Life of Pi (blog 4)

For my final blog on the Life of Pi I would like to venture back to the beginning of the book in order to understand the book as a whole. Shortly after the boat sinks, Pi believes that he should be on the brink of rescue and that everyone is searching for him and any surviving crew members.

“I was certain I wasn’t alone. It was inconceivable that the Tsimtsum should sink without eliciting a peep of concern. Right now in Tokyo, in Panama City, in Madras, in Honolulu, why, even in Winnipeg, red lights were blinking on consoles, alarm bells were ringing, eyes were opening wide in horror… Even submarines were swerving under water to join in the rescue effort. WE WOULD BE RESCUED SOON.”

In my opinion, I believe that Pi’s positive outlook on the whole situation is what kept fueling his fire which pushed him to survive. Without this idea of being rescued in the back of his mind, who knows how early he would have died off, he would have lost all motivation to undergo basic life processes ultimately ending his life at an early stage. I think that along with Pi’s continuous practice of religion and the pit stop he makes on the algae island (which I will get to later) are what kept him alive. When looking at this quote more in depth I discovered what may be another meaning; Pi thought that the world around him would stop everything in search for an Indian boy and his family, but in fact, just the opposite. If anything the search was called off after a day (if they even searched for survivors) which to me shows the sheer insensitivity of humanity. Nobody came looking for him but Pi didn’t know that. What propelled him to move on was the thought of being reunited with his family; that is most likely what allowed him to survive 227 days.

Continuing on, I would also like to talk about the algae island because the island itself has alternate meanings which seem to be really ironic. This island gives life by day and takes away life by night. If it wasn’t for this island, I am not quite sure how much longer Pi would have been able to make it. It renewed his hope along with Richard Parker’s life. The island symbolizes the different obstacles in life; some things can save you, while others can kill you. Pi knew this and shortly left the island after he found the human tooth inside the flower (symbolizing what I just said; if you stay there too long it will destroy you.)

In conclusion, I really loved the message that both the book and the movie Life of Pi portrayed. It was definitely a phenomenal book that inspired me to always appreciate my family, my faith and the things around me.

Life of Pi (blog 3)

     While perusing the internet I found a very good question that one may ask after reading the book Life of Pi, “How can you believe in God when Western societies seem organized around science and consumerism rather than religion? And if you do choose to believe in God, how do you guard against the twin temptations of intolerance and extremism?”

     I thought that the novel answered this question in several different ways that aren’t completely visible on the surface. One would be that Pi chooses to accept religion over science by basically over accepting religion. By this I mean that he questions the primal question of religion itself- is there something greater than just us? He questions it so harshly that he searches for the answer among three separate religions. Pi never comes out with this vocally, but one could only imagine that is why he followed so many different types of faith. “All living things contain a measure of madness that moves them in strange, sometimes inexplicable ways. This madness can be saving; it is part and parcel of the ability to adapt. Without it, no species would survive.” With this quote I believe that Pi is trying to say that even though you might think following so many religions is insane, that is literally what might save you. In other words, being crazy can sometimes be acceptable.

     Another answer for this question could be that Pi was searching for more than science could explain. If you think about it, Pi grew up in a zoo surrounded by the ideas of biology and evolution; of course he is going to want to search for something greater, something that can’t just be broken down by equations in a textbook. I think he was searching for love.

   The second question I found asking how you could prevent the temptation of intolerance and extremism is a little bit harder to answer. In this novel, Pi always took the optimistic route like his mother and was questioning everything, constantly wanting answers to more and more. His father, on the other hand always saw things in black and white. More of a pessimist this fellow was.  Anyways Pi did not want to be like his father at all, and was upset with all the negativity that he father seemed to always present. “To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.” With this, Pi knew that you couldn’t get anywhere if you didn’t have faith in something and that is the key to answering this question. He did not become an extremist in any way because he knew his father was more an extremist of doubting and he saw how far that took him.

     To conclude, that is why I believe Pi opens his heart to three different religions while being sure to not go over board and become what one might call an extremist.

Life of Pi (blog 2)

The next aspect of the Life of Pi that I want to mention/ touch up on is the different cultures that Pi experiences through out the length of the book. He grows up right outside the French quarters of Pondicherry in I guess would be called the Indian quarters. Pi describes the French quarters to be elegant and looking like a beautiful French costal town, but once you travel a little further down the road you would hit the Indian quarters. He describes these as being filled with street markets where you could smell the different spices lingering about and general chit chatter all around. To me, Pondicherry sounds like the perfect place to grow up in, and if you think about it, Pi is extremely lucky because he gets to grow up in a gosh darn Zoo! That sounds like a good childhood to me! Once he learns that he will be moving out of India to somewhere in Canada, he is crushed. Who wouldn’t be? I mean you spend your whole life growing up in one culture and one place, one place that you call home. Then you learn that you are going to have to assimilate into a completely different type of culture, where I am assuming there would not be a lot of people that looked quite like Pi. If you ask me I think Pi got screwed over on that deal, but families have to do what they have to do to keep on so I guess the parent’s actions are justifiable. The only sad thing about Pi leaving to me was that he had to leave that girl, the one that he was really good friends with and possibly loved…
     Along side those cultures would be the religion aspect that I have already mentioned. Pi was surrounded by different religious experiences and it is not surprising that he couldn’t pick just one. He was definitely pressured into picking one by each of the “representatives” of those religions and I’m proud of Pi not giving into their demands.
     Overall, I believe that the cultures that Pi grows up with help him along his way while surviving in the ocean. You can argue that Pi’s consistency in religion over the period of the voyage is what single handedly saved him, but I still think that his raising in those particular cultures influenced a lot of his decisions. For instance, Pi was a vegetarian and when he killed a fish for the first time, he almost could not live with himself and the “murderer” that he believed he had become. I just don’t think that religion alone saved Pi because you can pray and pray and then pray some more but if God is not hand delivering some food and fresh water, you are going to die sooner or later… just saying. Anyways that is why I believe the difference in cultures is an important aspect to not overlook while reading this novel.

