​May 11th, 2012

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Culminating Activity Series Part 1:  Video Recording Activity 



SURVIVAL, ZOOMORPHISM & SOCIETY



As today is Thursday our class was in the school lab. We were given a period to experiment with video recording using some HD video cameras. Our group decided to use this time to record our reading techniques and our reactions to the characters and prominent themes within the novel. Although a great deal of our idea for the culminating activity involves the use of audio editing software, we took the opportunity to practice our skills and open up to the possibility of incorporating filming into our final product.

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During the period we touched upon different themes that were emphasised throughout the story and, using this as a basis, formulated our own thoughts and ideas. Our group began by reading a passage from the second part of the Life of Pi to familiarize ourselves with the text. After practicing our sophisticated reading techniques adopted from Mr. Forsyth’s model, we started a question and answer session.

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The Pacific Ocean, part two of the Life of Pi, begins with Piscine stranded on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger by the name of Richard Parker, a spotted hyena, an orangutan, and a zebra. During our discussion, our group pondered the idea of being in Pi’s position. The what if I was the one alone on a lifeboat save for a group of dangerous animals. The general consensus of the group was that they would remain unchanged by the conditions around them, that they would not react in a negative manner towards the situation they were in. But as we further progressed our conversation we came to the bitter realization that our reaction to being in such a position is truly unforeseeable. As it is, not one individual in our group has been in a situation where survival skills are of the essence and where our emotional and physical abilities are tested. For us to imagine that we would be calm and serene in Pi’s position is a lie masked as a truth or as Pi would say, dry yeastless factuality. Survival is a spontaneous reaction to being under certain unimaginable conditions. Only because these conditions are so unimaginable can we simply ignore them. The Life of Pi may be a fictional tale but the raw emotions that suffering from problems like sleep deprivation and food scarcity can encourage are true to the very heart of survival.

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In these scenarios individuals may be driven to savagery and ruthless behaviour in the face of the unknown. Humans may begin to take upon characteristics commonly attributed to animals in their aggression. The main purpose of their existence is to survive and thus, necessities like food and water become primary concerns. Zoomorphism is the transformation of man into beast not physically but psychologically. For someone to go through that strenuous psychological adjustment one must first be exposed to the opposing life and death. Under these circumstances, humans are brought to the brinks of sanity and their true animalistic traits are revealed. As opposed to a life full of accommodation and living as equals, humans need to become predators to survive. We are all fully capable of performing this purely emotional transition because there is an animal inside all of us waiting to strike. Once we have figuratively transformed, there are no boundaries. There are no limits to the extents man will go to live, if only for a few more days. In the novel The Life of Pi, Pi manages to survive 227 days in the Pacific Ocean. It is naive to say that the Pi who first stepped on the Tsimtsum was the Pi who accomplished this feat. It was the emotional and physical battle that shaped who he became during the 227 days at sea.These wholly animal-based instincts were the deciding factor of Pi’s existence. The moral values and life lessons society continually stresses were of no use in to Pi in his struggle for survival.

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The notion of morals and how they cause us to differentiate right from wrong based on those teachings is often stressed in society. From a very young age, we are taught that stealing, lying, and cheating, among other things, are morally bad. When put into a survival situation that requires you to act against these, they are disregarded. In a society enforced with law and justice many cannot imagine what they would do when put into a survival situation. Many would simply deny being capable of doing such horrendous things. But many do not know what they are capable of when in that sort of situation. We also talked about cannibalism and situations that could push us participate in it. The word cannibal originated from the word Caníbales, the Spanish name for the Carib people, a West Indies tribe formerly known for their practice of cannibalism. Societal rules and morals may profoundly differ worldwide but cannibalism is greatly frowned upon in Western society. The question is, who are we to judge what is accepted and what is not accepted? In a situation where a person’s life depends on utilising their survival skills and acting as a predator, are there really any limits?

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Throughout our lives, we are sheltered and barricaded by society. Morals are imposed on us that we never try to challenge because we never need to. But one can only begin to imagine the impacts that being in a place that is apart from civilization and apart from the normalities of everyday life can have. Piscine Molitor Patel can. Despite being a fictitious character, he lived through the experiences of savage survival and not only witnessed but participated in the acts of violence hungry and thirsty humans inflict on one another. Life is far greater and deeper than we choose to think it is. It is about much more than we let ourselves believe. There is more to life than just the confinements of society and its morals. Only once we have stepped outside these boundaries can we truly comprehend the desire to live. Life is a game of survival that is not won by the most intuitive or the strongest, but the person who can refrain from the restrictions of society and burst from conformity to accept their true, natural selves.

