Life of Pi 2

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For the most part of the novel, Pi and his companion Richard Parker (the tiger) live in the life boat. Pi finds drinking water cans, packaged food, fishing line and rain catchers among many others from the life boat. This enables him to survive for a few days on the life boat. When Martel describes the incident in which Pi drinks water after three days, we could realize how traumatic it is to be on a life boat without any hope of survival. Pi slowly starts catching fish and turtles and begins to feed on them. A great chunk of his catch goes to RP. The tiger gets water from the rain catcher. Also there are some instruments which turn sea water into drinkable. He makes pure water and offers to RP. Owing to vigorously changing weather, Pi looses all his clothing and becomes stark naked. He props the turtle shells over his body to guard himself against sunlight.

            Though the door of the cabin in the lifeboat separates the territories of Pi and the tiger, Pi has to establish his supremacy over RP by way of a technique he picks up while in the life boat. He takes the whistle attached to one of the life vests and uses it to good effect to control the tiger. By assuming the position of a circus ring master, Pi announces the tiger that he is the master and makes sure the tiger’s movements are restricted within certain boundaries he decides. It is incredible to see how a beast of such enormous proportions comes easily under control by the blowing of a whistle. Pi demonstrates his ability to think and react swiftly in a critical situation. Soon he becomes the master of his role as a ring master. The tiger obeys him promptly.

In spite of Pi willing to avoid the jeopardy posed by the tiger, he never wishes to shy away from his responsibility as the savior of his companion. He feeds him with sufficient amount of food and water and really wants RP to survive regardless of the obvious likelihood of being killed by the tiger. He develops a feeling of definite friendliness towards RP and he thinks that he could not have survived the ordeal without the unintentional moral support provided by the tiger.

During their lonely days on the sea, Pi losses his eyesight presumably because of malnutrition. He has been living without proper food for many days. He assumes that RP could also have lost his eyesight due to same reasons. One day Pi stumbles upon another life boat which carries another boy who also has lost eyesight. Both the boys start a conversation which essentially revolves around food. Pi tries to satisfy his desire on food and his persisting hunger by talking to him about food. At the end of the conversation Pi invites the boy to his boat, completely forgetting to mention the presence of a 450 – pound tiger in his boat. The boy becomes the prey for the tiger.

Another intriguing experience awaits Pi when the life boat reaches a small island. The island is definitely big enough for two people (I mean, Pi and RP). The whole island is made up of a weird kind of algae. There are also trees found in the island which are nothing but extensions of the cluster of algae. Pi rejoices over his discovery about the presence of pure water in the stems of algae. He decides to stay near the island and started drinking pure water supplied by algae. He spends his nights in the lifeboat. RP too develops a habit to visit the island during daytime and returns to boat at nights. Pi explores the island during his visits and finds out the reason for RP’s regular visit. He finds a lot of rat like creatures of peculiar character and shape which are called meerkats. Their behavior is soft and harmless and they do not seem to notice even if someone who is not part of their society enters their terrain. This is why RP too has found this island fascinating. His regular visits to the island always pay him with rich dividend in terms of food. The meerkats do not care about being killed; they simply go about doing their job- that is – looking into the fresh water ponds that are present numerously in the island.

The presence of fresh water ponds is another thing that captivates Pi’s attention. He speculates that this must be the work of surrounding algae. The sea water that passes through the algae is converted into fresh water, and it is aplenty in the island to Pi’s merry. He swims in the ponds; fights with the meerkats to capture the dead fish carried by the ponds (Pi understands when the sea fish comes into the ponds they immediately die. This provides him with sufficient food.). He keeps on exploring the island while spending his nights at the life boat.

The very day he decides to stay one night inside the island Pi finds out a horrible truth about the island. He immediately decides to leaves the island right away. During the night, he stays on one of the branches of a tree to see all the meerkats climb up the tree. The whole island is now free of meerkats. Every single meerkat is on the tree now. When he drops one of the meerkats onto the ground immediately it dissolves. Pi finds to his horror that during nights the algae turns sea water into acid which dissolves anything that comes in its way. He even finds out a human tooth in one of the fruits on the tree. Pi realizes how dangerous the place it is that he has been staying in for all these days. He instantly decides to move from that wretched island.

