http://www.naturephoto-cz.com/photos/soural/west-australian-pitcher-plant-0270.jpg
Finishing Life of Pi is always a fascinating experience. Rarely does a novel have you so attached, have you suspend your disbelief with such skill, and than have you questioning everything you read in the past 300 pages by the books end. How much of Pi's story was real? What was that hazy, dreamlike episode on the algae island? How did it all relate to what Martel is saying about god?
I don't know if any book could change my religious beliefs, much less a rather whimsical novel such as Life of Pi. But one thing that Martel succeeds in doing is have on question their own beliefs about their personal truths. Reading about Pi's ordeal one quickly assumes everything is grounded in reality. The harrowing ordeal on the lifeboat with Richard Parker is told with such attention to detail that the floating island scene sneaks into one's belief system rather well. If everything else in this story happened, than there must be a floating carnivorous plant island in the middle of the Pacific. There had to. Perhaps this is illustrative of how people hold their faith in God? As Pi puts it "The world isn't just the way it is. It is how we understand it" (Martel 375).
http://javabeans.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/island1.jpgLife isn't always what it seems...
After finishing the novel reading Dillard's piece was a fascinating tie-in to how we view nature. Her rancid, gross descriptions of essential life processes was comparable to some of Pi's experiences in the lifeboat and the island. Dillard is overwhelmed by the overall disturbing methods of reproduction and as such takes a rather pessimistic outlook on the reality of nature one that says "that life itself is astonishingly cheap" (Course Anthology 25). This pessimistic, and one could argue necessary, outlook is what enabled Pi to survive. By putting aside his sentimentality and compassion for all living things, Pi did what was necessary to ensure he did not die, something that is the most basic desire of all living things.
The floating algae island seemed like a beautiful and amazing blessing to Pi's fortunes. But as luck would have it it was actually a miserable and horrifying island of death. A carnivorous floating oasis on the ocean? Who would have guessed. But it was just another important lesson in Pi's remarkable journey. The methods of survival in nature are never pretty, and Pi learned that the heard way. Dillard just had a creepy nightmare.
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