Monday, November 25, 2013

Life of Pi- Part 2

Plot Overview
Life of Pi- Part 2

The plot starts when the Japanese ship, where Pi and his family where, sinks. Pi was the only human survivor, left with a boat full of food and a wounded zebra, a hyena, a tiger and a orangutan, during the next hours the hyena ate the orangutan and the zebra but then the tiger ate the hyena. Pi stayed at the tip of the boat very scared, then he created a floating raft where he stayed there until he tamed the tiger. The tiger and Pi coexist peacefully. The days pass slowly until dehydration and starvation takes over. throughout his way Pi encounters another shipwrecked guy. The guy was blind, they discuss over food and survival but the blind man looses his mind and attacks Pi, Richard Paco kills the stranger. Then a couple of days after Pi encounters an island full of meerkats, vegetation, water, and trees which grow without soil. After a day Pi realizes the island was carnivorous, because he saw a human teeth inside a fruit. Pi and Richard Parker disembark the island. After a couple of weeks later at the pacific ocean they end up very dehydrated and hungry at the shore of mexico. Richard Parker runs off to the jungle meanwhile Pi is saved by some farmers, but he felt very sad after that because Richard Parker left him.

Setting

There are three settings in this part. The first one is the life boat in which Pi stays safe in the Pacific Ocean. The life boat is middle sized, where Pi and the tiger fit in it perfectly, contained lots of food, some life vests, ropes, a pair of oars, and other survival items. 
The other setting is the carnivorous island where the companions stayed a day in there where the tiger ate meerkats and Pi gathered lots of vegetables. The island was full of meerkats and vegetables, but it got no soil and its plants were carnivorous. The third setting is where Pi and Richard finally landed, The shore of Mexico, where the tiger escaped and Pi was rescued.

Character Development 

Pi was born in India a place were people believe in lot of gods and since he is also the son of a zookeeper he became very religious kid, in other words Pi childhood was very magical, he also believed in three religions and was a very positive child, he never focused on seeing the dark part of the world, like poverty and homicides. His spiritual life grew a lot in the ocean because he learned to interact and work with the tiger, and believe that god was always with him, praying a couple of times a day which helped him to have more faith and hope, which led him to believe that he could survive. Pi also was a bit interested in science, he first wanted to know more about how animals and humans react, certainly his knowledge in animals grew throughout the voyage, he tamed Richard Parker, saw the animals interact throughout the voyage, and learned about botany when he landed in the carnivorous island, he created a hypothesis that the island was carnivorous, he also learned to survive lots of days at sea. In conclusion he became a lot more smarter and self sufficient, more adult.

Conflicts

There were 5 conflicts during this part, not like the beginning where there were almost any. The first one was when the japanese ship drowned and all Pi's family drowned, Pi was the only survivor with a couple of animals stranded in a boat. After that the hyena killed the zebra and the orangutan, then the tiger, which was hide under the cover of the boat, killed the hyena. The actions made Pi sad and reflect about how brute animals are, so Pi build a raft aside, another conflict was that the tiger was on control of the boat, but the conflict was resolved in a couple of days later when Pi finally came up with the idea to tame him. The fourth conflict was when the blind man encountered with Pi and because of starvation attacked Pi, but Richard killed him. The last and main conflict was starvation and dehydration throughout the voyage.

Symbols

  • Lifeboat: Guidance, it brought hope, a manual and will to survive, without it Pi could have been dead.
  • The Tiger: Company, it provide Pi with companionship which made Pi keep out of depression.
  • Carnivorous Island: Fear, the island which created a fear of dead because he found a human teeth in there.
  • The Hyena: Brutality, because the wild animal was killing like if it was crazy
  • The Meerkats: Innocence, because they were standing there in a carnivorous island and doing nothing when seeing Pi and Richard which ate many.
  • The Japanese Men: Logic, because they didn't believed Pi's story, only believed what they see.
  • The Steam Boat: Hope, because the boat Pi saw far away could rescue them.

Point of View and Relevant themes

The point of view of the story is in 1st person by Pi. The themes can be Life is a story because the whole book is adult Pi telling the story of his life. Another can be The will to live because thats whats  whole part 2 is about, trying to survive till the end. Another would be Self improvement because thats what Pi wanted since the beginning, to know more about life, by the end of his shipwreck learns to be self sufficient and he also gained experience from surviving.

