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What does the conversation reveal about Pi in Chapter 96?
Chapter 97...The story...what? Was it the exact same story we just read? Same exact details?
What's significant about the translated part of Chapter 98? What does it tell us about Pi?
18 comments:
I think the reason why the reporter's "arduous" journey was included was to include a bit of humor. Here they are, traveling a couple hundred miles to take account of Pi's inspiring adventure across worlds of water, and they are complaining.
Pi's conversation shows that even after his months of hell, he is still a personable and polite human being.
The story Pi just told was almost like a fictionalized version of the original.. Or is it the other way around...
I believe the reason the arduous journey was included was to show that nothing was easy for anyone involved. Although as Ray said it was quite odd to see people complaining who had a seemingly simple journey compared to the one Pi suffered, it was also important to note that to capture the story the journalist had to endure their own problems. The conversations with Pi showed that he is the same person he was before everything happened, and that the hardships did not ruin the caring polite person he was. The story Pi told the reporters was the actual events he faced unlike the fictional version we received.
The reporter's journey to Mexico was included not only as a funny comparison to Pi's journey but as an example of ungrateful people can seem. The men know that Pi has just been stranded for almost 300 days and yet they complain about their hunger and how long the trip was. Kind of ironic if you ask me, but funny at the same time.
The translated sections show that the men were just trying to please Pi by saying what he wanted to hear. Pi is taking all of their cookies and hiding them in his bedsheets. I'm not sure if this is to show that Pi has gone a little crazy or what.
Here's a burning question I have- what was going on with the cookies? First Pi stashes a million of them under his sheets, then he offers them back to his interrogators. I feel like this is significant in some way, yet I can't seem to make heads or tails of it. Could it be because he is so accustomed to not having food that he feels he needs to save any for later every chance he gets? Anyone have any input?
It's possible that the reporter makes the trip sound so terrible to be ironic; Pi travelled miles and miles in a lifeboat with a tiger, and they're complaining about third world problems.
Chapter 96 shows that Pi's experience may have changed him forever, but underneath his personality is the same.
Judging from the reaction of the two men, I'd say it was the same story the book just told.
I think that Pi was never on the lifeboat with Richard Parker. What Pi would have lived through, if the translated story was true, is awfully traumatic. Perhaps to protect himself, Pi let himself believe the story with the animals because the story with the humans is too horrible to think about. The human mind is a funny thing.
The man really didn’t want to be there. He was on vacation and had a very long, difficult trip.
I thought it was funny how civil ad polite Pi was. How much time had elapsed since he was rescued? Weren’t we just discussing how much of a savage he had become? And now he’s using proper grammar, being very polite, and even making conversation.
Yes, it was the exact same story the whole book described. It was probably not in quite as much detail, but the same major points.
Pi was taking all the cookies he received from the Japanese men and hiding them under the sheet; he was keeping it for later when he may not have any.
I think the reporters make the trip seem so arduous to show how selfish people are. Pi just traveled on the sea for 7 months and the reporters are complaining about traveling a couple hundred miles.
I think the conversation in chapter 96 reveals that the events that Pi experienced changed him in many ways but he is still the same person he was before.
I think the story is the exact story we just read with the same exact details.
The translated section is to show that the men are pleasing Pi to get what they want to hear from him. They dont care about anything but getting what they want.
Okay, the ending is really confusing. Is that the real story? All the details do match up, and it seems like it's more likely that humans would think to jump on a lifeboat than animals. But it still makes you think if Pi just made up that story because they wouldn't believe his other story, or if that's what actually happened.
Personally, I would like to believe that the original story is the truth. Pi revised the story to give the audience what they wanted to hear: a believable story without animals. Not to mention that the details matched up. Coincidence? I think not. If the second story was truthful how could Pi talk with such lack of emotion pertaining to the potential murder of his mother? Yeah, he had his revenge in this story, but it lacks so much emotion compared to the original story. Then again, maybe the original story was what we wanted to hear; Emotional appeal. Definitely something to question, but I’m not sure there is a right or wrong decision in this case. Even though the reporter tells Pi’s story as what he originally tells.