Life of Pi (blog 1)

For my next blog/ paper I have chosen to read the Life of Pi. I have read this book twice before and seen the movie countless times and every time I reread it, something new always pops out which really interests me. If you have not read the book yet, let me just give you a little spoiler alert that the entire novel I believe is to be based around three religions that the main character, Pi Patel, focuses on. Pi is born a Hindu who then becomes a Catholic followed by becoming a Muslim. What is quite impressive about this is that he finds a way to follow each religion at the same time even though there are thousands of gods in one religion while only one in the other two. Pi’s family never seems to support his decision about which religion to choose and gives him a hard time about it. However, in the end, his father seems to pull through and be the most supportive of his son and backs Pi’s statement up about just wanting to love God.

The beginning of the novel starts out with Pi telling us of his back ground and his interest in something more than just the natural world. I find it ironic that he lives in a zoo his whole life and is familiar with evolution and biology yet he seeks what cannot be explained, that is the thousands of religions out there. That partially might be the reason why he wanted to follow so many religions in the first place.

Moving on to the tiger Richard Parker, I have done some research about that name in particular and many men with this name have been victims of cannibalism, something that stood out to me because of the fact of what happens while Pi is trying to survive with this six hundred pound Bengal tiger. Something else worth looking at would be the possibility of Richard Parker being Pi’s alter ego. I only say this because Richard Parker does the things that Pi cannot bring himself to doing. For example, killing the hyena who has a human counterpart as the cook in Pi’s second story. This alter ego could explain the lashing out of Pi’s violent behaviors.

I just wanted to through in at the end here that I love this book because it brings so many different things together and allows you to experience a different type of culture from India. It is not every day that you get to read about Vishnu and Allah along with Christ all in one novel. To conclude, I am very happy about getting to read and write a paper about the greatest book ever written, The Life of Pi.

Frankenstein (blog 4)

     In the final chapters of Frankenstein, the monster goes through some crazy experiences that further his development as an individual in to the human world. First, he learns how to read and expands his knowledge of the language that he has been observing with the cottagers. He also accepts the fact he is completely different and the only one of his kind. But instead of using that as something to be held back by, he uses it as power in an effort to be accepted by his creator, Dr. Frankenstein. Upon studying Felix, Agatha and Safie (the cottagers) the monster reads the book Paradise Lost and compares himself to being both a son of Adam but also a counterpart to Satan. The monster is yearning for someone he can share his knowledge with and I believe that that is partially why he was so motivated earlier by violence and the urge to kill Dr. Frank that he ended up killing his little brother, William. When the monster told us of how he went on a rampage after finding the letters written by Dr. Frank describing his disgust in his creation, you almost have to feel a sense of pity for the monster. Only because in every aspect of his life he has been shunned, he has NO ONE else to care about him and no one to care about. I do think his actions went a little overboard by strangling William but he was in the right mind to be completely enraged by learning of this. I think that he wanted not only revenge against Frankenstein but humans as a whole as he has been accepted by none of them. Feeling a sense of loneliness, he implores Dr. Frank to create a female monster to keep him company. He believes that having this female companion could reduce his urge to kill and he could finally have someone to share his life with, something that he has been yearning for for a very long time.  
     Let’s focus on Victor for a while. He is nothing but tethered to this monster as he is responsible for its creation and has nothing but bad fortunes because of it. He agrees to make this female monster hoping that its formation will solve all his problems. Soon he is knee deep into the new monster when he thinks “what if they reproduce?” The thought of this frightens him so much that he destroys all his progress. The monster finds out about this and becomes enraged, vowing that he will see Victor on his wedding night. I honestly now feel really bad for Victor because it seems like every move is a bad move and no matter what he does, he cannot escape this nightmare that he is in. The monster becomes responsible for killing Henry (close friend of Victors). Victor is completely over whelmed with guilt and can think of nothing else but the horror that is to come upon the night of his wedding. The day soon arrives and Victor and Elizabeth are happily married, however, Victor is preoccupied with the promise of the monster. He soon realizes that the monster wasn’t set on getting even with him, but destroying every aspect of Victor’s life to the point where he is completely and utterly alone, just like the monster. With that said, the monster now murders Elizabeth.
     Victor is now so completely alone and filled with guilt as he knows that all of these murders can be linked back to him. He vows the rest of his life to getting revenge on the monster and destroying it completely. I believe still that the monster is another subconscious to Victor. However, it took a dramatic turn and flipped Victor’s life around to the worst. That in someone teaches a lesson. You should just be okay with being who you are and not trying to force something upon yourself that is too drastic as it can destroy every aspect of your life as we have seen here. To conclude, I really liked this novel, even though it was really weird. It had an ending that wasn’t all happy and something that you don’t see every day, and something that I found very interesting.

