Spoiler Alert: The Life of Pi and Plato

The allegory of the cave presented in Plato’s The Republic represents the idea that people perceive reality to be what is true for them. In other words, the way people see and think of the world, for them, is the way the world exists. In the cave, a group of prisoners were chained inside of a cave for their entre life. The prisoners could see the shadows of things that were casted on the wall that they faced. When one of the prisoners was freed, he was able to see the real fire and objects that created these shadows. While the prisoner eventually came to realize that these objects are more real than the shadows, when he returns to the cave, he was unable to convince the other prisoners.  Since the other prisoners did not experience this enlightenment, they feel no need to change their views on reality, views they held their entire lives.

 

Mara Lea Brown (2005) Plato's Allegory of the Cave

The other day I went to see The Life of Pi. Having not read the book, or even seeing the trailer, I did not really know what to expect. The movie was about a boy named Pi who was moving from India to Canada with his family. Within the first couple scenes, the boat they were traveling on got caught in a huge storm, and Pi was the only known human survivor. Pi lived on a lifeboat for 227 days with a Bengali Tiger named Richard Parker, a hyena, a zebra, and an orangutan that his father was planning to sell from the zoo they owned in India. The hyena kills the zebra and orangutan, and than Richard Parker kills the hyena.

The majority of the movie took place while Pi and Richard Parker were lost at sea. Pi had to be very innovative to find ways to make sure he and Richard Parker would survive, and that Richard Parker would not become a threat. At one point, they reach a mysterious island made of algae where Pi and the tiger are able to find food and temporary shelter. Pi realizes that the island turns carnivorous at night when he finds a tooth in one of the plants. Pi quickly leaves the island with Richard Parker, probably saving both of their lives.

 

Photo: Fimdrunk.com

When Pi finally reached the Mexican shore, people inevitably wanted to hear his story—especially to determine the cause of the accident. When Pi told the Japanese Ministry of Transport officials what he experienced, especially about the algae island, they did not believe him. They also did not believe the part when the zoo animals killed each other. Frustrated, Pi lied and told the officials a different story, one that omitted the mystery island and one where the animals were actually people that killed each other.

This reminded me of Plato’s cave metaphor because, since the officials did not witness Pi’s experience and it was not congruent with things they had experienced before, they had no reason to believe Pi. It was easier for them to believe his second story because it was more familiar to them. Just like the prisoners who never left the cave, the officials had never seen or heard of this island, so they thought it must be fictional.  

The two different stories presented by Pi also make the audience question which story is the truth. Unlike the Japanese officials, the audience watched Pi and Richard Parker the entire time. As a member of the audience, I watched the relationship develop between Pi and Richard Parker, and able to experience their emotions as they almost died together, reached Mexico together, and eventually went their separate ways. In a way, I was there with them. However, I still question which story was the truth. In the end, the audience was left to decide if the story we watched for past two hours was the truth, or if it was a hallucination (caused by his severe dehydration and starvation) that Pi believed to be true.

Personally, I think it was a combination of the two. I think in the beginning, Pi was able to see things as they happened: the hyena really killed the other animals, and Richard Parker killed the hyena. However, as time went on, Pi began to imagine things, such as the island, both as a result of his malnourishment and the need to remain alert and interested to avoid loosing hope.  

Photo: IMDB