The Life of Pi is EPIC.

No other word is able to fully encapsulate this story. Life of Pi is an amazing tale of survival with a deep rooting in the religious facet. Each word is meticulously written and heavily articulate; fleshing out the world it sets itself in completely. The situations seem so very real from the protagonist’s, Pi’s, early religious life to his grand tale of strife and survival on the high seas. The minutest details are blown out of proportion, making it all seem as if they were matters of life or death; it’s awe inspiring. Although this entire tale of epic proportions happens in the real world locations, from Pondicherry, India to the Pacific Ocean and all the way to Mexico, and at real times, the 1980s, the events are unbelievable, almost impossible feats that go against logic and reason.

Besides lack of a better word, it must be stressed that Life of Pi is, indeed, epic in the literary sense of the word. As has been have said, it is written in a majestic style, grand and awe inspiring, and is partially based on a real time frame. Furthermore, it patterns itself after the Monomyth’s hero cycle, the universal pattern of mythic tales and the path which its heroes take.

In a typical epic style, the story starts in the middle of things, or more accurately, it starts at the end Pi’s tale when he has matured into adulthood. Continuing the pattern, the whole story is revealed through an enormous and elaborate flashback of his life. Beginning with his early childhood, it details his ordinary life as the son of a zookeeper while experiencing a series of religious epiphanies. In relation to the hero cycle, this would be the life before crossing the threshold. A series of events lead Pi’s father to embark on a maritime voyage to Canada from India. It was he who became the first helper on Pi’s heroic journey along with the rest of the Patel family. Ravi, Pi’s brother, continuously reassured the family by shouting, "adventure beckons!”

This couldn’t have been closer to the truth for, in light of the hero cycle, this would literally be the Call to Adventure, which would officially begin Pi’s heroic journey. Signifying the beginning of a series of challenges,

Pi answered the Call,

despite uncertainty, and set forth with his family, the first set of helpers on his journey.

He crossed the threshold and was violently thrust into a world that went against all that he knew. Alone and vulnerable, he was a mere boy trapped on board a tiny life boat alone except for the wild animals accompanying him, most notably an adult Bengal tiger. This was his first test, one to test his mettle: survive the animals sharing the life boat. Upon succeeding this test, the second helper made its appearance as none other than the tiger, which still posed as much threat as ever before, yet assisted Pi by keeping him sane against the maddening isolation on the high seas. Ordeals continued to pour down upon him, taking the form of the hunger, thirst, fear and the ocean itself, all of which were graphically described. He was able to triumph over each and every one of them. The last of his tests was an island of carnivorous nature, which he managed to escape. His flight from the island to solid land was the supreme ordeal followed by the flight, the final stretch in the hero cycle. Upon returning, he was welcomed as a hero of sorts by his fellow men, locals of Mexico, and comes to be respected for his courage and grit. Ultimately, as he sinks back into ordinary life, he walks away from these trials with some money and, the greatest boon of all, his own life and future.

Take note that the story is written with extreme detail and how it brings out the beauty of the story. With such precision, everything seems so very real. Set in the Pacific Ocean, the setting is undoubtedly real. Thirst, hunger and fear are some of the difficulties one would really face when lost at sea. Although raised as a vegetarian, he learned how to become a cold blooded killer and live off the sea, casting aside his views on the sanctity of all life. It's cruel but completely valid. The Life of Pi is so very real, as graphically testified by the books vividly described chapters. However, at the same time, it’s surreal, easily surpassing what we would recognize as realistic. Imagine this: a mere boy, a physically frail and vulnerable adolescent, is lost at sea for over two hundred days with an adult tiger on board with nothing but his wits and small store of food and tools and manages to survive the trip. During his time at sea, he, despite being blinded at one point and drifting according the ocean currents, managed to find another cast-away, blind just as he was and equally unable to chart his course. Truly bizarre is this: he discovers an island made entirely of carnivorous algae inhabited by a colony of meerkats. All logic aside, yes, he managed to find meerkats thriving in the middle of the ocean. To top it all off, at the mercy of the wild and unpredictable ocean and against all reasonable likelihood, his life boat managed to safely land on the coast of Mexico. It’s simply astounding. It's unbelievable.

