Life of Pie Essay Blog: Prompt 1

           The term "mad" can take on many forms; from being angry to the point of shouting at someone, or mad in the sense of being crazy enough to fly air planes into buildings to prove a point. In the Life of Pi, Pi is not driven to either of these kinds of madness, but driven to a type of madness that is more closely associated with PTSD. PTSD patients, when severe enough, will create alternate realities and truths to cover the horrid experience that the person witnessed or lived. Pi is the character in the novel that undergoes the most psychological, and physical changes into madness, and following and analyzing his story can prove to be rather depressing.
            Being lost at sea has many effects on the mind that one can only imagine if they have experienced it for have been trained for it. Living on solid ground a human's entire life and then traumatically being thrown into a world of nothing but rocking water is a momentous mental hurtle to jump in itself. Then comes the realization that to survive all living things must have food and water in addition to shelter. The temptation of the sea water and the knowledge of the horrid side effects of drinking it is pure torture. While food does not seem to be an issue for alot of the novel, Pi's knowledge of animals helped him survive in this manner. The last factor to what eventually drove Pi to madness was that he was not stranded with other people, but with wild animals. To be initialy out numbered to by them was what eventually cause the more animalistic qualities of Pi to surface.
             The animals that were on the boat took the position as if they were all put in a cage together to survive. The dominant animal would come out the soul victor. In Pi's case, and to his luck, was the tiger. Watching the animals tear eachother apart, it then became "socially acceptable" to be annamalistic. Pi then also starts folowing the law of darwinism, he knows that in direct conflict that Richard Parker would devour him. So he played to the phrase, "if you can't beat em', join em'". Using his knowledge of zoology, he tames the tiger and works with him to keep the two of them alive. When we later learn that none of the animals may have exixted, this takes a very dark turn in which Pi had to literally tame the natural anamalistic instincts that were bursting from him.
             Eventually Pi becomes so much like the tiger he considers Richard Parker to be his true friend. He has given up his lifelong religious preferences to survive in the animalistic state that he is now in. When he used to look at all life with solice, the eventually had no problem snaping countless necks of fish to survive the ordeal. Pi describes how the water had worn down his clothes to nothing. He was in his truly natural state. This also has an effect on Pi in the sence that he can see he is becomming more like an animal. In a sense, this realization and the lack of effort to change show his true inner madness.
           In the end of the book we learn that there is a second story where all the animals were replaced with actual people. This would mean that the only way that Pi could even begin to rationalize what he saw is that these were, not in fact, people but animals turned against one another by true conflict: survival. I think that what Pi actually saw on the boat was to horrendous to be put into thought, much less words. His brain would not let him process the evil that he saw that first week on the raft. His subconciness forced him to remember the story as a tiger named Richard Parker, instead of looking into the mirrior and seeing the true face of who Richard Parker was.



p.s.
Dear Mrs. Leffler,
 I just posted my current events 3 and 4 that you did already give me a grade for, if you wouldn't mind looking over those and reposting the grade that would help me out sooo much! thanks again for everything! I feel like I learned alot in your class and found the AP exam alot easier than I expected and I wanted to thank you for everyting! Happy Summer!
           

Current event blog 4

We all know that the gas prices have gotten crazy. Just my little honda takes 60 bucks to fill up!! Over the past several weeks, consumers have been searching for stations the have strictly no ethanol. And some continue to purchase the common %10 ethanol in thier gasoline. Ethanol makes the gas cheaper while also lowers the gas milage. The reason that ethanol is so popualar is because the price of the gas is much more clearly seen than the difference of milage. For different cars, you have a different balance of which is cheaper. Congress is proposing to increase the ethanol limit to 15% before the end of the summer which could lower the gas price as much as $1.50 per gallon. Studies have been done and concluded that ethanol would destroy many engines on the road that were not made to accomodate for the increaced ammount of ethanol in the gas. I think that $3 sounds alot better than $4.50, but obviously not enough to risk my ride!

Current event 3

This past week a grant was passed for 6 million dollars to a Chicago hospital. The grant was awarded to the University of Chicago Medical Center's Urban Health Initiative through the presidents's Affordable Care Act and will link patients with community services through a data base. The controversy in this is that the hospital has had close ties to the Obama family for years with Michelle being a former employee and the hospital is run by a long time friend and golf partner of the President's.

I honestly think that this is just another reason to attack Obama on how he is "unfair" by giving his friend this grant over the next three years. I feel like that the money went to a good use and since the president is friends with Obama, the hospital can be more trusted to spend the money wisely. Already the hospital has used the money to hire many extra workers in the Chicago area and are continuing to put the money to good use. In my eyes, there have may been a bit of favoritism, but its hard to make giving money to a hospital sound bad.

Current event 2

This past week Newt Gingritch with drew from the republican nominee race. His campaign had accumulated over 4 million dollars in debt. Once he removed himself from the race he told CNN that he would later commit to supporting his fellow republican, Mitt Romney. I always respected Newt's intelligence  although as soon as his campaign was deficit spending I was absolutely astounded that any possible president could be stupid enough to let that happen in such a critical time in our economy. He set a horrible example for the rest of the country and lost all respect in my eyes. If you can't control your own spending, how in the world can you control a countries spending??

Life of pie final section!

