Life's ups and downs

an essay response to the novel Life of Pi, by Yann Martel

" Things didn’t turn out the way they were supposed to, but what can you do? You must take life the way it comes at you and make the best of it." (91) In the novel Life of Pi, Pi has trouble learning that things always won't go the way he expected. There are twists and turns in our life that can bring out the side of us that is not normal, almost as if we are the opposite bad side of what we are. Life is a wonderful thing full of joy, but when something goes wrong the whole world turns into chaos and we are scared that our lives will never be the same. It is then when we are crumbling down at on our knees that we show our true selves. This is the experience Pi has in the novel.

Fear is a necesary part of life for us to face those chaotic moments." I must say a word about fear. It is life's only true opponent." (161) Pi grows up in a zoo that is filled with dangerous animals. He has learned about each one and he knows many facts. When Pi's dad tells him that the tiger is the most feared animal, Pi was scared of the tiger from then on. When we see things on tv or hear things that are scary, we control our mind so that we fear what is not real. If someone hated bees, then they would be scared to go outside. But really bees won't attack you unless you provoke them. Yann Martel is saying we fear only what we want to fear.

We use beliefs to help guide us through rough times."What was the point of plotting a course if I could not act on it?" (193) When we think to do something yet we are sitting there just thinking and not actually doing it we are not acting upon it. In a terrible boat accident, Pi was stranded in the middle of the ocean with a tiger. Though none may believe this, we must ask ourselves were we acutally there to see it happen? We cant believe what we don’t see right? How will we know for sure weather it is true or not? The Bible as example is a book that tells us of stories, that were important in the pastimes. Also it makes us believe that Jesus really existed. But we weren't there and yet we still believe all those things.

Even when things do get hard, God places beauty in our midst to help us get through"Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it."(6) Pi realized that life means more than riches, there are other things more beautiful than money. When Pi looks over the boat in the water he sees something so amazing and beautiful, a city of fish that gleamed brighter than the sun. When Pi catches the first dorado he starts to cry because it is such a beautiful animal with its scales shining like a rainbow. In life we think that money means everything. But we miss the small things that are greater than any money. God gave us this beautiful earth so that we could take care of it and love it.

Though life has its struggles it was meant to be this way so that it will be worth it."You must fight hard to shine the light of word upon it. Because if you don't, if your fear becomes a …..." (162) When Pi is stuck in the boat he thinks about how his life was hard and how he had to fight to be normal. In life we expect it to be easy. But the reality of it is life must be worked for. We go through school and many other things to help us realize life can't be a easy pass by. It is worked for. With hard work comes reward. When we do bad our fear of life becomes so real we are scared of fear itself. We destroy ourselves looking over our past when in our present we are working hard. God told Adam and Eve when they ate of the fruit that life would be very hard and there would be struggling and pain.

Fear is what we need to be able to control and have a worth living life. We know that things exist when we see them. In life we watch things and believe that they actually happened. Life is all about the beauty that God gave us so that we can focus on other things than riches. Struggling is only the part of life that we all must go through. It will be there and when we get through it, it will all be worth it at the end. In the novel Life of Pi, Pi goes through all these things and he struggled with them as he learned that amazing things can happen.