Storytelling as a Survival Tactic: Comparing 'Life of Pi' and 'Big Fish'

Big` Fish and Life of Pi

The definition of story is “an account of imaginary or real people and events told for entertainment,” and both of these novels take this term to heart. Using their stories to hide their pain and emotions, it is easier to come up with a majestic tale then to tell the cold hard truth. In Life of Pi the author says, “That’s what fiction is about, isn't it, the selective transforming of reality? The twisting of it to bring out its essence,” (vi) and that is something both Edward Bloom and Pi Patel doesn’t. Despite Life of Pi and Big Fish’s obvious differences, they have one thing in common they both revolve around the topic of story telling. The novels are about struggling to come to terms with reality and being stuck

in a mythical, unrealistic story.
Life of Pi is a very complex novel.

The reader is meant to think Pi manages to survive about a year at sea with an adult bengal tiger, and considering the reader's knowledge so far in the novel that makes sense. Amazed by this idea, the reader continues, each chapter becoming more, and more intriguing. Until just about the last chapter this novel seems almost logical, despite its unrealistic premise. Yann Martel does such a good job of conveying such convincing information about Pi’s journey with Richard Parker that there is not a thought in the reader's mind that this could just be a story. When the Japanese officials from the Ministry of Transport come, Pi tells them his unbelievable story, and to them it is too unbelievable. They ask him to tell a new story, a more realistic one. And Pi does, one that doesn’t have tigers, zebras, orangoutangs, or hyenas. Instead it is a story of Pi, his mother, the cook from the boat, and the sailor. In this new story Pi is represented as the tiger, his mother is the orangoutang, the cook is the hyena, and the sailor is the injured zebra. As it turns out Pi’s unbelievable story might not be as unbelievable as the reader originally thinks. Pi, as said in the quote above, is twisting his story to bring out its essence whether that is on purpose or

subconscious.
The whole idea of Big Fish is that Edward Bloom is full of stories, so much that he is never telling the truth. His son doesn’t even know what is true and what is a story at this point. So when Edward Bloom is on his death bed his son, _______ _________, is trying to decipher his stories. Everyone seems have a hard time believing Edward Bloom. He is a kind of distant man and from his sons perspective he does not talk about anything substantial, whenever he talks he tells jokes instead of something meaningful. He seems to like staying at a distance never getting too close to someone, which is why he tells his story. Keeping himself at a distance costs him many of his relationships. He understands the idea of transforming reality, but I don’t think he quite understands it is to bring out the stories essence, he does it more for himself ,with pointless stories.