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Our title, “The Third Story”, is a play on Pi’s numeric name which is 3.14 because when rounded down it becomes “Three”. Another reason is because Pi previously told two stories; therefore this is “The Third Story”. This blog gives Pi another chance to reinforce his tale and talk about anything he missed the first two times. The custom made background shows many elements of the story and visually summarizes Life of Pi. It is assumed that the readers are familiar with the original book, but these images are still there to give a concrete representation of Pi’s life. There is a young Indian boy in the middle to represent Pi since he has no usable pictures from his youth. On Pi’s heart there are three religious symbols showing how important religion was to his survival. Around Pi are bits and pieces of his memories, including: a few books symbolizing his love of knowledge, animals that he encountered on his journey, and a life raft and island depicting his survival. Pi’s songs on the top right corner of the blog are instrumental piano pieces. They create a calm and soothing feeling.  This feeling is one that Pi enjoys because of the amount of trauma and stress he has been through. The picture and video for “The Storm” are used to emphasize Pi’s point of how powerful weather can be. The structural diagram for “The Oil Tanker” is there to satisfy Pi’s natural scientific curiosity and help readers imagine how Pi felt when seeing it. A picture of a tiger was used for “The Frenchman” because it reminds Pi of Richard Parker and the question of who was the true savage on the life boat. The picture of meerkats was included for “The Island” because of Pi’s love for animals and need to share their wonders with his readers. Finally, the font was chosen to be very easy to read and understand. Pi already knows that his readers have trouble understanding the moral of his story and so he does not want them to worry about being able to literally read it!

Post 1: The Storm- Will to Survive

Post 2: The Oil Tanker- Hope and Despair

Post 3: The Frenchman- Nature of Savagery

Post 4: The Island- Storytelling and Belief

THE LOWER YOU ARE, THE HIGHER YOUR, MIND WILL WANT TO SOAR.

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                 -Yann Martel

Life of Pi (movie trailer)

The Island

As I get older (and learn more) I find my own story harder and harder to believe. Nothing more so than the time I spent on the algae island. My memory tells me that it happened, but common sense opposes it. Who says that there is a mass of entangled algae, with trees growing out of it, floating in the Pacific Ocean? As Mr. Okamoto told me so long ago: “Your island is botanically impossible.” It takes a lot to believe such a mad notion, but if I can believe in God I can believe in myself. Who knows if there is an island that eats meat and has a horde of meerkats living on it? I would not have survived without the island to feed me so I feel its presence with me every day. Suspending one’s disbelief is all part of the understanding of a story.

Link: http://bookblog.net/bbarchives/000304.html

The Frenchman

I have done many things in my life that I am ashamed of. It seemed that each wave on the lifeboat knocked me into deeper savagery. However, the biggest knock on the lifeboat was from my brother’s boat. I will pray for his soul forever. It was chance that brought him to me and then to Richard Parker’s mouth. He was a fellow human, a fellow sufferer. Ultimately, he was another food source. I weep openly to think how low one can be pushed by hunger, that pitiless slave-driver. The opportunity to have human company on that lifeboat was cut short (it may have been luckily considering he did try to kill and... eat me). However, he definitely did not deserve the treatment I gave his body and I shudder to think of that savagery. Life will degrade to any level of savagery so long as it survives.


Link: http://listverse.com/2008/12/19/top-10-cases-of-human-cannibalism/

The Oil Tanker

The wonders of science bring us many conveniences and crazy contraptions like the oil tanker. Just as manufactured novelties gave me hope, they also brought me despair. In a survival setting hope is stronger than the most debilitating hunger and quenches the deepest thirst. However, I will never forget my experience with the oil tanker, the largest sign of humanity I saw on my journey. The ship could not contain the hope I felt upon seeing it. I was saved. I would see my people again. I was ecstatic. I was wrong. Nothing can describe the swing from euphoric hope to utter despair. As my rocket flare fizzled in the ocean so did all my hopes. 300,000 tonnes of metal, but it could not contain the entirety of my despair. To me the ship was the size of a world, a world that I was not a part of. My suffering was insignificant. Despair feeds on despair.

Link: http://science.howstuffworks.com/transport/engines-equipment/oil-tanker.htm 

The Storm

All these years have passed and I still cannot forget the storm. Here in Canada the winter storms hit fast and hit hard. Back in India the monsoon rains pummel the landscape with refreshing fury. In my mind nothing will ever match the power of that storm. It challenged my survival to the point that it almost took my will to live away. Mr. Martel’s portrayal of this event was a little selective, but even my own memory cannot do it justice. My raft was swept out of sight, destroyed, just like my strong determination to survive. In that feeble existence losing all that work and all those supplies was like having my very person wiped off the face of the planet. However, I learned that nothing could make me give up and I struggled on. Life was harder after that, but it also seemed to be better than the relative comfort I had been living in before. We all must struggle to survive.