Life of Pi! (:

When Emily Dickinson wrote that “much madness is divinest sense to a discerning eye”, she stated the ever true statement of how playwrights and novelists view madness. Often times, writers create a character whose madness seems very evident, but actually plays a key part of the story. In Life of Pi, for example, Piscene (Pi) Patel is a character who displays symptoms that might seem of madness. However, his role in the story is vital and his behavior is what makes the story. He only does not seem mad in one aspect, however, but in many areas does he come across as being irrational and somewhat crazy.


One area that Pi extends beyond the borders of normality is through his religious views. Pi is not Hindu, Christian, or Islam, but he is all three. The three leaders of these religions that he knew, as well as his family, were simply appalled by this, but Pi finds it quite reasonable. He finds the stories fascinating, not just because of what happened or how the religion formed, but almost because there is a sense of a higher degree of love for humanity in all of them. But, for such a religious child, Pi also finds deep appreciation for atheism, because he believes that if one is going to believe in something, he or she should truly believe with all they have. This is why he is disgusted by agnostics. They lack creativity and imagination in Pi’s eyes because they refuse to make a decision on the topic of God, whereas he believes they should believe one thing or the other as a definitive answer. This whole seeming madness in everyone’s eyes but Pi’s illustrate just who Pi is in a way, and emphasize the importance of faith and spirituality that becomes a major factor throughout the rest of the story on how Pi views things.

Through his time on the lifeboat, Pi seems incredibly mad. Not only is he on the boat in the beginning with an orangutan and zebra, but a hyena and a Bengal tiger as well. As he watches in fear as the hyena kills the zebra and orangutan and the tiger kills the hyena, it seems all hope is lost for young Pi. As time progresses though and the reader watches Pi grow throughout the story, he seems crazy, perhaps suicidal in some areas. He builds his own raft attached to the boat and stays there in open water surrounded by sharks. He also claims his territory on the lifeboat with the tiger, Richard Parker, on board by pouring urine on the tarp above Richard Parker. Not only does Pi remain with the tiger on the boat, he attempts to keep him alive by breaking all morals and killing fish not just for himself, but for Richard Parker as well. Pi even goes so far as to tame Richard Parker by rocking the boat and blowing a whistle so Richard Parker would begin associating the whistle with sea-sickness. If this doesn’t seem mad enough, Pi stays in the boat with Richard Parker after a storm destroys his raft, and when they land on an island, he leaves once he deems the water unsafe and heads back into open water. All of this truly does seem like Pi has been exposed to the sun too long and has gone crazy. These events though, exemplify the will to live that is so prevalent in this story.

Both faith and the will to live are important factors in this story. Without these, Pi would have never made it out of the situation at sea. He relied throughout the endeavors on religious references, such as seeing things as “God’s eyes”. Despite his love for God though, his spirituality could not handle his needs. Even though he prayed daily, his need for religion slowly molded into his need for survival. Pi, originally very principled, begins to break his values because it would be impossible to continue living without doing so. Though he seems mad, his will to survive is actually the deciding factor in all decisions.

At the end, when Pi tells the Japanese man a whole different story because the man expressed his disbelief, one really sees Pi as mad. His new story consists of him being even more a breaker of his morals, through killing not an animal, but another person. Pi never tells the truth as to which one is the actual story. He takes this first step in being a story teller, something that led him to even tell the story of his boat survival for the writing of “Life of Pi”. One thing, though, that is interesting is Pi’s name. Pi, in math, is the never-ending number, a number of unsurety. Just like his name, this book has an almost never ending number of tales that leave the reader unsure of the truth or what happened, including the ending. There is no resolution in the end, just as in the number Pi, just something to leave the reader wondering.

The whole story, it seems, is full of madness.

Final Current Event Blog

The Dalai Lama is accusing the government of putting poison on womens' head and hands so he is poisoned when touching them. The government finds this claim ridiculous, and says they could have killed him years ago if they wanted.

I think this is a funny issue. His mind seems... Gone in his old age. It's quite the funny story. I think that the Chinese government should just blow this one off, because it seems completely irrelevant and confused. They wouldn't have waited so many years to kill off an old man!

Stacklin, Jeff. "China rebuts Dalai Lama’s alleged poison plot." Yahoo! News. N.p., 12 May 2012. Web.
     14 May 2012.

