Group 5 ... Is the story real?

We cannot in any way prove or disprove that this story is real or not. I personally have a hard time believing the story, just like the interviewers at the end of the novel. The interviewers say very bluntly, “Mr. Patel, we don’t believe your story” (Martel, 292). The fact that Pi quickly came up with a different story that was so detailed and strung together gives me the idea that Pi came up with these stories in his head and imagination while he was at sea. He may have played these stories out in his head, and there may have been many more, but they actually didn’t happen. Most parts of the story work out and mold together very nicely, but other parts such as the carnivorous island are hard to believe. Pi does bring up a good point though, that we only do not believe him and his story because we have never experienced these things ourselves. “Carnivorous trees? A fish-eating algae that produces fresh water? Tree-dwelling aquatic rodents? These things don’t exist. Only because you’ve never seen them” (Martel, 294). Just because nobody has ever witnessed or experienced a carnivorous island doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. Pi’s story of survival is actually very believable and practical until the tiger comes into the picture. If the tiger was non-existent in this novel, it wouldn’t have been as interesting of a book, but it would have been much more believable. The tiger makes for a better read. Without the tiger half of the novel is lost and pointless, but the tiger also makes it hard to believe. The reader must use their best judgment to decide whether or not the story is real. This can be related to a murder case. The judge and jury must decide whether or not a suspect is guilty or not. They usually have evidence to sway their decisions one way or the other, but ultimately they cannot be completely sure whether or not the suspect did the crime, so they use their judgment to decide, just like we must use our judgment to decide whether or not we think the story is real. Both sides can be argued with different points, but we can never be sure if it is actually real or not.

Da Rap Game's Responce/Ideas

Dear Mrs. Huryn,

Our group, Da Rap Game, has come to a consensus. You win. You, Yann Martel, Elie Wiesel, all of you win. The members of my group have come to a point where we question everything we do. We cannot simply read a story anymore; we now feel the need to second-guess ourselves. To question everything we are told. It is no longer a simple black and white scenario; we’ve found acres upon acres of gray areas we become entangled in.

For example, when reading the Life of Pi, many questions come to the reader. All of them are unanswerable. Lil’ Wayne says that when she was reading Life of Pi she “felt like [she] was dropping acid and doing meth half the time [she] was reading”. A question as simple as “What is Life of Pi about?” is impossible to answer. While looking at online reviews of this book I have found that it can be categorized as a survival story, a tall tale, an action piece, a work about human/animal relationships, and a fiction about (1) India, (2) adolescence, (3) zoos and zoology, and (4) the Pacific Ocean, all which indicate to the reader that reviewers are grasping at anything they can find to define what essentially defies definition. The book is about all of these things - and about none of these things, really.

In Life of Pi, Yann Martel is truly astounding. He realizes that most effective way to tell a lie is to tell the truth in such an outrageous fashion as to be utterly believable. It’s a balance between “show” and “tell” in his book. In the story with out the animals he “tells” us what happens while he is at sea for 227 days. However, the story that includes the animals “shows” us what happened. Pi says, “Doesn’t the telling of something always become a story?” (Martel 302). It is simply a story – an entertaining way to tell the “dry, yeastless factuality” (Martel 303) of his happenings.

In speaking of this book, our group discussions are not much of “discussions” per say, they are more debates. Confusions overwhelms all of us and we are stuck trying to figure out what to believe. It isn’t until we realize that we will never understand the true out come, that we recognize Martel has won. We have discussed the meaning of truth, the meaning of fiction and non-fiction – we have debated the entire book and everything we were told. As Lil’ Jon says, “The purpose of the novel is to cause the reader to question what they’ve read. It aims to argue the point of belief” and as a group, that is exactly what we did. Martel wins.

However, even after all the guessing, wondering, and deduction, Da Rap Game conclusively admits to enjoying the novel. As frustrated as it made us we, for some reason, love it. But isn’t that what good storing telling is all about? Hating it so much that you love it.

Regards,
Lupe Fiasco & Da Rap Game

Block 2 Group 4: Is the story real?

Group BENS remains undecided as to whether or not Yann Martel’s Life of Pi is real. To try and help us, I (being N of BENS) looked up the definition of fiction. Fiction is defined as “a fabrication that applies particularly to a false but carefully invented statement or series of statements, in which some truth is sometimes interwoven.” Even with the definition, we still had a hard time distinguishing real from non-real.

With that being said, the members of BENS came to the conclusion that Life of Pi is indeed a work of fiction. Life of Pi is a “fantastical” collection of embellished details based upon a true story with a real plot. As E of BENS pointed out, the main character, Pi, was probably based on the real person, Piscine Patel (said to be person telling the story to the author so that he could write and publish the story,) that did sail on the Tsimtsum and was stranded in the Pacific Ocean for 277 days.

