Download Essay answering the question: Analyse how the

Essay answering the question: Analyse how the presentation of
conflict helped develop your understanding of an important issue
idea or main theme.
In the novel Life Of Pi by Yann Martel conflict is presented on
many levels to develop the main theme of story telling and the
truth. The conflicts are not physical, they occur between religions,
the writing style of the book and other books, between fantasy and
reality and two parallel narratives. These conflicts eventually build
to form the idea that the truth maybe told in multiple ways.
The first conflict to occur is between religions. Pi is a child of 11
and at this point a dedicated Hindu, a devout Christian and a good
Muslim, how ever his religious leaders are unaware of his
additional practises. Pi and his family are approached by the three
holy men, and a conflict between religions breaks out. During the
conflict each religious leader dennounces the others storys rather
than any other aspect of the others faith. Christians are announced
to be fools who tried to kill God, Islam is described as boring
“without a single miracle to its name” and Hinduism is said to be “a
comic with Gods appearing everywhere”. While arguing the holy
men agree that “God is universal” and Pi exclaims “Bapu Ghandi
said all religions are true”. This conversation helps to reveal the
idea that the truth can be told in different through different stories
by providing religion as an example where the creation of the
universe is the truth and the religions provide different stories .
The next conflict occurs between writing styles in the novel. The
book is divided into four main parts. The italised segments which
occur through out the novel are written from the perspective of the
author meeting Pi, which makes the story sound very true. The first
main segment is very informitive, almost autobiographic. We are
given information on animals, zoos and Pi’s life. The second
segment starts when the ship Pi and his family is on sinks. This
part reads more like an adventure novel and is more exciting and
the information given in the first segment is given context. Then
the third portion of the book is a transcipt of an interview which is
unusual but adds to the credibility of the story. These conflicting
styles add to the idea that there are many ways to tell a story by
telling us a story in different ways while maintaining a truthful
credibility.
The most important conflict occurs in the final segment of the
book. It is a transcipt of an interview between Pi and two Japanese
insurance men investigating the sinking of the Tsim Tsum, the boat
Pi was on. The two men ask Pi how he survived and Pi tells the
story we are told, that Pi was on a life boat for 237 with a zebra,
hyena, orangutan and a tiger. The men are not satisfied, they ask
for another story without animals. Pi then tells a story replacing the
animals with people, the same key events occur. As the reader we
feel betrayed at this, the entire novel has been turned on its head,
everything we have been told during the story has been
contradicted. Then Pi says “I have provided you with two stories
which account for the last 237 days … which did you like best?”
Both men reply “The one with the animals”. This conflict of
narratives shows best the authors purpose and main theme, that a
story can be told in different ways and still tell the truth and that
often people will perfer to believe the better story.
The last conflict we notice is not within the novel at all but between
it and other similar novels. In most novels written in the first person
the narrator speaks directly to us and always tells us the truth. This
occurs in classic works such as To Kill A Mocking Bird and The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as well as in more recent
publishings like The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time.
Infact Huckleberry Finn tells us in the opening paragraph that “this
is a true story, mostly”, he is so honest he tells us that the truth
may have been stretched. How ever in life of Pi we are made to
believe one story through out the novel, then suddenly we are
betrayed as Pi tells another version of events which we take to be
more true. This conflict between other first person novels shows
that a story can be told in different ways by being an example of a
different way to tell one.
To conclude, Life of Pi effectively presents four different conflicts
on a number of different levels to develop the readers
understanding of the idea that a the truth can be told in numerous
different ways.