I would definitely have to say that the last section of this book was by far the weirdest to me. And the last few chapters completely confused me! The first part of this section that really got to me was when Richard Parker started talking to Pi. Okay obviously animals can't talk and it was his state of delirium, but still! This was a little crazy and unexpected to me! I was not expecting that. Another strange thing: when he met the other blind guy...in the middle of the ocean. The odds of this seem very unlikely to me. I mean he's just floating randomly and this other guy is too coincidentally??? The weirdest and most unexpected part to me was when this other guy actually tried to strangle Pi! I understand that desperate times call for desperate measures, but this guy just took it too far! Pi doesn't directly say this, but I have no doubt that this entire situation changed him a lot. Everything he does shows how he's matured in some ways but resorted to animal like ways in other situations. I really think that this situation probably made him more religious, too. The main argument at the end of the book, as well as throughout, is faith vs. science. Pi is definitely on the faith side. His love of religion is noticeable by the sheer fact that he doesn't try to kill himself or just quit trying to survive. He always keeps trying and that shows that he does have faith that his gods will help him to make it through. On a short note, I really found the part where he was describing the meercats very interesting. Martel just did a really good job of describing them so that I could really picture what he was seeing. The last 6 chapters can be summarized in one word: THEME.  Pi's entire argument with the Japanese is about faith vs. science. Personally, I believe the "faith" story that Pi tells. Even though not everything makes logical sense to us or the other men, that's just part of life. Many things in life that people love and focus attention on are faith based, yet we still will defend them. It makes sense for Pi to be more faith based since he is so religious. I'm not gonna lie, I got kind of sad when Richard Parker left Pi without a "proper farewell." Even though a tiger can't say goodbye, I kind of expected him to. Some parts of this book were harder to get through than others but overall I really liked the message of faith vs. science, and even though it kind of annoyed me at the time, I like the "you choose" kind of ending. 

Life of pie part two

One thing that I really noticed and liked is the author's use of description throughout the book. He has a way of describing something so ordinary to us in a way that gives it a new light and can make you really visualize it. Well, at least it had that effect on me. For example, I really liked the part where he was describing nature as  being a show. He says, "The stage is vast, the lighting is dramatic, the extras are innumerable, and the budget for special effects is absolutely unlimited." I personally would have never thought about nature in this way. It's very abstract yet it makes perfect sense! I like that a lot of Martel's descriptions are brand new and something I would have never thought of instead of a monotonous book repeating the boring facts and details that I'm already overly familiar with. Yes, I'm familiar with nature, but he was able to make me think about it in a new way and I like that a lot. 

Another example of his detail that I really liked was when he was comparing the ocean beneath him to a busy city such as Tokyo. He called the fish cars and described the collisions, different shaped and colored vehicles, and the different "lanes" on the streets. Again, I never would have viewed the ocean as a giant highway or city but his description makes sense. In fact, that's exactly how the ocean functions so this description fits perfectly. His vivid detail and imagery put a solid picture in my mind.


One thing that stood out to me about the character Pi was his ability to notice and appreciate the little things in life, even in his time of struggle while trying to survive on the boat. Yes, he has his moments where he breaks down and realizes his situation doesn't look good, but he doesn't dwell on them. He makes himself notice the smaller things in life that most of us take for granted. He appreciates the fish, the ocean, the contrasting colors between the tiger and the boat, even his scarce food supply that he has. One example of this is in his description of the zebra on the boat. He talks about the artistic and perfect design and how the stripes on him seemed to glow brilliantly. He even talks about the way the zebras head looks and how lovely the animal is in general. I think zebras are cool, sure. But I've never spent that much time dwelling on the way they look and how it makes me feel. This definitely isn't a bad trait that Pi has, though. It's probably one of his best in my opinion. If I had the choice to be trapped in an elevator with a habitual pessimist or Pi, I would choose Pi because at least he can look on the bright side of things. Slowing down and taking the time to appreciate the world around you (even if its just ocean) is a good quality that not many people have and I like seeing this trait in Pi. 


Earlier I mentioned the use of detail that I liked. There were some parts that grossed me out though. Examples: Pi peeing on the tarp, suggesting vomiting on the tarp, cutting/gutting the various animals (fish, turtles, etc.), the bloody zebra, the bloody hyena, the bloody orangutan. And I can only imagine what the bottom of that life boat looked like what with all the guts, feces, and water all over it. Eww. I especially gagged at the part where Pi describes the hyena and what it won't eat. Not much apparently. According to Pi a hyena will drink pee invested water, eat its kin, and even eat vehicles! YUM! Another part where I got a little weak stomached was when he was talking about drinking the turtles blood. I know that vampires/sucking blood and all that are really "in" right now but I don't do blood. I can't. The thought/smell/sight grosses me out. So reading about how he drank a pop bottle full of it really made me sick! It's hard to say because I'm not exactly stranded in the middle of the ocean currently, but if it came down to it, I would probably still have to pass on the turtle blood. 

Current event 1

This past week two eastern Asian counties have attempted to launch a missile. North Korea and India. Korea's was unsuccessful, while india was busy showing the world they are not to be messed with. India launched their missile of an island south east of continental india. This launch proved to be much more successful than any other world power expected. This missile had the capabilities to carry 100 ton nuclear bomb and had the distance of possibly targeting main cities such as Beijing. China has firmly stated that they are in no sort of arms race with India, and consider them to be a much weaker power in the world.

I think that other countries such as india acquiring missile capabilities should be a type of wake up call to the united states. We are no longer the sole super power in he world and more are beginning to join our ranks. While we must not get in the way of India's business, I do believe that the UN should consider talking up some kind of treaty or agreement if none already exists. The United States should not be afraid or worry that India will ever interfere with our foreign policy, but rather be aware that south eastern asia will not always be at the bottom of the pyramid.