Life of Pi #4

So, the ending of this book, as I tried not mentioning in the last blog, seriously confused me. I don't think I liked it very much, but I loved it at the same time. I had to keep re-reading it and still am confused. I dislike being confused, but I finally figured out the actual story didn't matter. Oh well, I still liked this book. It was definitely my favorite we've read.

Current Event #3

This article is about one of the "escorts" from the Secret Service scandal accusing the agents of having no respect and being careless. She states that the agent she was with left his papers exposed, and had she been a spy, she could have easily taken them. She also confirmed that Arthur Huntington, the agent, offered her $30 which led to confrontation and drawing of attention.

I think this is just one of those stories that gains attention with the more talking done. This woman led him in for sex in exchange for money, but clearly states she is not a prostitute (while doing said interview in a skimpy green dress). Sure, she may be right in stating his carelessness, but complaining that he didn't want to pay her enough and that he showed no respect? Honey, you're a whore; what do you expect? This seriously irritates me. I agree with the government that she needs protection from the government in the fact that she let a name out, but she really doesn't have right in my mind to be bothered by a drunk agent who didn't want to pay $250 - it's illegal anyway! I think SHE needs fined just as much as the agents involved with Huntington need be, and Huntington deserves his loss of position.

Romo, Christine, and Brian Ross. "Secret Service Escort Says US Agents 'Showed No Respect'." Yahoo!
       News. N.p., 4 May 2012. Web. 4 May 2012.

Life of Pi #3

I'm not going to lie... I've already finished the book, so I'll try to keep my knowledge from the rest from the blog!

Well, I like this section. It really picks up on action and gives more insight into just how much Pi has to face. Feeding a bengal tiger is intimidating in itself, let alone facing HOW to do it. With no food or knowledge on how to get it, he goes in headfirst and does a great job of it. I love his description of how much trouble it is to kill the first fish, or eat the meat because of his vegetarian ways. He is so naive to begin with, but the progressing time expresses the human will to survive. However, as the will to survive is obvious, the ability to seems to crumble as the end of the section comes, even leading to him writing the ever depressing "dying" statuses in his diary. This is definitely my favorite of the books we have read, and has the most action and realism. I actually think I might WANT to own this one.

Current Event #2 (And one for fun!)

Hahaha. I really wanted to do this one, but I couldn’t because it’s not actually a current event, but I’m putting it in here to begin with anyway! In Poland, a dentist numbed her boyfriend up with novocaine, then pulled ALL his teeth out, bandaged him up without a word, and walked away. He didn’t realize it until he got home! To top it off, his new girlfriend broke up with him, because she didn’t want a toothless man. She now faces jail time, of course, but it still made me laugh.  My response? I hope he got one of those goody bags that dentists give! And the both of them need mental checkups. Nothing worse than a woman scorned, so he should know better, but she is just psycho!

Bigler, Taylor. "Novocaine nightmare: Dentist pulls out all of ex-boyfriend’s teeth." Yahoo! News.

      30 April 2012. Web. 30 Apr 2012.

Okay… My REAL current event:

Lately, Obama has been using the assassination of Bin Laden as a political campaign, over playing it and using it against Romney for a chance at re-election. However, Obama denies these charges on the grounds that there is no excessive celebration, simply discussing the facts.

I think that Obama is definitely over-celebrating this. I mean, I totally agree that he did a great thing and that it was a great day for America, but he doesn’t need to brag and act as though he is the only president to ever attempt such an operation. Not the greatest example, but we did go over in history about how Jimmy Carter attempted an operation in Iran to save hostages. He’s right to use it in his campaign, true, but he’s using it to make Romney look unworthy, but… Hey, that’s politics.

Know, Olivier. "Bin Laden raid anniversary has not seen ‘excessive celebration,’ Obama says."

      Yahoo! News. 30 April 2012. Web. 30 Apr 2012.

Life of Pi #2

The sinking of the boat really throws the story into a overload of information. The whirlwind of the flashback of the moments before the landing in a boat with a tiger give insight into the logic that runs through Pi's mind of how the animals must have wound up. Once the realization of the tiger hits him, and after watching the violent attacks on the other animals done by the hyena, he meets the realization of animalistic characteristics and the realization of what could happen to him on the boat with the tiger must have been devastating. His emotions were tested by the physical pain the animals were in, even sending him into tears. He still comes out prevailing through this though, especially after watching Orange Juice (the orangutan) show such humane actions such as searching for her two lost sons in the water. This part of the book was much more entertaining, and the detail let a reader feel like he or she is almost there with Pi throughout this experience on the boat. I'm definitely beginning to like this book more.