Life of Pi & Big Fish

Few days ago our class watched a movie call, Big Fish. This movie is talking about a man name Edward and how he loves to tell stories to other people. Many people love his stories, but his son, William, rejects it a lot. William feels like everything his dad says is a lie, and he is just making up stuff and covering the true side of him with fake stories. He shows disfavour to his dad and his stories, and their relationship become really bad. Until one day, he recieves the news of his father's illness, and starting from this day, he begin to see the real stories of his dad which at last help him to understand his dad "truely".

Many things inside the movie line up with  Life of Pi, the character are similar and the events in the movie reminds me of different things that happened in Life of Pi.
So the connect between the character in both stories look like this to me:

Edward = Pi

William = Mr. Okamoto and Mr. Chiba

Big Fish = Richard Parker

Major events that happened:
Spectra = the Island
pond near Spectra = Tree in the island

Some other things that are similar:

-both have color symbolism

-teaches similar lesson: importance of story telling
-leap of faith

Now let's begin with the characters.

Edward inside Big Fish, loves to tell stories, he even tell stories of himself on his son's wedding! Just like Pi, he tells stories, his own stories. Edward's son, William was frustrated about his dad's stories, because he keep on telling it over and over again, and some of the things inside the story seems to be unrealistic and impossible to happen; William doubt his dad's word and he feel like he can't see the true side of his dad. Now Mr. Okamoto and Mr. Chiba are a lot like him, they doubt Pi's word. They think many things inside his stories are unbelievable, although they tried to believe in some part of the story, they still find it difficult. William and the two Japanese men both ask Edward/Pi to tell the "truth", but to them, what they telling is the "truth".
Now, the big fish and Richard Parker, they both play a really important role in the story. Although it seems like Edward/Pi and big fish/Richard Parker are seperate individauls, and that they are both friends and enemy to the each other, but the truth is, to Edward/Pi, big fish/Richard Parker represent a part of them, or IT IS them. We will understand more as we go on.

Next let's see how the events lined up. In the beginning of both stories, we can see how the author introduces the main character to us; their specialty, interest, and characteristic marks. Now in the Big Fish, Edward got into a really weird and unknow town-Spectra, it totally reminds me of the island inside Life of Pi! Both Spectra and the island are unknown and unexpected place for Edward/Pi. They are just there and it looks like a source of happiness and hope for both characters, but there are so many things that cannot be explained inside either places. Spectra is beautiful, the grass are really green and the temperatures are perfect, people don't wear their shoe and they just enjoy life! The island is just floating in the middle of Pacific ocean and it's covered with merkats and algae, there are fish to eat and fresh water to drink, so to Pi, it's his source of life. But as both character spend more time there, they realize that they are blinded by the surface of each place, the happy and hopeful part, so they leave because they know there will be danger if they stay. For Pi, his life will be in danger and for Edward, his time will be delay (you can see from the poet there, he's doing nothing and his time is delayed).

There's another thing that are similar inside both stories. In Big Fish, Edward tells his story about seeing a pond with a naked woman inside and a snake slowly approaching her. It's like the story of Eve when she was inside the garden of Eden, and the serpant, or Satan, slowly approaches her. And in Life of Pi, we see how Pi describes the island, the tree in the middle and also the fruits on the tree. When Pi was looking from below, the fruits on the tree look delicious and beautiful, so he climbed up the tree just to take a closer look of it. When he picked up the fruit, he realizes that it was a little bit different than what it seems like down there. So he examines it and sees that the fruit is actually a bunch of branches surrounding a tooth.

These two stories are like the first and the second parts of the story of Eve. The serpant approached Eve and decieved her with his word, Eve took the fruit and tasted it, and she realized the evilness of the fruit. It is not until Pi really sees it with his own eye the truth about the fruit that he sense the danger of the island. And it is probably the same with Edward, these are the reasons that make them want to leave the place they thought it was nice and comfortable.

There are a couple of color symbolism in the movie. Inside the Big Fish, we see how the people in the town all dress in white and pastel cloth, this symbolize pure, young, good, and clean. In the Life of Pi, we see the color grey which represent the sky and Pi's feeling when he was leaving the island. Grey symbolize trouble, old, sadness, boring, and solid. There's also green which symbolize life and youth inside the life of Pi, but throughout the story, the color orange appears the most.

