The Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Life of Pi by Yann Martel so far is a very intriguing novel, although I am still in the very beginning. Although Pi has not yet embarked on his journey, there have been two scenes that stuck out to me that began to lay down the building of his character, Pi.

The first scene that showed Pi's character was from his childhood when his father wanted to teach him and his brother a lesson.  The boys lived at the zoo with their parents and their dad was trying to scare them out of touching the animals.  The first thing he did was he ordered for the tiger not to be fed for a few days.  Because the tiger was hungry the dad showed his children how it would attack a deer when it was that desperate for food.  I think that the father was indeed just trying to help his children from not getting hurt by the animals in the future, but it was a bit too harsh for the boys at such a young age in my opinion.  The author described the deer's bound feet and the blood spraying everywhere.  I think that because he demonstrated this danger with an animal in such a desperate position, it made it harder for the children to bear.  But on top of that, I believe this experience helped Pi to grow as a person.  I think this scene is intended to display how tough and grown up Pi would need to act at such a young age, and show that these characteristics came from a life full of sadness and challenges.

Another scene that shows Pi needing to grow up quickly and deal with hardships in life was when he was at school.  This scene described his fellow classmates and teachers calling him "Pissing" rather than his actual name, "Piscine."  It wasn't the making fun of that caught my attention, but rather the response Piscine had when he transferred schools.  During the first weeks of school, when your teachers are still trying to learn your names, you have the change to tell them what you would rather be called.  Piscine made a scene out of changing his name to Pi in an extremely adult-like way.  Pi didn't complain, he just kept to himself until he had an opportunity to make change himself.  Pi, a child going into his first year of Middle School, acted as if he was a grown man himself.  I think that those two scenes for sure show the build-up of his character, which will eventually lead into his expedition.