People's outlooks on life are always different. If you had three people who witnessed the exact same situation, and asked them to tell what they believe had happened, you would have three variations of the same story. All people want the truth, and these variations in stories make it hard to find. In the novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel, everyone is searching for the truth despite the obstacles of other's dissimilar ideas.
Early on in the novel, Pi Patel explores several different religions. Being born a Hindu, Pi's family does not accept his new curiosities. Pi looks for the truth through his many religions, but the people around him confuse him with their idea that a person can only practice one religion. "Piscine's piety is admirable. In these troubled times it's good to see a boy so keen on God. We all agree on that. But he can't be a Hindu, a Christian and a Muslim. It's impossible. He must choose." (69) Regardless of other's opinions, he remains committed to the three religions. Like many others in the world, Pi believes that you don't have to believe just one thing. There are vast possibilities of what could be true, so why not discover them all?
Eventually, Pi makes it to land after months of being at sea. Two men from the Japanese government come to the young boy to interview him about his journey after the Tsimtsum had sunk. Pi first tells them his story of being in the lifeboat with a Bengal tiger, meeting another blind man in the middle of the ocean, and the carnivorous island. The men, only searching for the truth, don't believe Pi's odd story. Pi doesn't understand why they won't accept his story, seeing as they weren't there, how could they judge what had happened? "Love is hard to believe, ask any lover. Life is hard to believe, ask any scientist. God is hard to believe, ask any believer. What is your problem with hard to believe?" (297)
"I know what you want. You want a story that won't surprise you. That will confirm what you already know. That won't make you see higher or further or differently. You want a flat story. An immobile story. You want dry, yeastless factuality." (302) Pi ultimately gives up on convincing the two men to believe his first story, so he tells them "the truth," a more realistic one. His second story stated that four had survived and made it to the lifeboat-- Pi, Pi's mother, the cook, and the sailor. The cook ends up killing both the sailor and Pi's mother, leaving only Pi and himself. The two men seemed content with this story, but they both noticed similarities between the two. "Both the zebra and the Taiwanese sailor broke a leg, did you notice that? And the hyena bit off the zebra's leg just as the cook cut off the sailor's… So the Taiwanese sailor is the zebra, his mother is the orang-utan, the cook is…the hyena--which means he's the tiger" (311) Neither of the men think about the similarities for long, though, because all they wanted was the more believable truth.
Someone's perception of one thing can be completely different from another's on the exact same thing, and because of that truth is often hard to come by in this world we live in. Pi, along with many people in the book, are seeking it non-stop. Despite the obstacles of other's dissimilar ideas, everyone is searching for the truth in the novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel.
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