Finally when the life boat hits the land, he had had stayed for 227 days in the boat. Richard Parker jumps out of the boat and runs away from sight into the jungle. The local people rescue him and give him a wash. Since the ship they travelled was a Japanese one, the Japanese officials approach him for enquiry. When Pi describes his experience, the officials refuse to believe since the story has a lot of implausible elements in it. They insist him to tell the true story. Pi tries to convince them that what he said was what really happened. Unable to convince them, Pi tells them another version of the story which includes believable elements but contains cruel occurrences imposed by the people in the boat. When Pi asks the officials which version of the story they prefer, they reply that the one which contains animals is the likable one. Finally Pi is settled in Canada and lives happily with his wife and kids.

As promised earlier by the novelist, this novel truly makes us believe in God. Also it shows that if one has the will to survive and the determination to face tribulations, he will have over come the ordeal with his effort and the by the will of God. Life of Pi is a terrific novel to read and yann Martell is an excellent writer. 

Life of Pi 1

Life of Pi

                Life of Pi is a Man Booker prize winning novel written by Yann Martel. Martel visited India to write a novel which happens in another country. But when he heard a true story of a sixteen year old boy from a person he met during his stay in India, his whole plan changed.

                I came to know of this novel when the Tamil writer S.Ramakrishnan recommended this in his website. I happened to see this novel in a sale in our school conducted for fund raising. The book was written in 2002 I think, but by the appearance it looked as if it was printed seventy five years ago. Nearly a hundred pages had come off the binding, and the remaining pages were also on the verge separating themselves from their parent if we made an attempt to read. But the thing that caught my attention was its price, five ruffia, fifteen rupees in Indian currency. So I bought it after making sure all the pages are present inside the book and started reading it immediately.

                The hero of the novel is a sixteen year old boy named Piscine Patel, the son of a Zoo director in Pondicherry, India. Since the students of his school made a mockery of his name, calling him ‘pissing Patel’ he decided to change his name. When he visits a new school he introduced himself as Pi. The name was catchy and was quickly popularized. Pi was interested in all three major religions in India, Hinduism, Christianity and Islam and tries to follow all the religions simultaneously. Representatives of three religions meet the boy’s father in the hope of trying to attract Pi towards their religion. But Pi liked all the religions and wants to worship Rama, Jesus and Allah equally.

                Being the son of a Zoo director gives him the opportunity of living with the animals. He knows in and out about the behaviour of wild animals. In fact, his involvement in the religious activities and his wide knowledge of the wild animals led him to choose to study theology and Zoology at his graduation level.

                The story happens in 1970s I suppose. It was the time when Mrs Indira Gandhi, the prime minister of India, enforced emergency throughout the country. Pi’s father foresees the danger running zoo business and decided to migrate to Canada. He sells the Zoo but not the animals. Since it is a good bargain to sell the animals in America, Pi’s family, along with the animals travel in a cargo ship to Canada.

                On its course the ship meets with an accident and sinks. The boy was thrown on to a lifeboat and onto the sea. He survived the accident along with a zebra with a broken leg, an orangutan, a hyena and 450 pound royal Bengal tiger.

                Though it was almost certain that all the creatures on the lifeboat would die killing each other or try to save them from being killed by one another or of natural causes, the novel describes the miraculous escape of the boy from the dangerous animals and also from the cruelties of the sea.

                The continuing pages tell us the compelling incidences that involve the boy attempting to survive through the ordeals. He tries everything that is possible to prolong his life until a savior of some sort sights him. He utilizes all the materials that were available in the lifeboat and the persisting situations around him to his benefit and cheats death.

                It is hard to believe that for the major part of the novel, Pi was the only human character and yet the pace and interest of the novel did not go down; in fact they go up once Pi ends up on a life boat. Yann Martel’s style of writing is simple, lucid and humorous even in the most catastrophic situations.

                The story of Pi is a prime example of why we should believe in God. It proves even when you are thrust into a calamity; miracles are bound to happen if you have faith in God and life. Life presents itself with simple solutions for major adversities when you have willingness to survive. Life of Pi is not only a story, but a lesson to all of us who lose hope and interest in life even when we live comfortably.

To be continued.