The life jacket, the whistle that use to tame Richard Parker, Richard Parker, the cat Yann Martel saw when visiting Pi's house, and Orange Juice. Orange symbolizes hope and survival. Pi's whole story is a survival, the life jacket, whistle, and Orange Juice are a emotional support and hope that keep Pi alive. And Richard Parker, is his threat and hope. So we see how color symbolism play a great role inside both stories.

Near the end we see how William in Big Fish, tries to find out the truth about his dad's stories-the stories that he doubt, and he found out that a lot of things are actually true, like he found a letter which proves that his dad actually served at the military before and he also found the girl that he thought his dad has affair with. That lady told William what happened, and William starts to realize the "truth" that he was seeking acutally lines up with his dad's stories. Now in the story of Pi, Mr.Okamoto and Mr. Chiba don't believe in a lot of stuff, especially that a banana floats and the island is full of merkats, but they test and see it for themselves, that a banana actually do floats and they also saw the bones that remain on Pi's boat are similar to what he decribed.

Dry and yeastless

At the end, William and Mr.Okamoto/Mr.Chiba finally decide to take the original version of the story, they chose to believe in the things they first doubt because they understand something about it-the importance of story telling. People loves stories, and that's how it is. In both of the stories, we see story within a story within a story. Pi and Edward are not liars, because each version of the story contain a different kind of truth. One story may be factually true, but it loses in approaching the emotional truth that the other version offers. We can see how Pi and Edward loves stories and disdain dry, yeastless factuality. That's why they told the other version of the story, when the story structure lines up the same but the the theme and the emotion was uplifted, and people loves the stories they told, because this inspire them and extend their imagination to another level of faith. Although many things they said may seem to be unbelievable and it will take you a leap of faith to believe in it, but it's the version that most people enjoyed, the version that motivates their heart and spirit.

Finally, we see how the ends go. William tells his dad's last story to him, with everybody hid dad had mentioned in his stories before, visiting him. Everybody was smiling and they run to the river together. And at last, after his dad returns the ring to his wife, he sinks into the river and turns into the Big Fish. Now in the story of Pi, we see how Pi approaches the coast of Mexico and how Richard Parker jumped out of the boat and left without saying good-bye. Although the stories are kind of different in this case, but actually it represent the same truth. Edward is the Big Fish, and Pi is Richard Parker. They both tells an increadible tale about a humanlike animal, which we found out later that represent themselves. Edward told stories about the fish, his imagination of another side of himself, his enemies but also his friend.

When we see at the end Edward returns the ring to his wife it will remind us in the beginning when he said that the fish can be attracted by nothing except the ring, or the marriage between his wife and himself. But returning the ring doesn't mean he wants to forgot or leave behind this marriage, it is just a way of telling his wife that he'll always be there and she doesn't has to forget him. Then he turns into the fish, what he always were, the stories that were told by him, was told so many times that he become the story, and he will live on in that way, in another sense, he become immortal. And the "real story" make the boundaries between the truth and imagination seems to be less important (when we see the whole story in this persepctive).

Now Pi, on the other hand, has Richard Parker leaving him. They had been spending a total of 227 days on the boat and now he is leaving him without even looking back! And he is just gone, gone forever. But the truth is, Pi is Richard Parker. And the whole story is actually a recast from Pi to help him disavow the truth other people were looking for, it doesn't mean that he is not accepting what had happened as something real, it's just because the truth of the story is too hard for a young boy like him to bare. So he uses the technique of story telling and split the violent, ferocious side of his personality into Richard Parker, his enemy and friend, so he didn't have to face the true and cruel side of the story, after all, he already knew it himself, but sense this is going to be a story that will become a history, why not make it an interesting one? A story that is more amusing but yet it'll not lose its true side. And it is this that motivate Edward and Pi to tell stories that can warm our hearts. So at the end when we see Richard Parker walking away, we know that it's to Pi, a type of release to his violent personality, because he know that he is saved and this side of him will (hopefully) not come out again. Richard Parker is not gone and the story is not gone, it will be preserved in Pi's heart forever and it will continue to be a part of him.

Often time we as human understand a lot about ourself, we have a conscience. And sometimes we will have this thought inside our mind that go against- and to- something, because we can have two thoughts towards each event, the positive and negative part. So this two part of ourselves will be split into two individual, and it will be a tale to us. Edward and Pi just made it into something more interesting, a humanlike animal, their enemy and friend forever, because this is true for all of us. Our own character can be seen as anything according to our own thoughts, just like the fish that Edward saw in the pond. So it is up to us what we want to be and what type of story we want to make our life into so that it will not just be a dry, yeastless facuatlity.