The novel Life of Pi demonstrates throughout the book the conflict of reconciliation between illusion and reality. Self-perception is a person's ability to hear, see, or become aware of things through their senses. This is demonstrated through the main character of the story, Pi, who goes through conflicts and expectations but quickly realizes the reality of certain situations. Pi from the beginning to the end of the book shows how self-perception helped him reconcile his conflicts between illusion and reality by overcoming adversities and tribulations. This essay will discuss how Pi expects to be Richard Parker but rather build a relationship between them. He will discuss faith and how Pi was exploring different religions, but his parents didn't accept them, which made things harder for him. In the novel Life of Pi, author Yann Martel demonstrates the role self-perception plays through Pi, testing his faith and accepting his trials and tribulations that he encountered with Richard Parker better known as the Tiger. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay Pi's life revolves around the tiger and Pi and the journey on a boat from India to Canada, and on the boat there were many animals but due to starvation the last one left was Richard Parker. When Pi wakes up on the boat he notices the sleeping tiger and automatically becomes worried and begins to contemplate many emotions. One, which is death where Pi says, “Only death constantly excites your emotions, whether contemplating it when life is safe and stale, or fleeing it when life is threatened and precious,” Pi immediately thinks of this idea after mentioning the feelings of being fearful and boredom. Death almost becomes an idea when the water is calm. Pi already thinks that he will eventually be killed by the tiger because Richard Parker will be hungry. However, instead of being scared and worried, Richard Parker and Pi build a co-dependent bond with each other, where Richard Parker relies on Pi to feed him by fishing and Richard Parker will maintain Pi's will to stay alive with his presence . A good example that comes up in the story is when an intruder comes to the boat and tries to kill both Pi and the tiger. Richard Parker kills the intruder saving Pi. This scene in the story goes back to showing the feelings Richard Parker developed towards Pi and how the conflict was reconciled by illusion versus reality where Pi expected to be killed by the tiger but rather built a relationship and protected himself each other. In Life of Pi, there is a constant tussle for Pi between the illusion of faith and his reality. At the beginning of the novel Pi tells the audience that he wants to explore all the religions he can learn about. Pi's parents find out that Pi practices Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity from a priest they had come across. This situation makes it more difficult for Pi to practice his religions because, by observing him, people would judge how he practices different cultures. Pi imagined that this process of telling his parents about his different practices would be easy, he would learn everything he needed to know about all the faiths and once he approached his family about what he would decide to baptize, he too would simple state. The reality of the moment is that his parents did not accept his beliefs and made it difficult for him to be baptized. As time passes and he faces paths and difficulties with his parents, Pi's parents accept him and give him a prayer mat and baptize him. Having a strong faith for Pi was crucial in the story, as after being baptized and losing his family, the only thing he had left was faith and.