LOP Compare and Contrast Essay
Introduction: Was Life of Pi a true story of a boy stuck out in sea for 7 months with a Bengal tiger, or all a lie that constantly toyed with our brains? This was a question that always kept readers of the book and viewers of the movie perplexed about which story was the accurate one and is what made it such a success. In the movie, Ang Lee directs the story with his own take on a vast variety of visual details. The book however has many contrasting ideas and themes with the movie. There are many similarities and differences in the book and movie, but some overall themes are Pi and his struggles, the supporting characters, and Pi’s relationship with animals being portrayed in both but sometimes …show more content…

Mr. Kumar is Pi's biology teacher at his school who is also an active Communist. He is Pi's favorite teacher, and an atheist who sees the zoo as his temple. However, the other Mr. is a Muslim and a baker, with coincidentally the same name as the biology teacher. Satish the baker teaches Pi about Islam. His biology teacher influences him to study zoology in college while the baker helps lead Pi to study religion at college. The mentality of both Kumar’s are like a paradox; both believe in completely opposite ideas religiously, yet both believe strongly about their belief. This was how Pi was able to tolerate all religions and the people that follow them because he saw them from different viewpoints from the two. They were left out of the film, where Pi’s father took some traits from the atheist Satish Kumar and the Muslim Satish Kumar was never shown but in his place Ang Lee decided to put in a love interest for Pi. The final difference between the two versions is the relationship between Pi and Richard Parker shown. In the film it shows that only after a few tries, Pi is able to gain as much territory as he likes on the lifeboat but Richard Parker continuously shows signs of aggression. The book, however, shows that Pi is knows a lot about animals from being raised practically in the zoo. He is very watchful around the adult Bengal tiger and knows the damage he can cause, but Pi gradually makes it clear that he is the alpha and Richard is the omega on the life