Friday, April 20, 2012

12.) Interview

This will be with a psychologist since, he no doubt, would need psychiatric help after his ordeal.
"So Pi, how have you been coping, since you got back? How is your mental state?"
"Actually doctor, I'm perfectly fine."
"I highly doubt that Pi. You were alone for seven month's at sea. That leaves deep impressions in your psyche, there's no way you can be perfectly fine."
"But I wasn't alone I had Richard Parker."
"Right...the..tiger."
"I'm sorry to have to repute your claim, especially since you've had so much training in the matter, but I am fine. Would you like know how?"
"Please, enlighten me." Sitting back in chair he crossed his legs, reeking in false superiority.
" I'm okay because my Gods have allowed me to. I begged for forgiveness for the atrocious sins I committed on that boat. I felt a holy presence inside me, comforting me. I got an overwhelming feeling of peace, almost as if they had taken away all the bad and left me unharmed. God has given me the strength to go on in this world, I need nothing more. I don't need any medication, or someone to talk to. I am at peace." Pi gets up from the couch, and heads toward the door.
" Pi wait! You have another 43 minutes left, we must dig deeper into past in order to fix what's broken."
Pi pause at the open door and looks back toward the psychologist, "How could you, a mortal man, dig deeper the almighty lord? How could you, a mortal man, fix what god has already deemed unbroken? Who gives you the right to say what is broken and what is whole."
The psychologist stares dumbfounded at the door and watches as his patient shuts the door behind him. 

10.) 15.) 5.) Dialouge, Quote, Important Passage

 The imam and the priest nodded."But he can't be a Hindu, a Christian and a Muslim. It's impossible. He must choose."
 "I don't think it's a crime, but I suppose you're right," Father replied.
 The three murmured agreement and looked heavenward, as did Father, whence they felt the decision must come. Mother loked at me.
 A silence fell heavily on my shoulders.
"Hmmm, Piscine?" Mother nudged me. "How do you feel about the question?"
"Bapu Gandhi said, 'All religions are true.' I just want to love God," I blurted out, red in the face.

 This is honestly the best dialogue in the entire book, it sums up Pi's entire religious outlook in 10 words. Not the easiest thing to do, which is why it's such an impressive piece of dialogue. Amazing dialogue is when every word has a purpose which can move both the plot along and the reader emotionally. This line also epitomizes Pi's character because the biggest part of his life is his religious beliefs. Mrs. Shaw, epitomize and relate are synonyms, and seeing as the quote above is both a passage and has dialogue #5 isn't necessary. #5 and # 15 are way to repetitive. Poor choice. (Prepares for points off)


 "Tree dwelling aquatic rodents? These things don't exist" [Mr. Chiba]
"Only because you've never seen them" [Pi]

"That's right. We believe what we see."
"So did Columbus"
"Your island is botanically impossible"
"Said the fly before landing in a Venus Flytrap"


This passage/quote epitomizes his character by displaying his uncanny wit, humor, and ability to laugh through horror. This also is a explanation of how he could still love god even though what happened to him, this is a passage about faith and believing in what you cannot see. Pi's sense of humor in this is sarcastic, in a non-sarcastic way, and is wise. He's matured beyond his years, in ways no human should ever have to.

3.) Irony

The biggest piece of iron"y in this story would be that having a rapacious, deadly tiger in his lifeboat is the reason why he survived 7 months at sea. He was thrown into a raft with a hyena and a zebra as bait by the crew, but then saved Richard Parker from drowning before he realized what he was doing. Having a dominant predator in the middle of the boat caused the hyena not to go after Pi for it respected, out of fear, that Pi and the zebra were Richard Parker's prey. Richard Parker also gave Pi a reason for living, he had to provide for another living thing, he couldn't just give up. Richard Parker kept him sane, and without a companion for seven months would turn anyone mad.

"It seemed the presence of a tiger had saved me from a hyena--surely a textbook example of jumping from the frying pan into the fire."


Leaving paradise was how he got back to human civilization. It's ironic because before finding this paradise human civilization was the only paradise he ever had in mind. The fact that he was disappointed in finding human civilization is a textbook example of irony.

[Before this quote he had just discovered that the island he was on, was actually carnivorous. He had opened up a flower bud of a plant to discover a human tooth, which made him understand the phenomenon.]"Ah, how I wish that moment had never been! But for it I might have lived for years--why for the rest of my life-- on that island." 

Thursday, April 19, 2012

1.) Themes

Themes
- ** Religion **
- Humans are capable of anything if pushed enough
- Anything is possible
- Safety can come from the strangest of places
- Everything is not always as it seems

 Religion is the largest attribute of Pi's life aboard before and after his life on the lifeboat. It's what gets him through the day; he loves to love god and the feeling of each of his gods inside him. He loved religion so much he saw the good points in all of them, and became a Christian and Muslim along with his Hinduism. When inside his boat many times he began to question his Gods, but responded to his doubt by shouting him away. Screaming, he assured himself that there was holy presence in everything. That the sky was god's hat and Richard Parker was God's cat.
O Savior of my life, 
Will you meet me in my death? 

