Floating Mortality

When I first started reading Life of Pi I found it very annoying because Martel repeated everything with an overabundance of repeated detail, and kept falling asleep in the quagmire of details. However, last night I got so enthralled in reading about Pi's dilemas that I couldn't stop reading. If the book started with the shipwreck, I would have found it more captivating, but I would have not fallen asleep, but it would have been too unbelievable and made no sense. How would a young boy possibly be able to cope with the horifying eating frenzies of these animals. He would have been too hysterical to think or plan. His thoughts about the animals would have been hard to belive in because we wouldn't have had his long history with the zoo and his relationship growing up with these animals.

Martel had to provide us with a lot of detail to set the stage so that we understood Pi's close association with animals and his great knowledge of their instincts and behaviors. I reflected back on the scene where his dad made him watch the tiger eat the goat. Although at the time this felt cruel, it helped Pi be able to watch the hyena and the tiger eat their prey with understanding. Just like your father's having you take care of the fish helped you later cope with his death. Pi understood the hyena, so although it was upsetting to watch the Zebra being eaten alive, he understood and coped with it. All of his experiences with his dad and the zoo helped him deal with his dilema, to step back and think through his options, and then create a plan. If he had not bonded with the zoo animals as a youngster, he would never have been able to come up with Plan 7 to train Richard Parker. He would not have had the skills and it would not have any credibility to the readers that this young man could know or execute on this plan. All that sleepy detail gave us the confidence that this could actually happen.

Pi's religious background helped us believe that he had enough faith in God to believe that he could survive, that there was a reason to want to survive, and allow him to cope with the intense pain of his loss. He hangs onto his hope in finding his family, even though I believe in his heart that it is just a dream.

Martel's writing skills reaffirm that you have to give the reader enough information that it all makes sense. You don't have to give every detail, but you do have to provide enough answers that it is credible enough to stretch our imagination and believe and to hook us so we can be reeled in till the end. Now I can't wait to continue reading to find out what happens next!