Life of Pi in 482 Words

“All living things contain a measure of madness that moves them in strange, sometimes inexplicable ways. This madness can be saving; it is part and parcel of the ability to adapt. Without it, no species would survive.”

Piscine Molitor Patel is one of a kind.

The story’s main character found his refuge from that “Greek letter that looks like a shack with a corrugated tin roof, in that elusive, irrational number with which scientists try to understand the universe” by drawing a circle on the school chalkboard and slicing it in half to do two things. One, present a simple geometry lesson, and two, declare himself the name we know him as, “Pi.”

Pi faced many challenges before and after that defining moment. Bullied by classmates and teachers calling him ‘Pissing Patel’ or ‘Lemon Pie’. Scrutinized for wanting to be a Muslim, Christian, and Hindu, simultaneously. Isolated at sea from the rest of the world for 277 days distorting his perception between animals and humans.

The background preceding the “monstrous metallic burp” that sank the Tsimtsum separates Yann Martel’s original novel from Ang Lee’s screenplay adaptation. Reading the book was like watching a 100 mini-movies.

A separate capsule of time equally as valuable as the next.

Pi’s “measure of madness” strings each episode together as you cruise alongside his “Transpacific-floating-circus” that tours the Pacific equatorial counter-current.

To sleep in an empty galaxy at night, absent of sight or sound, cogitation of hope and fear are bound to bob up and down on the waves of your subconscious. However, the epiphany which buoys to his mind’s surface is that fear is “life’s only true opponent.”

So, the son of a zoo owner’s instincts kick in and aid him in recognizing his felid companion’s ‘prusten’ remark, the quietest of the tiger’s calls, a snort through its nostrils signaling friendliness and harmless intentions. This symbolizes the tipping point that pushes Pi to follow Plan Number Seven: Keep Him (Richard Parker) Alive, i.e. tame the beast inside his mind.

In order to save his sanity while his body decays, he embraces his inner-madness, or as Voltaire says in ‘Candide’, “to caress the serpent that devours us, until it has eaten away our heart,” by conceiving an alternate reality to cope with the pain of being a castaway who lost his entire family. Pi perseveres against his mind’s treacherous attempts at dissolving into complete hysteria and thus, survives.

Counterintuitive, and yet, practical.

Odd relationships starting or ending without explanation from either side, long-winded conversations built on tangents, unexpected adventures without itineraries. All of these occurrences are similar to the “Life of Pi” in that a ‘measure of madness’ inside of each of us is being embraced.

This makes life interesting.

And isn’t that the point — take what makes us unique, therefore, inherently mad, and use it to keep life interesting?