O Deliverer of my hope, 
Will you free me in my peril? 
O Healer of my soul, 
Will you cure all my disease?
When I cry, shedding tears
Do you taste my bitterness? 

When I strive, struggling to survive
Do you stand by and offer your hand? 

When I give up, with shattered dreams 
Do you pick up all the pieces?
O Listener of all my prayers,
In silence and thunders I wait for your answer. 

O Comforter of my broken heart,
In lonely night I search for your solace. 

O Helper of my weakened strength, 
In unbearable burden I seek your relief.
O Maker of heavens and earth, 
May I call you my God? 
Even if I never know your name, 
Even if I've done some shameful things,
Even if I betrayed you and ran away once.
But will you forgive me for all my wrongs?
Will you help me when I reach toward you with my tiny hands?
Will you grant me peace even though we battled all our lives?
People say you set the rules,
But I know you truly love.
When others judge my covers,
You attend my heart and mind.
When my road leads into dark storms,
You will light up my eyesight.
When I fall on hard ground,
You will lift me up to rise.
When I face hardship and scorn, 
We will together share our portion. 
When I suffer in a hopeless sickbed,
We will together battle in each breath.
When I'm lost alone and lingering, 
You will be with me, and guide me home. 
One day I'll die and depart,
But I truly believe
You will lift me up.
O God, our Savior, listen to our prayer. 
Fill our hunger, heal our sickness, 
Comfort our souls. 
If you wish not to answer, 
Then please wait for us,
Because we are about to shut our eyes.
--Laijon Liu

When I strive, struggling to survive, do you stand by and offer your hand? This shows his doubt of God's existence whilst in his suffering, while still retaining glimmers of belief still inside him. O Listener of all my prayers, in silence and thunders I wait for your answer. Part of his daily routine to keep him sane, was saying his prayers everyday. His life was filled with complete silence aside from Richard Parker's very occasional noises, and the sound of thunder during storms. May I call you my God? Even if I've done some shameful things, even if I betrayed you and ran away once. Pi is completely ashamed of his actions, killing god's creators, his cannibalism and his periods of doubt. After finally finding land he studies religion in college, I could see him asking God if he was worthy to love him after his atrocities.

8.) Internal/External Conflicts

Internal Conflicts
-Religion
-Losing his humanity

 Pi is, and always has been, very religious; his first memory is even of a Hindu temple.He's fascinated and enthralled with religion. After discovering a Christian church and speaking to Father Martin he becomes a Christian along with being a Hindu. Islam wasn't far behind, though this religious choice bothered his parents. They accepted it and even bought him a prayer rug, but they just couldn't understand why he had choosen three religions.
 The imam and the priest nodded."But he can't be a Hindu, a Christian and a Muslim. It's impossible. He must choose."
 "I don't think it's a crime, but I suppose you're right," Father replied.
 The three murmured agreement and looked heavenward, as did Father, whence they felt the decision must come. Mother loked at me.
 A silence fell heavily on my shoulders.
"Hmmm, Piscine?" Mother nudged me. "How do you feel about the question?"
"Bapu Gandhi said, 'All religions are true.' I just want to love God," I blurted out, red in the face.

 Piscine himself notices his loss of humanity when he compares his eating to Richard Parker's. He notices he eats his food as quick and animalistic as Richard Parker does. Other examples of his slipping humanity would be the first time he killed a fish. As a Hindu, and a vegetarian, he saw all life as sacred, but when placed in this situation I had ignore all his morals in order to survive. The sun beats down on him and wears the clothes off his back, leaving him living in the nude for the majority of his life in the boat.

External Conflicts 
-The elements
-The animals

 The elements such as the sun and storms acted as a huge opponent for Pi. The sun beat down on everything he had, wearing it down into until it becomes unfunctional. Storms tore apart his safety raft, which he used to get away from Richard Parker when it was necessary, and nearly capsized his boat on countless occasions.