We used Martel’s background to deduce what could possibly be true in the Life of Pi. Martel studied philosophy, and worked as a tree planter, security guard and dishwasher. Martel’s study of philosophy helped him to write the religious, and truths of life for the novel. His previous work as a tree planter could have been where he got is idea/information about the mysterious, meerkat inhabited, carnivorous island and about whether or not it could exist. His work as a security guard could be where he learned the various fear tactics and information about alpha/beta/omega relationships. We used these connections to figure out how and why Martel was able to “spice up” the truth to the story. “‘I know what you want. You want a story that won’t surprise you. That will confirm what you already know. That won’t make you see higher or further or differently’ ” (Martel 302.) We talked about why Pi would waste his time in creating another story so similar in detail that had the same story line. S of BENS pointed out that by first telling the story with the animals and then telling the same story using humans, Pi was able to prove to the Japanese men that either story is plausible.

Based upon definitions and reviews, we have proven that Life of Pi is a work of fiction, but we have not proven whether or not the novel is real. As B of BENS put it, “we sincerely would like” to believe that the story is real. If fiction can be based upon truth, Life of Pi can be truth.

Reflections for Group 5

As a group we decided that we didn't like the book. We felt it was a big let down and disapointment. Just when the story began to reel you in it let you off the hook with a questionable ending that left almost every reader saying "huh"? We began to really relate and believe in the story because of Pi's unique storytelling ways. When we discussed the ending we all said how disapointed we were. The idea of surviving on a boat with a tiger for over 200 days seemed almost impossible to make up and leaves the chance that it could be true. As a group we believe these stories are false and he made them up in his imagination while he was on the lifeboat. He may have conjured up all these weird ideas of interacting with a tiger and a hyena in his brain and actually convinced himself that they were actually happening in real life because of his delirious state on the life boat.

Bravo

Reflection

Throughout our reading of the, Life of Pi, our group has had several discussions about the book and the ideas behind it. We believe that the ideas that were expressed in the beginning of the book about religion were very relevant to the will power Pi had throughout his time on the lifeboat. However, though much of it was not concluded by the end of the book, the reasoning for expressing such ideas about the importance of Pi's religion in the beginning of the book was very clear during his time astray. We liked the way the aspects of religion were told and the force it gave to make the reader truly think about their beliefs and question the importance, if any, at labeling their faith. We also liked the miraculous story of Pi and his time on the lifeboat. The adventures he endured and the true suffering he witheld was astonishing and it would not have been the same effect if he didn't give as much detail as he did. The ideas of the all the events that he described were very visual and you could truly picture each of the situations in your mind. This was a great book to read in class and the speed at which we read I think really helped. We think if this book were to drag on for weeks and weeks, than we just want to get to the end of it already.

WHW. How we felt about The Life of Pi

Our group, to be honest, did not like this book. To us, it was very unrealistic at most times, and extremely repetitive. His life on the boat was almost the same thing over and over again, but throw in some random disgusting things. Also, the beginning of the book revolved around religion, and to us that seemed irrelevant, almost a waste of time. The book did not "make [us] believe in god" but really made us dislike reading even more. To be honest, there are also offending material in it. From being disgusting, animal cruelty, and religions being bashed by other religions, we do not think this was a good choice of a book to read in class.
*posted by Cali Rey

IS THE STORY REAL?

Prior to reading Life of Pi, the idea of a sixteen-year old boy surviving 227 days on a lifeboat with a 450-pound Bengal tiger sounded obsurd and unimaginable to everyone in our class; however, reading this colorful and vivid novel of Pi's experiences makes it quite difficult to deny its truth. How can you not believe Pi's story with his detailed descriptions and images? After much discussion and thought, though, our group decided that Pi's original story including Richard Parker is simply an imagination.

Even though our group wanted to believe and defend Pi's remarkable story, we feel it is a story he created while surviving on the lifeboat. When interrogated by Mr. Okamoto and Mr. Chiba, Pi tells both his animal story and the story they wanted to hear: "You want a story that won't surprise you. That will confirm what you already know. That won't make you see higher or further or differently. You want a flat story. An immobile story" (Martel 302). Pi does not prefer the story Mr. Okamoto wants to hear because it's the truth - it is not imaginative, colorful, or thought-provoking. After hearing Pi's story of the sailor, the cook, and his mother, our group feels that this is the true story of Pi's survival out on the Pacific Ocean. Once stranded alone after the deaths of his surrounding survivors, Pi keeps himself occupied by creating his own depiction of how he truly survived the sinking of the Tsimtsum. He is surrounded by silence and nature, a perfect setting to allow his mind to daydream and brainstorm a vivid and imaginative story of zoo animals, storms, acidic islands, and flying fish. Even though it is difficult denying the fantastic story in Life of Pi, our group feels Pi's story is simply a work of his imagination.

GROUP 3, PERIOD 2