Life of Pi

After 227 days adrift, Pi's lifeboat washes ashore on a beach in Mexico. Richard Parker, the Bengal tiger who has been his companion and antagonist throughout the ordeal, leaps out and disappears into the jungle without a backward glance, leaving Pi devastated by the lack of any acknowledgment or farewell after everything they survived together.

Pi is found and taken to a hospital in Mexico, where two officials from the Japanese Ministry of Transport come to interview him about the sinking of the Tsimtsum for their investigation. He tells them the full story of his 227 days at sea with the hyena, the zebra, the orangutan Orange Juice, and Richard Parker. The officials find this account impossible to believe.

Pi then offers them a second, entirely human version of the same events: he was adrift with a Taiwanese sailor with a broken leg, the ship's cook, and his own mother. In this version, the cook amputates the sailor's leg for fishing bait and the sailor dies; the cook is later caught eating human flesh; Pi's mother strikes the cook after he hits Pi, leading to a violent fight in which the cook kills Pi's mother. Pi then kills the cook and eats him to survive. The officials recognize the parallels: the hyena maps to the cook, the zebra to the sailor, the orangutan to Pi's mother, and the tiger to Pi himself.

Pi points out that neither story can be verified and neither explains why the ship sank, then asks the investigators which story they prefer. They admit they prefer the story with the animals. Pi replies, "And so it goes with God," and thanks them. The officials depart and file their official report stating they believe the first story—the one with the animals—leaving the reader to decide for themselves which version is true.