Good So Far

In this blog post I have decided to state and address some of my predictions after reading the first few chapters of Life of Pi. We meet Pi as a character and he goes into detail about his name and its meaning. It is derived from Piscine and means pool in French. It is funny to me that Pi's parents have never cared much for water and actually shy away from it. This leads to something ironic that I noticed. First off Pi is taught to swim by his family friend, Francis Adirubasamy. Pi begins to feel a relationship with water and feels the opposite of his parents. Little does he know he will be trapped on a raft in the Pacific Ocean for months. I think this definitely foreshadows that the shipwreck and his surviving struggle will occur.

I also think that Pi's journey is symbolized by the zoo creatures he takes care of until the zoo is shut down. He speaks about the life of luxury the animals live on a day to day basis and compares it to the way humans live. A paradise if you will. It is not until Pi is trapped in the middle of the ocean with a tiger and an assortment of other animals that he realizes what it is like to be a wild animal. He has to fight for food and water and the psychological factor of not having human relation for as long a time as he didn't. Pi states, “Only a familiar territory will allow them to fulfill the two relentless imperatives of the wild: the avoidance of enemies and the getting of food and water, (P. 20 Martel)." Again I have seen the movie so I know what mostly happens in the book but it seemed like a great read so here I am. The picture below is a depiction of the Pondicherry zoo and botanical garden.