Even though the act of surviving and living can share common factors, In Life of Pi, Pi tells a story of survival compared to Big Fish where Edward Bloom tells a story of life and is conveyed as two completely different lifestyles. Pi tells his story as he has to do anything to be alive, and overcoming many obstacles such as staying alive with all the animals on the raft with him and changing his beliefs, developing as a character mentally and physically, in order to survive. Edward Bloom tells his story as how he makes his life better by chasing the girl of his dreams just so he can be happy, Edward does not develop as character, he continues his beliefs of storytelling and maintains his emotions as a joyful and positive man. In many situations …show more content…
Pi, a very religious person, abandons his beliefs when he comes face to face with death. Pi chose the path of abandoning his belief but Edward did not, for the simple fact that he wasn't at risk of his life. Pi had many religious beliefs, he was a vegetarian until he was on the verge of death; " Lord, to think that I'm a strict vegetarian. To think that I was a child I always shuddered when I snapped open a banana because it sounded to me like the breaking of an animal's neck. I descended to a level of savagery I never imagined possible" (Martel 218) said Pi as he went from being scared of being opening a banana to eating a banana and breaking his tradition as a vegetarian, by killing fishes and eating them, and opening a banana without second guessing himself; all these events are caused by survival instincts. In contrast, Edward had some beliefs to such as storytelling and creative imagination, but his beliefs didn't change even though he is really sick in the hospital, " Do I? I saw an iceberg once. They were hauling it down to Texas for drinking water, only they didn't count on an elephant being frozen inside. The woolly kind. A mammoth" (Burton, Bigfish) this was told by Edward to his son, Will, when Will asked about icebergs. Edwards did not abandon his beliefs for the simple reason that he wasn't in a situation where he's faces death face to face, even though he knew he is going to die he chose to make a better lifestyle by telling his son another story. Pi's as a character developed through his journey on the life boat, he started eating meats such as turtles, dorados, flying fish, and more, yet Edward remained telling his stories even when he was ill. In a situation of survival ones whole character can change, in Pi's situation he chose to abandon his beliefs, made him a stronger person and kept him alive, in Edwards point of view he did not