It’s a heavily realistic book, to be sure. Describing all events in such vivid detail, Pi’s day to day chores on the life boat to taming Richard Parker are brought to life. However, Life of Pi is unbelievable to a certain degree. Despite the high sense of realism present, entwined with it are events that border on magic. Although not quite magic in nature since they are plausible, they are unbelievable and highly improbable. This gives it a feeling of magic but not overwhelmingly so, unlike what one would expect from a whole work of fiction. Make no mistake, Life of Pi is, in fact, not fiction at all, but rather it stands as a work of magic realism, which, in a nutshell, is a series of unbelievable events occurring in real world setting.

More than an epic, Life of Pi is a myth that follows, consciously or not, in footsteps of its Greek predecessors. Greek myths somehow resemble magic realism in that it happens in real places and extraordinary events take place though the heroes present accept them as if they were nothing out of the ordinary. Like the Greek stories, imagination roams freely, often times taking precedence over the realistic but still exists harmoniously with them. Gods and acts of incredible nature are inserted everywhere. In stories such as these, the impossible becomes possible.

Modern writers look, in one way or another, to Greek stories as a means of inspiration or guidance as they write down their own myths. Life of Pi, apart from resembling the pattern of Greek epics, carries Greek aspects in that it holds a man at the center of its story, utilizes real life references for locations and god plays a role in the stories. It is impossible then to shake free from the gripping influence of the Greeks. Beautiful though rough, these stories have been taken by contemporary writers and refined. Throughout the ages, they have been specialized and made more appropriate for the audience at hand.

Writers today can refine but never replace the foundations laid down by the Greeks.

In one way or another Life of Pi is rooted in the Greek myths.

Over two thousand years ago, the Greeks wrote down their stories on both of the gods and heroes. At the time, they were entertaining stories meant to instill a sense of awe, to give form to the dreams of the people and, at times, to explain all manner of phenomena in their lives as best they could. It could not have been known to them that these stories would go beyond the tiny confines of Greece; over time they spread throughout the world, greatly influencing the world of literature. Their works have become the template, the paragon of a well written story, whether a comedy, tragedy, epic or myth. Centuries have passed and still they endure, strong and proud.

Life of Pi, much like the Greek's works, seeks to explain. However, like the Greek works, it, too, should not be taken on face value but should be analyzed to uncover the universal truth within. In Life of Pi's case it deals with the thin line between man and beast and how faith is a powerful factor in deciding how strong the division is and which side we stay on. Strong influence from God, or gods, was integral in the Greek myths. A modern epic, this is the journey of a man as he travels to and from the unknown. He is at the center, the hero, of his epic tale.

It's more Greek than what one would think.

The foundation of the Greek myths is further rooted in a general concept: life, any person’s life, my own included.

Strip a myth down and what you are left with is the story of a person, a parallelism on a person’s life itself.  Just like myths, our lives revolve around ourselves; I play the hero in my life. Following the hero cycle, I am placed in a mundane world and am called to do something with it. I am helped by my friends to accomplish the day’s tasks and ultimately accomplish a greater goal I have set for myself. In the end, I retire home with my boon: growth as a person.

Greek literature, therefore, is more than the timeless template of literature; it is the template of life.

Life is

EPIC.

Sources for pictures:

http://www.johnelkington.com/weblog/Life%20of%20Pi.jpg

http://www.torjanac.com/images/tt-pi_20.jpg

http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Books/Pix/pictures/2007/10/05/parker460.jpg

http://www.purselipsquarejaw.org/uploaded_images/offermann_pi-725008.jpg

http://theepicbeat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Pi.jpg

http://www.apple-pine.com/images/bk/bk_01_pi_l.jpg

http://www.terry.ubc.ca/wp-content/uploads/tt-pi_07.jpg

http://rgr-static1.tangentlabs.co.uk/media/9780156030205/life-of-pi.jpg

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rd27GG_0AJU/SdFI9f154MI/AAAAAAAADTw/1vozcFiZg8I/s400/life+of+pi.jpg

http://neilcomics.com/lifeofpi_small.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1147/564964315_2f6a3bdcd1.jpg