Personal Reaction

In general I liked this part was the less boring of all. It showed action and curiosity, for example the island, the blind man, and Pi taming the tiger. Also I didn't get why Pi couldn't have saved the zebra and orangutan from the hyena, Pi had two oars to defend, but in reality it was better that they died because if all 4 animals would have survived the tiger would have killed all and Pi couldn't have gave sufficient food to the animals. The end of the book was very good but they should have show the trip to canada. The end of part 2 was very good, it showed how Pi and the tiger follow two different paths, and showed the love Pi had for the tiger, which was wise, Pi thought that the tiger was using him.

Graphics, links, videos








Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Project π





Summary

Life of Pi is a wonderful story by Yann Martel. In which a man, Piscine Molitor Patel, which was named after a famous pool in france, but later named just Pi because he wrote the pi number on the board. He lived a very religious life and his parents were owners of a zoo, which Pi loved since little. Pi believed in tree religions christianity, Islam, Hinduism. Then after political problems in India were Pi, Ravi and his parents lived, had to move to Canada for a better future for Pi, Ravi. Pi and his family were in his way to canada in a japanese ship, they carried with them all the animals in the zoo. During the way a very powerful storm strike the sea, a huge wave sank the boat above the Mariana trench. Due to miracle circumstances, the only one who survived was Pi, and 4 animals, a tiger, a hyena, a orangutan, and a tiger. The hyena killed the orangutan and the zebra but after all the tiger killed the hyena. Pi then build a raft apart because the tiger was dangerous. Throughout the voyage they became friends and learned to survive together, during their way Pi and Robert Parker(the name of the tiger), found a island in which they found food and water, but later Pi discovered that the island was carnivorous. They after that finally had a long travel to mexico coast were he was found by some farmers but Robert Parker escaped to the jungle, Pi never see him again.


Characters
Piscine Molitor Patel: Protagonist and narrator of the story. A student of zoology and religion, Pi is deeply intrigued by the habits and characteristics of animals and people.
Richard Parker: The Royal Bengal tiger with whom Pi shares his lifeboat.
Ravi: Pi’s older brother. Ravi prefers sports to schoolwork.
Santosh Patel: Pi’s father. He once owned a Madras hotel, but because of his deep interest in animals decided to run the Pondicherry Zoo
Gita Patel: Pi’s beloved mother and protector. A book lover, she encourages Pi to read widely.               
Satish Kumar: Pi’s atheistic biology teacher at Petit Séminaire, a secondary school in Pondicherry.
Father Martin: The Catholic priest who introduces Pi to Christianity after Pi wanders into his church. 


Animals in boat
Hyena: ugly looking beastly animal.
Zebra: a large male zebra which broke his leg when jumping onto the boat, and is eaten by the hyena.
Orange juice: a female orangutan, who also felt loneliness and sickness like Pi, which came onto the boat in a floating raft of bananas and was eaten by the hyena.

 


Symbolism


Pi: Very symbolic character just his name symbolizes a famous piscine in france and Pi, the radial symbol of algebra which means lots of numbers. He symbolizes innocence, freedom and faith.
Pi's Dad: Guidance, since the beginning of the novel the dad guided him and taught him basic survival and moral rules in life.
Pi's Mother: symbolizes Support, she always supported him and accepted him
Robert Parker: symbolizes Companion and Wildness, because with him he had company and didn't felt alone, although had some problems in the beginning


Personal Opinion

The story was very interesting and inspiring. It looked boring and uninteresting but after all it worth reading. The story shows how religions can all be the same and teach us how to think and see different to our world, looking at the good side, and the part at the end were you needed to choose in between the two stories Pi told in what really happened throughout his voyage was very clever.

Themes 

  • Hope: The will to survive, to believe in miracles, faith.
  • Religion: Meaning to your life
  • Wild: Sometimes humans behave like animals like in the ancient ages were kill someone was normal.
Religion

In the book the different types of religions were at peace and didn't fight each other, eventually, Pi united them by believing in all three, which is the opposite to religion in the middle ages where people of different religions fought each other no matter how much they resembled, like the wars in Europe between Protestantism and Christianity, they are basically the same.


Message

This story has plenty of messages but in all the most important one was to have faith in something, referring to have faith in god, it can lead you to keep hope of surviving, and seeing the world in a better and peaceful way rather than seeing the world in a logical and very tragical but more believable way. Like Pi explains to us at the end, between which of the two stories to believe.