 The more obvious foes would be the animals, most predominately Richard Parker. Richard Parker as a fully grown tiger is an insurmountable danger to human, especially in as close quarters Pi and Richard Parker were. The only reason why he is most predominate, in comparison to the hyena or orangutan, is due only to the larger amount of time Richard Parker spent with him. If Richard Parker had not been between the hyena and Pi, Pi would've been torn to shreds the second he was thrown aboard the boat. The orangutan, seemingly harmless, showed her deathly ferocity when attacked by the hyena. The blows to the head the hyena accumulated from her blows would have, without a doubt, killed a man. Any live animal is a deathly creature to a human if provoked. Pi's father spent an entire day showing his children the dangers of each animal in their zoo, and the consequences if they were messed with. The only reason why Pi was able to over these animal adversaries was his background in animal taming that spurred from being raised in a zoo. A normal person could not have accomplished the trials he faced.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

10.) Real Person

This seventeen year old boy, Suraj Sharma, is from India and is portraying Pi in the movie adapation of Life of Pi. The book description of Pi is barely even there. There's a few sentences, if that, describing his physical features throughout the book, most describing the deterioration of his body over the seven months. A director for this movie doesn't have to turn away an actor that can emotionally portray Pi perfectly due to physical features because Pi wasn't really described in detail. Suraj is exactly the kind of person I pictured for Pi when I read the book. There's not much else to say on the matter.                                                                                                      

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

6.) Poem

The Tyger: William Blake

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright

In the forest of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes? 
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fire?
And what shoulder, & what art.
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee? 

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

"What immortal hand or eye could frame thy fearful symmetry?" "Did he who made the Lamb make thee?" 
When Pi began to doubt the exsitence of God he would scream to the heavens "...THIS IS GODS CAT". Along with other thigns such as the sky being god's hat. When Blake says "immortal hand" in Pi's perspective it could be meaning the gods, he believed in many and could have been wondering which of his many gods had created Richard Parker. The same goes for the second quote, beng a commonly known fact that god created the lamb in the christian religion. These could be condemnations of gods as well, for how could he not question them in the situation he was in?

9.) Colors

"Green is a lovely colour. It is the colour of Islam. It is my favorite colour." - Pi
After being at sea seeing predominatly only the colors orange and blue, the green of this lush island was a god sent. His three religions were very important to him, Islam being the latest addition to his arsenal was mentioned in this quote. He held his religions very deep to his heart, they helped him survive.

Orange doesn't have much symbolism but many phyisical relations to the story. First of all, the second main character is a tiger. Tiger's are orange. Also the raft, where he spent seven months of his life, was orange along with all the supplies aboard the lifeboat. An important supply that was directly pointed out as orange would be the small collection of whistles. These whistles were the reason Pi was able to successfully tame Richard Parker, the tiger, into subordination. Without them he would've been killed by Richard Parker.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

7.) Artwork

Well there's no deep symbolism with the tiger in this piece. Pi's only companion for 7 months, only reason he survived, only reason why he was able to keep on living was due to the tiger, Richard Parker, in his life boat.
The orange paint can relate back to his life on the boat because everything he could see, while on that raft, was either the blue of the ocean or orange. The raft was orange, his life saving whistles were orange, Richard Parker was orange, even the tarp which he slept underneath was orange.

2.) Song Lyrics

Dreamhouse - Tides of Man

This house is made of paper, built on the quickest sand. 

No pictures hang from its walls, 
because I'd rather run than stand. 

But you don't know the truth yet. 
You'll find it all out when I'm gone, I guess. 
I want to tear you away, live in a new skin. 
Because I'm tired of being covered in this film of fiction. 
I haven't believed a single damn word I've said.
I've learned to tear the truth to shreds. 

Let's face the facts 
we've all been avoiding in our tender dream house. 

Fuck it, take it all down.
Watch it sink and smile wide, for we have vanquished unreality. 
We'll be better off when it's buried underground. 
I want to tear you away, live in a new skin. 
Because I'm tired of being covered in this film of fiction.
I haven't believed a single damn word I've said. 
I've learned to tear the truth to shreds. 
Oh, lover...

Life of Pi ends with pi telling the men an alternative story of his life in the ocean, no one is absolutely sure which one is the truth. They said they liked the story with animals more and that is the story of this book. So if he was actually told an incorrect story, with less atrocity, he could relate to this song. "
I've learned to tear the truth to shreds. Let's face the facts we've all been avoiding in our tender dream house." He, on that boat in either story, lived through horrible expeirences becoming almost an animal, even becoming cannibalistic. He is the narrator and said at the beginning he wrote this story to enlighten his readers. He's learned to tear the truth of reality, reason, and humanity on that boat and wants people to open their eyes to what everyone is capable of if pushed. "because I'd rather run than stand." In both a symbolic and physical sense this was true to him, when he first found land he would run and run. He missed it so much for he had been only standing/sitting in that boat for many, many months. Symbolically it relates to him for he would want to run away from his memories and past. They haunt him.
The other highlighted words would associate to Pi for spending his whole life in an opposing story to the truth. (if it wasn't true) The tone of this song is really emotional, almost bitter, it even cusses a few times. Although Pi is devout in his religions and has a very calm and collected demeanor, he would have to have bottled up emotions of anger and ourage. His outlit for these bottled emotions toward god, the world, and everything could've been in song. This song could have been sung from his perspective to his readers.