Lists

One of the first things I really noticed when I began to read "Life of Pi" was the lists. In "The Things They Carried" the lists were heavy, often dark, and evoked extreme emotions. As we discussed in class, the list of the various things they carried placed an emotional burden on the reader. As I was reading "Life of Pi" I noticed that there were also lists, especially of when Pi introduces the animals in the zoo. I think why the lists of animals really caught my attention was because of the contrast of emotion his list invokes compared to O'brien's.

"My alarm during my childhood was a pride of lions...Breakfast was punctuated by the shrieks and cries of howler monkeys, hill mynahs and Moluccan cockatoos. On my way out I might stop by the terraria to look at some shiny frogs glazed bright, bright green, or yellow and deep blue, or brown and pale green. Or it might be birds taht caught my attention: pink flamingoes or black swans or one wattled cassowaries, or something smaller, silver diomond doves, Cape glossy starlings, peach-faced love birds, Nanday conures, orange-fronted parakeets." (pg 14)

There are so many bright and colorful words! It can't help the reader feel light and airy and weightless, whereas O'brien's description succeeded in tugging your emotions down.

"They shared the weight of memory. They took up what others could no longer bear. Often, they carried each other, the wounded or weak. They carried infections... They carried diseases, among them malaria and dysentery. they carried lice and ringworm and leeches and paddy algae and various rots and molds." (pg 14)

Both lists give serious tone and mood to the literature, but both lists seem almosty like black and white.