Frankenstein (blog3)

The next section of Frankenstein that I have read is quite sad. After Justine is executed for the assumption that she killed William (when in fact she truly was innocent), Victor becomes completely overwhelmed with guilt because he knows that the creation of the monster is to blame for her death. He becomes extremely depressed and even contemplates suicide, but decides against it for the sake of Elizabeth and his father. His father notices this depression in the overall morale of the family and decides to go on an outing into the wilderness. Victor’s grief and guilt are soon turned around by a sense of surreal nature. I believe that this nature takes him out of the funk that he was in because it is so opposite to what he has recently become responsible for.

Sadly, Victor’s happiness is sort lived as he is almost mauled by the monster. All of a sudden this thing starts talking and you’re just like what?!?! He can talk?!?! For the first time, the monster seems human; he has emotional and verbal qualities that you would never think something that hideous sounding could ever possess. To me Victor’s real fear now is that this monster could possibly be smarter than him. As the monster is telling us of the hardships he has had to overcome since his creation, I felt bad for the guy. He was created out of some sick experiment and has had nothing to live for and no one to care for him. Not to mention everyone screams and runs when they see him, don’t tell me you wouldn’t take that personally haha. Even with that said, the monster (ironically enough) blames Victor for all the evil things he has done, “remember, that I am thy creature: I ought to be thy Adam; but I am rather the fallen angel.” Is he telling us that he believes Victor to be his God? Which I think is somewhat weird because if the monster is this opposite subconscious, that last quote makes no sense. Unless he was implying that he makes his own rules to life or something like that… I’m not really sure.

Further into the novel, the monster’s story becomes somewhat ironic. He tells us of how he had to learn every human quality from scratch and once knowledge is gained it cannot be erased. “Of what a strange nature is knowledge! It clings to the mind, when it has once seized on it, like a lichen on the rock.” I think that this is mentioned here to further compare the ironies of the monster to Victor. For instance, Victor has gained all this knowledge of life and how to create it, and because of this he has become completely powerless to control his urge to act upon it. Furthermore, he cannot get rid of this knowledge that I think deep inside he wants nothing more to do than erase it all so he had no chance of building the monster. In contrast, I can infer that the monster wants to gain knowledge of the human race so he can feel one with someone, and not so alone. To sum up, that opposite characteristic to me solidifies my belief on this evil twin thing going on with Frankenstein.

Frankenstein (blog 2)

The next section of Frankenstein portrays the mood change of the novel from what was once an informative diary to something with a little bit more tragedy and horror. Victor pursues his knowledge more than any other aspect of his social life. He gains all the knowledge he can get before his curious mind takes over. After that, we learn that Victor isolates himself from the world for several months becoming completely obsessed with his creation that his overly eager mind had conjured up. This monster that Victor pieces together, I believe it to be an evil twin to his subconscious because he lived this pretty much picture perfect childhood and this thing that is created is something so opposite from him and anything human in general. When Victor finally decides to spark this puppy to life the result terrifies him and is utterly horrifying. He tries to go to sleep but is haunted with harrowing nightmares from the abomination that he has brought to life. I believe the nightmares to symbolize this opposite subconscious that I was talking about, Victor can’t handle what he made because it is foreshadowing the death of Elizabeth (as we find out to be very ill in the future), not to mention the horror of the whole situation. He awakes with this thing standing over him with this devilish smile and runs out of his apartment, screaming like a girl I can imagine. Who can blame him though? Because I know for a fact that if any one of you woke up with this thing standing over the top of you, you might just freak out to!
Victor wants to escape from the evil genius scientific world that he has created. Very quickly, he falls extremely ill. But almost if by fate, a close friend of his finds him and nurses him back to health, his name is Henry.

Henry came to Ingolstadt to study science just like Victor and brings him back into the realm of sciences that Victor was trying to escape from. This brings back all the memories of the horrific monster that has tormented him for so long. However, Henry also brought good with him. He brought Victor back into the social world and is caring towards him. I believe that Henry would be the foil to Victor for that reason alone.

Further into the novel, we learn that Henry receives a letter from his sister Elizabeth while he was sick. In this letter she tells us that after the death of their mother, an old family member has moved back in with them, Justine Moritz. The story gets a little crazier when Justine is accused of murdering Victor’s brother William. He goes for a walk to try and clear his head and sees the monster looming about the location where William’s body was found. At that moment, Victor knows that Justine is in fact innocent and the monster must be responsible for the horrible death of William. However, he doesn’t want to tell anyone this because he is afraid that everyone will see him as insane. So were just going to have to keep going to see what his reaction is to help save Justine.