Life of Pi Essay

      The Life of Pi is an exotic interpretation of the human condition. With flavorful descriptions and suspenseful action, this book doesn't hesitate to delve headfirst into the abyss of mankind's darkest realms.
      Humans are civilized, domesticated, and proud creatures. We are social, intelligent, and belong to a progressive, developed society. We exchange pleasantries and offer courteous gestures to one another when appropriate. But Life of Pi reminds us of our original roots - we are animals. We are incredibly advanced mammals, with instincts and a feral nature. In the 'real world', we have cell phones that can dial 911 with four quick punches of a button and help will arrive in no more than 10 minutes. However, when those services are taken away, our true nature begins to emerge.
     Pi focuses a great deal on religion. He is very dedicated to his spirituality, he is gentle and warm hearted. He relies on his beliefs as a stronghold for his daily life. In the beginning, the reader can't be sure of where the story is going to go because Pi seems like any average, civilized citizen. Of course with his own personal quirks. It is not until the reader gets thrown onto the lifeboat as living bait that we begin to see the plot emerging. Pi is a young and frightened boy. A vegetarian, the thought of taking the life of another animal and ingesting its flesh and lifeblood is utterly repulsive to Pi. When he realizes that the frenzied sailors on the ship threw him to the lifeboat not to save his life but to save their own, his pastel picture of the world and his fellow man begins to distort itself into a blur. He doesn't appear surprised at this epiphany, but the point he realizes this is the point he begins to transform into a beast himself. When Orange Juice is brutally murdered by the hyena, Pi's disposition transforms.
   When we are put in a precarious situation, it is only human nature to find a solution. Instinct takes over, and our bodies are no longer our bodies. We belong to something more powerful, something greater. We belong to sickness, we belong to hunger and thirst. We belong to the forces of nature. Our previous insights are hushed by our need to survive. When Pi disregards his vegetarian practices we find him graphically slaughtering sea animals for food. He states his dominance over Richard Parker and clarifies that he is the boss of the lifeboat. The two both respect each other's space, and even care for one another. But this ritual will only remain consistent if Richard Parker admits submission to Pi during their time at sea.
    The most frightening component of the entire book is the very end. When Pi is rescued and Richard Parker bounds away into the jungle with no reverence or "goodbye" gesture to the boy who has cared for him for years, the reader begins to put the puzzle pieces together. We can assume that Pi needed a method to cope with all of the atrocity, the unimaginable horror that has bestowed upon him in the lifeboat. It never confirms in the book which of Pi's stories were true, but textual clues almost positively assure that Pi was driven by terror to create animalistic characters for the people he was in the lifeboat with (as well as himself) so that he did not have to fully accept the fact that humans really can do things like that to each other. The lifeboat, representing Pi's faith, keeps him afloat in dark waters. It keeps him safe from bitter death. It provides shelter and safety for him. It can be inferred that God was with Pi throughout his trials, and provided Pi with the necessary tools to create animals out of the people he was watching being killed so that he did not have to fully endure what was going on around him. Pi, having spent so much time around animals throughout his childhood, had to create Orange Juice in place of his mother. He had to create the zebra and the hyena in place of people he knew because it was less traumatizing and more realistic for him to visualize animals behaving in such a manner than human beings. Richard Parker was Pi's way of coping with the horrid things he was having to do in order to prevail. That is why when Pi is rescued Richard Parker disappears and we never hear about him again. Pi comments that wild creatures are adept at hiding from people. The underlying meaning of this comment is that once a human is surrounded by other humans, in an organized society with security and safety, instincts recoil and sink back into our marrow for safekeeping. Tools for survival are no longer needed. Pi is able to 'go back' to normal societal functions because of the animal world he created for himself on the lifeboat. It is beautiful, tragic, and the message is the simplicity of the life cycle. Birth, life, death. It envelops this simple core point into a twisting narrative full of hills and valleys decorated in elaborately written descriptions and unsettling, vivid scenes. Life of Pi is a dark treasure, an exposé on who...and what...we really are.
     

Life of Pi 2

   After the ship sinks and Pi is left alone, he realizes that the crew members must have thrown him overboard so he'd get eaten and they could save themselves. This relates back to my earlier observation, how when terror strikes humans will do almost anything to save themselves. Even if that means doing something horrible to a fellow human being. He decides that instead of behaving like frightened prey around the carnivorous creatures, it would be wisest to approach them with a superior and dominant attitude. When Orange Juice survives, her presence is somewhat of a maternal comfort to Pi, because she has bore children and orangutans are eerily human. I've personally spent half an hour bewildered by them at the Audobon Zoo in New Orleans, and their demeanor and close family connection is very touching. She represents hope and the will to live that both humans and animals alike share.
  I got kind of angry when Pi didn't go ahead and kill the zebra that was being eaten alive... I feel that the humanitarian thing to do would have been to break its neck or something. It didn't die until the day after the hyena began feasting on its living flesh, and that disgusted me. I realize Pi is very sensitive and emotional, but sometimes it's time to be a man. And then it kills Orange Juice. I didn't like this section because it was so graphic and disturbing. The orangutan represented the love that Pi lost, yet he didn't help her.
   As the novel furthers, Pi becomes more and more animalistic. He is killing things with his bare hands, he is naked, and he has even taken to drinking the life blood of animals. Once a loyal vegetarian, now a ravenous carnivore. The act of training Richard Parker is frightening. The concept of a small boy having so much dominance and control over the king of wild beasts is surreal. Pi notices that through persistent displays of superiority over the animal, he has begun to become an animal himself. Richard Parker is exhibiting signs of 'zoomorphism' at this point, however, because when the cannibalistic man comes onto the boat with the intention of killing and eating Pi, the tiger senses the threat to his master and refuses to allow any harm to come to him.
   When the pair washes up onto the Mexican beach and Richard Parker bounds away into the jungle, Pi is flooded with emotion. Happiness and relief at being saved, more sadness and grief that he has lost another friend.

