In the Life of Pi, by Yann Martel, the author presents the fantastical journey of a 16 year old boy named Pi. Pi’s companions in the boat include a Bengal tiger, hyena, orangutan, and zebra. Through irrationality and ambiguity, Martel presents Pi’s world of fantasy. He uses the irrationality of Richard Parker and the ambiguity of the two stories to help shape up and generate this alternate reality. The role of irrationality in the Life of Pi helps create the mood and setting of the story. Martel uses irrationality while portraying the unbelievable situation Pi goes through with Richard Parker. In the novel, the first story is completely irrational. It is unbelievable that a boy survives 227 days with a Bengal tiger. A warrant in the story is that tigers are known to be violent and ferocious; thus, it is impossible for any human to survive with such beast. Martel presents an alternate reality when Pi and Richard Parker have a conversation. A moment of disbelief is…show more content… Pi is presented as a dangerous tiger because he becomes a different person in order to survive. “To think that when I was a child I always shuddered when I snapped open a banana because it sounded to me like the breaking of an animal neck” (Martel 197). Pi begins a journey as an innocent 16 year old kid. “Tears flowing down my cheeks, I egged myself on until I heard a cracking sound and I no longer felt any life fighting in my hands” (Martel 183). Pi has a hard time killing fish, but knows that he has to kill them to survive, both he and Richard Parker. “I went about the job in a direct way. I took the hatchet in both hands and vigorously beat the fish on the head with the hammerhead” (Martel 185). After a while, Pi does not care about killing the fishes. He is now a different person from the person he was before. Pi says, “It is simple and brutal: a person can get used to anything, even killing” (Martel