There are several books/series that I read over the summer - Life of Pi (Yann Martel), A Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens), and some selections from the Calvin and Hobbes series (Bill Watterson).
The work that had the biggest impression on me had to be Life of Pi. The author accomplished this task through not only a riviting plot line, but also a conclusion that make me question my ideas of reality and what to believe. After first reading it, and then many times later, I have mentally re-examined the book from the beginning. It is about an Indian boy, Pi Patel (real name was Piscine Patel, but changed name due to peer pressure), who was raised in a “zoological” family, so to speak. Living in this family, he learned the ways and dangers of how animals behave around other animals and humans. When hard times with the Indian government drove them out of their home, they looked for a second residence. They eventually decided on Canada. The Tsimtsum, the ship on which they traveled, sunk (the reason is unknown).
The Chinese crew abord the cargo ship threw Pi into a lifeboat with a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan, and a Bengal tiger named “Richard Parker” (Pi did not know about the tiger for a few days).
The rest of the novel is a stunning capture of the terrors, near-death experiences, and life-altering commitments that Pi had to make to survive in the scorching heat, dehydration, etc. Pi also had to implement all of his knowledge about animal behavior to this dire situation. Pi’s prior aquired knowledge was a savior.
One particular facet dicatated by Pi showed me the complexity in a seemingly simple scenario, when a circus master steps into the ring, and is able to control all the animals with relative ease. The audience wonders, “How is he able to do it?” The answer is simple. Pi concludes that by speaking and yelling loudly, blowing into a whistle, and using a whip, the circus master is able to show the tigers and other animals that he is the “super alpha-male” (as Pi put it), to show that he is the dominant of all the elements. Pi implemented this technique by constantly blowing into several orange whistles to keep Richard Parker in line. Believe it or not, Richard Parker obeyed, and there rarely were attacks--he only hit Pi once with its paw.
At the end of the novel, a few days after landing on Mexico’s shore, two men, Tomohiro Okamoto, and Atsuro Chiba, interviewed Pi for details about the sinking of the ship, as well as how he survived so long. They did not believe the story for quite a few reasons, some of them being (1) surviving with a Bengal Tiger for over seven months, and (2) coming across an island that was six miles across that was purely full of meerkats, algae, and freshwater in the middle of the ocean, etc.
At this point, Martel impresses with a masterful twist and the book evolves into something more. Tomohiro and Atsuro both want a story that seems factually plausible, and Pi somewhat recreates one, in which he, his mother, the ship’s cook, and a sailor were all on the lifeboat, with no animals. This story is even more coarse, when the various members of the boat fight one another to survive. Pi’s mother is eventually killed by the cook, and he by Pi.
What is so amazing about this short section is that Yann Martel lets the reader, as well as Pi to Tomohiro and Atsuro, decide for themselves which is the real story: the one with animals, or the one without. The two men agree that they did not have a preference for either story, because they had no real evidence that either occurred. This complication is what made this work be so interesting and memorable. Whenever brought up for discussion, Life of Pi provides a lively argument for me and my colleagues. The way that the author chose to create this mysterious end to such a grand adventure only adds to the intriguing complexity of the novel.
All in all, I highly recommend Life of Pi, because it makes us reflect on our lives, beliefs, and how we see the world; how we need to cherish the most important things in life. (732)