Al-Qaida Plans Revenge

         Al-Qaida vows to continue fighting America and avenge Osama bin Laden's death. A crowd of pro-bin Laden protesters shouted "USA you will pay!" in front of the U.S. Embassy in London on Friday. Typical Al-Qaida attacks are large-scale and well planned. An official says there "have been mentions of shootings or bombings and random violence, though it is not surprising given bin Laden's death." Interpol has asked 188 law enforcement agencies around the world to be conscientious of any suspicious activity and to watch for retaliatory attacks. Some American businesses have added new security measures.
       Al-Qaida issued a disturbing statement that said, "The blood of the holy warrior sheik, Osama bin Laden, God bless him, is too precious to us and to all Muslims to go in vain. We will remain, God willing, a curse chasing the Americans and their agents, following them outside and inside their countries. Soon, God willing, their happiness will turn to sadness, their blood will be mingled with their tears."

Life of Pi 1

    Well, this book is certainly very strange. I haven't quite gotten the feel for it yet, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be looking for, but it's interesting. I find Pi's intrigue for animals very charming, and I find the use of Pi as a god-figure very beautiful. The "very bad thing" that happened to him aligns with the crucifixion of Christ and Pi's love of creatures aligns with Christ's love for all the things that He created. The comparison of the zoo to the wild is the comparison of Heaven to Earth, as Heaven is described in the Bible as a place of immense beauty and luxury where on Earth the soul is subject to any force nature imposes and evil is prominent around every corner.
  Pi is self conscious about his name, and he seems to have a passive nature so he uses his persistence to aquire what he wants- which is to be called "Pi" instead of "Piscine". By reciting "Pi" aloud as his preferred name on a regular basis, his classmates begin to follow his footsteps.
   I paid particular attention to the concept of religion being a method humans have developed to make their lives more meaningful, because that's so true. Having a religion fulfills our sense of self worth and place in the world.And Pi is very receptive to other people's religions, as long as they have some type of faith. He can't fathom a complete lack of spiritual belief. He is a firm believer of God, but doesn't limit himself to any one religion as he seeks out all different facets of God and his mysteries in the guidebooks of different religions.
 The talk about animals in the beginning is deeply significant to the story. Animals can be domesticated and trained but their true instincts never completely disappear. Those things are embedded deep into their entire makeup and were intended by their Creator to be used. Humans are the same way; the second the ambulance or police become unavailable, a human's true colors will show as well. People are primitive creatures who have been socialized throughout millions of years and will also become territorial, lethal beings when desperate or provoked.
   I noticed a very peculiar argument in this story. Pi explains his broad beliefs to his family by saying he "just wants to love God", and that he feels people who carry out acts of brutality and evil in the name of God don't understand religion. However, Islam is FULL of violence. Yes, the book of Islam may seemingly declare love and everything is all about love and love is all you need and so on and so forth, whatever. But if that is the case, then why is the Middle East attacking us with bombs and airplanes? Is that an act of love? Yes, they killed thousands of people on 9/11 because they love us. I'm sorry, I'm ranting, but the concept just made me question if maybe Pi doesn't really understand what Islam is? Maybe I don't completely understand everything about Islam, but I know that the folks in the Middle East wake up at the crack of dawn every morning and pray to Allah, which is supposedly "the same god", but I'm sorry I just don't think my God is telling them to come and blow us up. Out of love.
  Back to the book. I apologize. When Pi talks about 'zoomorphism', I couldn't help but compare his description of it as being kind of a 'religion for animals' because 'they also need stories to get through life'. Humans use religion as a means of finding peace in dealing with day to day struggles and pressures. Pi is saying here that animals do the same things by 'zoomorphism'. 

