The power of imagination can give humans the willpower to accomplish anything. In the book Life of Pi by Yann Martell Imagination helped Pi, the main character, through his long journey aboard a lifeboat. Throughout this story Pi encounters many different situations where he needs to use his imagination. Towards the end of the book you as the reader have the option of believing the story you just read or a second story, a more vulgar and less interesting story. As a reader you need to use your imagination just like Pi needed to use his imagination. Imagination allowed Pi to survive by keeping him sane, protecting him, and ultimately acquiring the characteristics to tell a good story. Imagination played an important role behind the scenes in the book Life of Pi. “This was the terrible cost of Richard Parker” As a reader, this passage makes you think that Richard Parker was a burden to Pi, that there was nothing positive that came from this extraordinary creature. Richard Parker was more than just an idea conceived by Pi, Richard Parker was Pi's consciousness/himself. The first line of this passage represents imagination, as Richard Parker is Pi's imagination would result in this was the terrible cost of my imagination. When Pi sees Richard Parker attack the cannibal, he says "Something in me died and never came back to life." This has a more spiritual meaning than literal in the way Pi says it. This means that when he "imagines" this man being killed it shows how cruel life can be even when he looks to God for answers. The reason why Richard Parker is Pi's imagination is because over the course of this book Richard Parker has imitated exactly what Pi did. For example the moment when both... middle of the paper... the other because you find it more interesting, more intriguing. Just like that Pi told his story using his imagination, it allowed for a more beautiful story. After all, Yann Martel said "Lack imagination and you miss the best story." Passage: “This was the terrible cost of Richard Parker…. Then something died in me that never came back to life. Page 2552. “I was truly alone, an orphan not only of my family, but now of Richard Parker, and almost, I thought, of God” Chapter 943. “'Perhaps a ff-failure of oxygenation of the bb-brain,' and, until ultimately, they lack imagination and miss out on the best story. Page 64Thesis 2: Imagination allowed Pi to survive by keeping him sane, protecting him, and finally acquiring the characteristics to tell a good story. Works Cited Martel, Yann. Life of Pi: A Novel. New York: Harcourt, 2001. Print.