When Martel begins the story, he is told that this tale of Pi will make him believe that God exists. By adding in this line, Martel is making the assumption that this story will be far-fetched, unbelievable. This is the actual opinion shared by the two Japanese men. They were unable to understand Pi’s experiences, the small details lacking in their eyes. Consider the story of Orange Juice, the orangutan that survived the sinking of the Tsimtsum. Pi told the investigators that she had been floating on bananas, an absurd thought at first, at least to the men. They decided to go against their own thoughts and placed bananas in water, finding that “they’re floating” (293). It is almost like this part of the scene was to slowly reveal to the readers that these details weren’t a far fetched story.
For the reporters, though, they found his ideas incredulous, asserting their stance that even if the bananas could float, “these things don’t exist” (294). Even Pi clarifies this, noting that they couldn’t truly understand his story for they weren’t there (294). The reporters continue to question the story, especially the idea of Richard Parker somehow being with Pi on the lifeboat. There is a lot of distrust between both parties, Pi equally getting frustrated at their refusal in believing Richard Parker was with him (295).
At the end, Pi seems to finally break, creating a new “believable” story for the reporters, ignoring the details of the animals, replacing them with humans instead. The irony with this is that the reporters seem to be in more unbelief with his story, one of the reporters connecting the “improved” story to the old one, noting the parallels of the animals and the humans, like how the “zebra and Taiwanese sailor broke a leg” (311) etc. For this reason, the scene is truly humorous to the reader, connecting thai notion of unbelief to belief, a parallel that has always existed in the story. From Pi’s ideas of religion, following Hinduism, Christainity, and Islam, to the line that Martel will believe God exists, belief is a continuing part of the story. The reporters that couldn’t wrap their head around the ideas of tigers and hyenas, and while they could have easily emitted Pi’s story in the article, choosing to mainly focus on the sinking itself, the reporters acknowledged that they believed Pi to be true: “Very few castaways can claim to have survived so long at sea as Mr. Patel, and none in the company of an adult bengal tiger” (319). -Ahana Titus
Hello Ahana! I appreciate how you honed in on belief vs. disbelief in Pi's story. Specifically, on how the 2 Japanese men ended up believing Pi to be true, when at first they found him to be insane. Through testing the bananas floating from the orangutan story of Orange and doubting him to actually end up believing that Richard Parker was really part of Pi's journey, allows for a humorous scene in which the Japanese men's opinions turn from disbelief into belief. -Raza Mian
When Martel begins the story, he is told that this tale of Pi will make him believe that God exists. By adding in this line, Martel is making the assumption that this story will be far-fetched, unbelievable. This is the actual opinion shared by the two Japanese men. They were unable to understand Pi’s experiences, the small details lacking in their eyes. Consider the story of Orange Juice, the orangutan that survived the sinking of the Tsimtsum. Pi told the investigators that she had been floating on bananas, an absurd thought at first, at least to the men. They decided to go against their own thoughts and placed bananas in water, finding that “they’re floating” (293). It is almost like this part of the scene was to slowly reveal to the readers that these details weren’t a far fetched story.
ReplyDeleteFor the reporters, though, they found his ideas incredulous, asserting their stance that even if the bananas could float, “these things don’t exist” (294). Even Pi clarifies this, noting that they couldn’t truly understand his story for they weren’t there (294). The reporters continue to question the story, especially the idea of Richard Parker somehow being with Pi on the lifeboat. There is a lot of distrust between both parties, Pi equally getting frustrated at their refusal in believing Richard Parker was with him (295).
At the end, Pi seems to finally break, creating a new “believable” story for the reporters, ignoring the details of the animals, replacing them with humans instead. The irony with this is that the reporters seem to be in more unbelief with his story, one of the reporters connecting the “improved” story to the old one, noting the parallels of the animals and the humans, like how the “zebra and Taiwanese sailor broke a leg” (311) etc. For this reason, the scene is truly humorous to the reader, connecting thai notion of unbelief to belief, a parallel that has always existed in the story. From Pi’s ideas of religion, following Hinduism, Christainity, and Islam, to the line that Martel will believe God exists, belief is a continuing part of the story. The reporters that couldn’t wrap their head around the ideas of tigers and hyenas, and while they could have easily emitted Pi’s story in the article, choosing to mainly focus on the sinking itself, the reporters acknowledged that they believed Pi to be true: “Very few castaways can claim to have survived so long at sea as Mr. Patel, and none in the company of an adult bengal tiger” (319).
-Ahana Titus
Hello Ahana! I appreciate how you honed in on belief vs. disbelief in Pi's story. Specifically, on how the 2 Japanese men ended up believing Pi to be true, when at first they found him to be insane. Through testing the bananas floating from the orangutan story of Orange and doubting him to actually end up believing that Richard Parker was really part of Pi's journey, allows for a humorous scene in which the Japanese men's opinions turn from disbelief into belief.
ReplyDelete-Raza Mian