it would have no hope for survival.
Therefore, the underlying meaning of the story is that we have to “train” ourselves. Our primitive qualities can sometimes get the best of us, but we have to do our best to keep them in check or our primitive nature will consume our rational self and we will no longer be humans, we will be animals. Conversely, we need our primitive nature in our hopeless moments in order to give us a will to survive.
The island – in the “animal” story we are presented with a fictional place. This island almost certainly does not exist. Most likely, the storm (probably symbolizing the “awe” of God) dragged Pi’s boat to the shore of a deserted island. The symbolism of the island represents his loneliness and the self-consuming lifestyle of being alone without companions as the point of life is not merely staying alive.
Pi – represents the Buddhist view of life. In western thought, we consider life a straight line that has a beginning point (conception or birth for some of you) and an ending point (death). In eastern thought, life is represented by a circle because it is infinite, without beginning or end, as we are part of an eternal universe.
There is plenty of other symbolism in the story as you can even compare Pi to Christ. I do not know how to spell his birth name, but the name comes from the “pristine” French pool. In other words, Pi has a clean soul, as I do not believe he is shown committing a sin even one time in the movie. He also fully surrenders himself to the will of God.
I could go on and on, but I will stop here. This is truly a fantastic story.
After I read it, I realized what makes the movie a success. Something so abstract yet it relates so much to our beings as human, and it presented so well in the movie. But I couldn't even scratch the surface of it. Sigh!
A movie job well done.
