Around the globe humanity has told stories face-to-face. Presently in modern times, we commonly know that stories come in written documents. Frequently, the written documents are constructed by man. In addition, there is always a call for as in why the document has been written- there was a purpose that mostly reflected the author's past. Therefore, Yann Martel had a reason in writing the Life of Pi. Yann Martel used to live in Canada, and he wrote Life of Pi during his journey to India, in which many claim that it is flourishing with animals and religions (.). Taking into account that Life of Pi is also set in India and the voyage was to Canada. In addition, Pi had also devoted himself to three religions. In this case, the journey could absolutely play a factor in the purpose of why Martel had written the story (.). On the other hand, another factor had been Max and the Cats. Max and the Cats is a story written by Brazilian writer and physician named Moacyr Scliar. Martel did write his story based off Max and the Cats. To expand, Martel had even thanked Scliar and claimed that he had read reviews of the story (.). We can even conclude that Max and the Cats had a huge influence on Life of Pi by contrasting the plots. Prefacing our plot of Max and the Cats, the story is set in Berlin, Germany of 1912. The protagonist, Max Shmidt lived in Berlin, but forced to flee Germany. Hence, he offended many German man by having an affair with a married woman. Consequently, his fate lies on a ship that attempts to voyage to Brazil. Unfortunately the vessel sinks. Shmidt escapes on a dinghy, but he is in the vessel with a jaguar (.). Reflecting the plot of Life of Pi, the story is about an Indian-boy nicknamed Pi. Pi's fate was also on a ship that had sunk during it's journey. Pi also managed to grab hold of a boat in order to escape the sinking ship. Pi does manage to escape, but finds himself in open waters without land penetrating the horizon (Martel 104-157). Likewise of Shmidt, Pi notices that a tiger has also boarded on the lonely vessel with him. Life of Pi and Max and the Cats are very similar, almost identical.