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​May 17th, 2012

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Culminating Activity Series Part 2: Scripting



Today’s work period was fairly productive. Our group has established that we want to create a radio play of Chapter 37 in the Life of Pi. Rather than follow the words directly, we plan to do an interpretation that incorporates the alternate story presented at the end of the novel. The ending of the Life of Pi leaves the reader with a choice, to discern what is truth and what is fiction. There are striking similarities between both the story with the animals and the story with humans. As a reader, one can draw a parallel between both. In this radio play, we intend on embodying the animals -the Bengal tiger, zebra, orang-utan and hyena- as the humans mentioned at the end of the Life of Pi.

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“Four of us survived. Mother held on to some bananas and made it to the lifeboat. The cook was already aboard, as was the sailor.”

Our group has read the last part of the Life of Pi and we have determined which animal characters are which human being. Our group has also drawn parallels between the behaviour of the animals and how they coincide with the human behaviour.   It is revealed that Pi was in fact not on the lifeboat, stranded in the Pacific with the four animals. Conversely, Pi may have been on the lifeboat with three other people: his mother, an injured sailor and a brute chef. Each of these characters shares some character traits with an animal from the previous story.

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The mother is believed to be the orang-utan as she is fearless and strong. The name orangutan comes from two Indonesian words which mean person of the forest when combined. Orangutans are primates and some people believe that humans evolved from primates. This could be viewed as the same kind of relationship

between Pi and his mother as he was borne from her.

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The sailor is believed to be the zebra due to his injured leg and demeanour. He is young and beautiful save for his broken foot. The zebra is viewed as the exotic and peaceful animal that is essentially defenseless. It always gets preyed on by the other animals. The zebra is only killed once it is rendered defenseless. The hyena only finishes off the zebra, never goes to kill if the prey is still alive. This hyena sees justification in its killing when its prey is injured. 



The cook is believed to be the hyena because of his brutality and mercilessness. The term hyena comes from the Greek word hys meaning swine. Hyenas are a symbol of greed and wisdom. The chef can be described as being a very clever individual. He managed to deceive both Pi and his mother, tricking them into thinking he was amputating the sailor’s foot for the benefit of his health. But the chef had ulterior motives; he planned on using the meat as bait for other animals. This is man’s selfishness and greed at its purest. The problem is, there is an extent of foolishness to balance a hyena’s ingenuity. Both the hyena and the cook killed without hesitation because they were being attacked. In addition, both the chef and the hyena lose their willingness to live when faced in a life and death situation. Almost as if their will to live had diminished, they simply accepted the death that would soon overcome them.  In the end, the chef and the hyena’s sharpness and momentary intelligence amounted to nothing but a gruesome death.

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​And Richard Parker... One can only believe that he is in fact Pi. Or at least the brutal animalistic creature Pi becomes when faced with the strenuous conditions of survival. In a life or death situation, humans are built to respond instantly and focus on the acquisition of food and water. The teachings of modern society become irrelevant and your sole focus is on the source of your next meal and the preservation of your life. So one can ask, why in the “original” story does Pi refuse to acknowledge the deeds he admits to doing at the end of the novel. Though the idea of killing and preying on another human being is horrendous, Pi did this based on the instinct of survival. Creating an alter ego or secondary persona in the form of a ferocious and deadly animal shows that he feared this darker, braver, and bestial side of himself. By making a distinction between his two personas, he allows himself to feel less guilt about his actions.

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Nearing the end of the book, Richard Parker mysteriously disappears in the end. What happened to him? A large Bengal tiger cannot simply disappear in Mexico. We think this represents Pi leaving his savage survival-driven existence enabling him to return to a civilized and morally bound existence. Once Pi returns to society, his dark side fades away because he is bound to the restrictions of society and no longer needs to worry about struggling to survive the next day. It is like the shedding of a skin; Pi relieves himself of his animalistic side and returns to a more acceptable person that can naturally re-enter the morals of Western civilization.

As a group we are trying to incorporate all of these components into our text and draw a fine line between man and beast. The purpose of our radio play is to emphasize a theme that is prominent in the second half of the book; man and its interaction with the natural world. In this radio play we are exploring the change someone goes through in strenuous situations and what they would do to remain alive.

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“The Tsimtsum sank on July 2nd, 1977.”
“Yes.”
“And I arrived on the coast of Mexico, the sole human survivor

of the Tsimtsum, on February 14th, 1978.”
“That’s right.”
“I told you two stories that account for the 227 day in between.”
“Yes, you did.”
“Neither explains the sinking of the Tsimtsum.”
“That’s right.”
“Neither makes a factual difference to you.”
“That’s true.”
“You can’t prove which story is true and which is not. You must

take my word for it.”
“I guess so.”
“In both stories the ship sinks, my entire family dies, and I suffer.”
“Yes, that’s true.”
“So tell me, since it makes no factual difference to you and you

can’t prove the question either way, which story do you prefer?

Which is the better story, the story with the animals or the story

without the animals?”
Mr. Okamoto: “That’s an interesting question...”​
Mr. Chiba: “The story with animals.”​
Mr. Okamoto: “Yes. The story with animals is the better story.
Pi Patel: “Thank you. And so it goes with God.”