Before writing this book report, my mind was a little disorganized regarding the plot and deeper meaning of the book, Life of Pi. I reviewed plenty of opinions online and was pretty astonished at how meaningful the book was.
Pi, the hero, went to Canada by sea, for business, with his parents and his brother. Unfortunately, the ship sank one night during a storm. Neither crew or passengers were left alive, except for Pi and a few animals: a mouse, an orangutan, a zebra, a hyena, and a massive tiger named Richard Parker. All the weaker animals were eaten by the hyena, which was afterwards eaten by the tiger. Finally, two survivors were left on the boat – Pi and the tiger called Richard Parker. Left with barely any food after several days, Pi began to catch fish in cooperation with Richard Parker. During this period, dozens of troubles arose: attack by sharks, storms, and even the appearance of a cannibal island. Pi and Richard Parker end the adventure speechless on a beach 237 days after the ship sank.
  

With confusion, I finished reading the final chapter, in which Pi told two Japanese officials about the experience, and changed all the animals into people. Wondering and confused, I turned to the reviews online. Several sources said that, in fact, what the writer tried to conceal was that it should be a story without animals but humans. In my own view, Richard Parker, the tiger, stood for Pi himself. Mother was the orangutan; father, the zebra, and brother, the hyena. The brother murdered his parents and at the same time angered Pi, who immediately became Richard Parker, and killed his brother.

Belief and growth are tightly coupled to be two kernels. My first view of the book could be described as: boring! Nearly one third of the plot revolved around Pi’s beliefs in Hinduism, Christianity and Islam. However, after analyzing the book, I understood one of the reasons Pi stayed alive and kept growing: belief. Compared to his evil brother, Pi was the one who had belief, lacked guilt, could be the last survivor, and who grew as a person.  The animalistic side of human nature, also considered the main idea of the book, was shown in many ways. For example, when the food supply ran out, Pi hesitated a bit, but finally broke his vegetarian diet and even fought with Richard Parker the tiger to get some fish. Generally speaking, the tiger was the animal side of Pi. Although in real life, humans try to resists their animalistic sides, sometimes, they are forced to confront this side of their personalities.

Changes in Pi could be seen. He grew from a human being who believed, into a person with animalistic tendencies necessary for survival, and this is true natural law, which cruelly choses the fittest for survival.

I remember the part of the story when Richard Parker left Pi. Pi wept with broken heart for a long time for his lost friend. He described Richard Parker as, “companion of my torment, awful, fierce thing that kept me alive, [who] moved forward and disappeared forever from my life”. Indeed, this suggests not only nature that is cruel but also that Pi had shed his animalistic nature.

If it was up me to judge the book in a word, I would say that it is a choice between belief and animal nature.