The Sieve and the Sand

"'We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindnesses there is at last one which makes the heart run over.'" This is the page Montag reads on a cold, rainy November day after he learns of Clarisse's death. It is ironic and painful. This is the point in the book where things begin to go horribly awry. Montag's first mistake is allowing Mildred to know about his reading habits, because she is the same as the firefighters, the policemen, the neighbors who would pull the alarm in two seconds if they knew Montag had even considered reading a scrap of literature. Mildred is incapable of feeling remorse for wrongdoings so her fear of the books being found is derived strictly from her fear that her way of life will be skewed if someone does happen to find out. I'm not even sure if Mildred herself is sure of exactly what she's afraid of. But she knows that books are evil, they possess dark knowledge of an old world that she wants nothing to do with because the unknown frightens her. She wants to be kept wound tightly in her little bubble of a reality society has blown for her. When Montag tries to confide in his wife about the woman he and the other firemen had burned the night before, Mildred is completely disinterested. Once again, a prime example of a dysfunctional 'husband-wife' relationship.
    I was very excited when Montag reunited with Faber because I as the reader no longer felt alone. I felt that I had a vessel in this story from the world I know that could communicate to Montag what I wanted to speak aloud and tell him myself about books and knowledge, the truths and the beautiful enlightening wisdom they bring. Faber was that proxy, and I was very thankful. The earpiece and microphone was ingenious, until Montag decided it would be a good idea to flaunt his books about in front of Mildred's friends like a mad man. However, that was also like a scene from a movie (as most of this book was for me, I could almost put a song to every event) and I could feel Montag's desperation to 'snap everyone out of it' for lack of a better term. He was one of the few lucky people in the world that hadn't been so tainted with technologies who could actually grasp that he was living in a highly distorted reality. I could see the sweat beads on his forehead, the scramble for words and justifications, the frantic motions of his hands,  the desperate pleas of his tongue. For a moment I was living vicariously through Montag.
   I've always known Beatty sucks. He's a worm-like, manipulative sloth with a deteriorated mind and a psychologically stifling disposition. When Montag cannot go into work because he has become ill with despair, Beatty's visit had me squirming. The whole rant he gave Montag about what books are and a fireman's curiosity about what it is he is actually destroying was a tantalizing game that was seemingly neverending. I hated every moment, and at the end when Montag refuses to come clean about the books and Beatty takes him to his own house to burn the possessions, my heart skipped a beat. "Why, we've stopped in front of my house." Chills!

North Korea Issues Deadly Threat

    Last week North Korea launched what the United States has claimed a veiled ballistic missile. The object disintegrated moments after being launched into the air. But that's not all for the country, because the military has issued an eery statement claiming they would reduce South Korea to ashes in just four minutes. South Korean officials have been consistently monitoring militant activity in enemy territory and claim to have found what may be a tunnel for nuclear testing. The threat was specific in its promise to deliver soon and efficiently. North Korea stated they would obliterate "all rat-like groups and the bases for provisions to ashes in three or four minutes or in much shorter time, by unprecedented peculiar means and methods of our own style."
   It is no secret that the Koreas have had a turbulent past, but unrest between nations may be spiraling out of control.  My primary concern is of the actions the American government will take due to this event, and if our tendency to become involved in the dissensions of other countries will in turn inflict North Korea's wrath upon ours.

The Hearth and the Salamander (way past due)

      The instantaneous punch to the gut Bradburry's novel Fahrenheit  451 delivers is skilled and accurate. The first section was a suspenseful unveiling of a series of most inconceivable events. The Hearth and the Salamander provided me with the momentum I needed to get into the story, making a clear, crisp message for me to relate to and understand.
     Aside from the disturbing pleasure Montag receives from igniting a home in the middle of the night, one of the first things I instantly noticed was Bradburry's depiction of Clarisse. Montag describes her as a haunting, unfamiliar being in a white dress. I personally feel that white in this context represents the ashes and ruins of American society (symbolically, of course). But also a faint air of hopefulness is emanated from the doe-eyed girl's character. She is full of wonder and mystique, and an ancient appreciation of the world well beyond her years. She is very young, but much wiser than Montag, and that bothers him.
   Mildred is such an unfortunate character. I can't stand her but I know I can't blame her for her faults. She has no substance, no depth, no characteristics that make me care anything about her. She and Montag sleep in separate beds which I found very strange. Humans in this world have almost completely lost the need for warm, personal interaction. Of course one of the main points in the book is that so many technological advancements have been made that humans have inadvertently brainwashed themselves and only live to seek out momentary pleasures, so this separation of beds makes sense. Man and wife probably only sleep in the same bed together to have sex, and because the sensations of passion and love have been sucked dry from the human soul, these marital relations are only for pleasure as well. This is very sad to me because part of being married to someone is to have that connection and love with them, and when love and compassion are gone from the world there is nothing else. As you can tell, I was really bothered.
   The citizens in this book are always searching for a way to feel something, so violence and corrupt law enforcement has become an issue. The "Hound"? Sickening. The idea of someone creating a mechanism designed to hunt and inject a needle of toxins into a living being is perverted. What makes it more perverse is that in this book the firemen sick the metal mutt on a creature and watch it hunt the animal like it's a game.  People are killing each other and the police don't even have to ignore it because they don't even care. Mildred thinks actors on a television screen (or all three?) are her family. It's repulsive, really. I'm all for technology because I think iPods are fun and great, but I do not want to become this because it just sounds miserable. But that's just it, isn't it? If we were living in this society, we wouldn't feel deprived of anything because we would have everything we'd ever known readily available to us - and that is the scary part.