# Writing > General Writing >  Life of Pi/ Magic realism

## Kontio18

I'm writing about the use of magic realism in this book for website, would really help if i could get some second opinions. Here goes:

Life of Pi tells the story of a sixteen year old, indian boy, lost at sea on a rowboat occupied by a fully grown tiger. With the supplies on the boat and his knowledge of animal behavior, Pi and the tiger learn to coexist. Deeper into the story, passed the telling of this unusual but completely plausible situation, they stumbles across an island. Though there are no other humans, the island appears as a safe haven for him and his tiger, but he soon begins to notice the supernatural characteristics of the island. In a fantasy book this is where the reader would become skeptical; begin to doubt the legitimacy of the novel. But Martel cleverly incorporates magical realism, and the reader begins to lose their sense of reality as Pi does. Instead of telling yourself while the island doesn't exist, you come up with reasons as to why it should, and the story of Pi Patel, a zookeepers son on a mysterious island that begins to try to eat him alive, comes across as a biography, not a fictional book. 

What would you change? Does this make you interested in the book? It would also be great if you could include weather you've read the book before, but opinions from people who haven't are just as valuable to me. Thanks in advance  :Smile:

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## YesNo

Instead of "while the island doesn't exist", I would say "that the island doesn't exist". Also instead of "the reader begins to lose their sense of reality as Pi does", I would say "the readers begin to lose their sense of ordinary reality as Pi does". Rather than "supernatural", I would use something like "unusual".

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## JCamilo

Magic Realism is not something you can use to dismiss the reader doubts and in the book, you are meant to doubt Pi's narration. The island and the man he killed were too fantastic for the characters in the story even to believe. They ask for him a new version and the prefer this version not because it is more real, but because it is less chocking than the alternative version without animals. In fact, this story is more "fantastical" in the sense Todorov defined - you doubt between real and fantasy. 

There is little of magic realism (the shipwreck is already something that remove us from the dailu mundane ocurrence) but if there is anything is in the fact Pi is a natural storyteller, like Garcia Marquez wanted to have in his books. His mutil-religious options also have a touch of magic realism, as it as a way to mix the european culture in latin american, with the native and african cultures and beliefs.

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## 108 fountains

I like the way you put: "Instead of telling yourself while the island doesn't exist, you come up with reasons as to why it should..." 

For myself, without getting into definitions of magical realism or what its purpose is, I found myself doubting the "realism" of the story long before he arrived on the island, and throughout the story was trying to figure out what the various "magical" characters and incidents represented. At the end, we finally understand what these things symbolized, and I like JCamilo's insight that the officials from the Japanese Ministry of Transport prefer the story with animals to the alternative version without animals not because the story with animals is more real, but because it is less shocking than the more believable story. A very interesting insight that we, as humans, prefer to believe in fantastical explanations for human behavior that can only be described as evil rather than admit we are capable of evil actions all on our own.

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## JCamilo

its an original copy, few changes made

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