Of Animals and Men

I am really intrigued by the way Pi continues to link the behaviors of man to that of the animals in the zoo. Perhaps more intriguing is that my logic seeking brain can completely agree with Pi in his personal critique of human behavior. I had to laugh aloud as I was reading chapter 4 where he is teaching his new instructors what his name is. He makes the comment that, "Repitition is important in the training not only of animals but also of humans." I think it was so funny to me because it is true but also because I get the feeling that he is relating this information as though they are dry facts, basically information that is widely accepted and understood. It's almost as though he is saying to us, "This is just the way it is. Accept it." I love it.
Pi's explanation of the reality of zoo life for the animals was interesting because it challenged me to think about caged animals in a new way. He outlines many benefits to animals being in a zoo rather than in the wild. I suppose it is called the wild for a reason. It really is a fight every day for animals in the wild to have shelter, food, and protection. Pi offers a view that most animal-lovers would balk at, but his points are valid and if animals are like humans in the sense that "home is home," than it makes perfect sense that they would adapt and eventually come to prefer their life in the zoo, so long as they are taken care of, as opposed to life in the wild.
I'm excited to finish this book because I hope that it will continue to challenge my accepted perceptions of the world and perhaps make room for a bit of a paradigm shift on my part. I'm always enthralled when a text can force me to consider possibilities outside of my norm.