In both Life of Pi and Castaway, the main characters survived by anthropomorphizing what was around them and created a companion. Pi anthropomorphized Richard Parker and Richard Nolan created a friend named Wilson out of a volley ball. These anthropomorphized companions helped both characters survive and remain sane in different ways. Wilson helped keep Richard Nolan sane because it gave him a friend to talk to. Richard Parker kept Pi alive and sane because he kept Pi busy and kept his mind off of his troubles. Most of Pi’s time was spent training Richard Parker or finding food for the two of them. Without Richard Parker’s reliance on Pi, Pi might have given up and died. The two castaways also used different tools to keep up hope for survival. Pi used the pen and paper he found to make a journal so he could talk about what was on his mind and Chuck Nolan thought about his wife-to-be to keep up his spirits. Both characters were in very different situations and survived in different ways but anthropomorphism helped them maintain their sanity and aided in their survivals.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Do you believe Pi’s story, or the story that he tells the investigators?
After reading Life of Pi and thinking about the differences between the two stories I am forced to believe that the second story is the true story. Just like the Japanese investigators I find it too difficult to believe that anyone could survive with a tiger in a confined space. Even if Pi was able to train Richard Parker, the tiger's animal instincts would force him to fight Pi for his life before he would let himself starve the way Pi says he did. The natural wonders are also too absurd for me to believe. A swarm of flying fish is a possibility, as this type of fish really do exist, but a drifting island of algae is implausable. While carnivorous algae do exist they are not found in such large colonies as Pi says and don’t change pH levels according to the time of day. The thought of Pi happening upon another castaway in the middle of the Pacific Ocean is another aspect of Pi’s first story that it is difficult for me to believe. The Pacific Ocean is massive and the current that Pi drifted along was very narrow. It is very unlikely that anyone could have found themselves on the same current without Pi noticing as he scanned the horizon. I think that Pi’s second account of his survival is the more likely, believable account but the first account is certainly the better story.
The Japanese investigators ask Pi for the real story, so Pi indulges them in another story. Which do they believe?
After Pi tells the investigators his story they are very skeptical. They are likely agnostic and are unable to see the better story that Pi presents to them. When they ask Pi for the real story, Pi tells them a dry, yeastless factuality where Orange Juice is replaced by Pi’s mother, the zebra is replaced by a Japanese sailor, the hyena is replaced by the French cook, and Richard Parker disappears. The investigators believe Pi’s second story and think that he created the version with the animals to relieve his conscience. All the characters in the first story have a place in the second except for Richard Parker and they the investigators believe that Pi is Richard Parker. They think that Pi placed Richard Parker in the first version of the story to take the guilt of his atrocities of of his conscience. In the first account, Richard Parker eats human flesh and in the second version, Pi admits to cannibalism. The Japanese men believe that this is the reason for the creation of the original story, to cover up the things that Pi was ashamed of doing.
Compare/Contrast the algae island with Eden
When Pi was on the brink of death and needed food and water, he found an island made entirely out of algae. He was able to eat and drink as much as he needed and, with time, grew very strong. There were even meerkats living on the island to satisfy Richard Parkers hunger. Pi was content to stay on the island forever until he found what he thought was a fruit hanging from one of the algae trees. It turned out to be several leaves wrapped tightly around each other. When he un-wrapped all the leaves he found a tooth inside. He did this to another thirty-one "fruits" and they all contained teeth; there was a full human set of teeth. This lead him to discover that the island was carnivorous and became acidic at night. He quickly abandoned the island because he didn’t want to die there, alone, with no one knowing. The algae island is very similar to the Garden of Eden in a number of ways. Both are like heaven on earth to their inhabitants. Eden is devoid of any evil and Algae Island has everything that Pi needs to survive. In both cases the reason for the inhabitants leaving stems from a fruit. In Eden, Satan, disguised as a snake, persuades Eve to eat a fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. When God finds out he expels Adam and Eve from Eden and forbids them from ever returning. In Life of Pi when Pi found the teeth wrapped in the leaves he discovered that the island could kill him. He decided that he did not want to die alone with no one knowing about it so he left the island. Both the island and Eden, despite appearing perfect, have one crucial flaw that indirectly causes the inhabitants to leave. On Algae Island it is that the island is carnivorous and becomes acidic at night and in Eden it is the presence of Satan.
Who is Pi talking to when he and Richard Parker go blind?
During Pi’s time on the lifeboat Richard Parker goes blind. Soon afterwards Pi also loses his sight. It began with a dark spot in the middle of his vision that eventually grew to consume his entire range of sight. During this time Pi hears a voice. Initially he believes it to be his imagination as he goes insane but then he came to the conclusion that it must be Richard Parker because the voice was speaking so fondly of eating meat. At this point in Pi’s story he is very weak and his mind is working very slowly. After a while he realizes that the voice must be another person because he has a French accent, one that Richard Parker, having been raised in India, could never have. The man came on to Pi’s boat and tried to kill and eat him but he was killed by Richard Parker once he steped into the tiger's territory. The Frenchman that Pi meets is likely the same Frenchman that is in his second version of the story. Both men have killed a man and a woman and both men tried to kill Pi. The Frenchman in Pi’s second account of his survival was the ships cook and it is very likely that the man Pi meets was also a cook because of his knowledge of obscure dishes. The reason Yann Martel created such obvious similarities between the two characters was to make Pi’s first story seem like the true account while the second one was just a dry, yeastless factuality that was based off the true events.
If God has been keeping Pi alive with natural phenomena, why have the tanker miss him?
During the course of the entire book, a religious reader would argue that God has been keeping Pi alive. God stopped the sharks from attacking, kept Richard Parker at bay and gave Pi the means to obtain food and fresh water. God was keeping Pi alive but when a tanker came across Pi’s path, it did not stop to rescue him. The reason Yann Martel had a ship come across Pi’s path that did not stop to rescue him up was to show that Pi had not yet realised the purpose of his journey, to find himself. Pi has not yet found a true sense of identity and will not find it until later in the novel. According to the philosophy existentialism, ones true identity is defined by what they learn as they are children. Pi is only able to survive God’s tests because of what he has learned as a child. God has sent Pi on a journey to find his true self and will not allow for Pi to be rescued until he has found identity and meaning in life.
Why was part of Pi’s daily routine praying? Hope faith/ritual, or psychological? Has Pi become a part of nature or is he merely an observer of nature?
After a time on the life boat, Pi developed a routine that involved praying. It involved praying five times a day, a custom of the Islamic faith. The reason for the routine prayer was psychological. Pi spent two hundred and twenty-seven days at sea with only survival to occupy his mind and his time. By praying as often as he did, he was able to take his mind off of his ordeal and he was able to occupy some of his extensive free time.
During Pi’s time drifting on the Pacific he became a part of nature. He spent his days much like an animal would, with the finding of food and water driving most of his actions. He became a top predator of the Pacific Ocean, constantly fishing and catching sea turtles, and he became a part of nature because he lost everything that separates humanity from nature. He had no home, no company of his own species and he had no freedom. His actions were controlled by his instincts, just like an animal in the wild.
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