I think the reporter wants Pi to see that he doesn’t want to waste any time here. That he should feel special the reporter made the journey to see him and appreciate it. Proving how selfish society actually is.
The conversation reveals that Pi still has the genuine honesty of a child, and isn’t much concerned with politeness. For example, when he states that he had a terrible trip and he is hungry, and takes the cookie.
Chapter 97 is, in my mind, the story we just read, with the same details. Not including the reporter’s notes in italics.
The translated part of Chapter 98 tells us that Pi is clever and intelligent.
I think the trip was an excellent example of satire on the reporters part. Here he is complaining about his trip in cars and boats on his way to meet a kid who was in the middle of the ocean 227 days with little food and water and a live 450 pound Bengal tiger on a little lifeboat.
I believe that "the story" is the story he was just telling with all of the details we just read about.
The translated part may show some signs of pi going a little crazy hiding cookies under his bed sheet.
The reporter makes the trip from California to Mexico seem so arduous for the sake of irony. Pi had just traveled the Pacific Ocean for 7 months in a lifeboat with a 450-pound Tiger and only the food and water that he could come up with from the ocean and the reporters had a car, ferry, and all of the supplies they needed. I think the reporter may have been attempting to make Mr. Okamoto and Mr. Chiba’s journey compare to Pi’s by talking about the ferry being late and the car breaking down.
I think in Chapter 97, the story is the exact same story. All of the doubts that the men had about the story were all included in the story that we had just read.
Pi’s second story should not be shrugged off so easily as an appeal to the interviewers or a fallacy. Pi’s second story, to me, seemed to be the one that Pi actually experienced. The second story was much simpler and straightforward than the first, which I initially took as Pi making stuff up on the spot. However, upon reading the passage a second time, I found the second story to be much more believable than the first. Pi referenced his mother earlier in the book by singing for her birthday. I cannot think of any reason to justify that one sentence chapter than to add credibility to the idea that Pi really endured a more human adventure centered on his mother. By encapsulating his adventure to its roots and replacing the horrors he experienced with animals is a viable coping mechanism that Pi very well could have employed. Plus, I found it hard to believe that while the ship was sinking, his family did not wake up and leave their rooms – the sinking was not instantaneous and they probably would have made it to the deck in time. However, after this second story, I do not believe anything is certain about what really happened to Pi. Perhaps it is a combination of the two.
Since no one has responded to my question yet, I'll just answer it myself. Pi mentions that the cookies are "very good, but they tend to crumble." This comment goes right along with his story about the animals- it is very good, but there are a few things that just don't hold up. Like the cookies, his story is very sweet and enjoyable and is much more pleasing than just plain bread. In the end though, his story crumbles away to reveal the shocking truth- that the cookies are really just a sweeter type of plain old bread.
I believe the reason the arduous journey was included was to show that nothing was easy for anyone involved.
The translated section is to show that the men are pleasing Pi to get what they want to hear from him. They don't really care about anything other than hearing what they want to hear
I think the reporters complaint is to show how annoying and selfish humans can be. I mean their conditions were nothing compared to Pi's.
Even after all the stuggles Pi has had he still is a pleasant person. He didn't loose social skills like you would have thought. He actually is a very pleasant person to be around.
The reporter was complaing cause he is a wuss, and probably cause it made a comparison to pis adventure across the open ocean. The story was eerily similar to the story with the animals, the story of the animals seems like a more civil version of the story and i dont like thinking about human savagery and cannibalism so i like the animal story better.
The journey was included to share with the reader that every journey’s hardship is relative. That journey being the journey through life. These two men have such a tough time and complain because it is hard for them, though it wouldn’t be for Pi because of what he had just gone through. These men have such a hard time believing Pi’s journey because humans are competitive and want to “win”. The winner in this case is who has the hardest time. Again, we are thinking of these journeys as journeys through life, not traveling across the ocean (of course that would be a major hardship on a life) or a drive down to Mexico. People are very selfish and do not want to think of other people having a harder time than them because they want pity.
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