I have a hard time reading fiction books, and truthfully, Life of Pi certainly doesn't make it any easier. I like the parts about religion and the acceptance of all, but the rest is very hard for me to follow. There is a zoo, a teenage boy, sloths, boats, land animals battling to their deaths in the middle of the ocean, and a man-eating tiger that isn't so man-eating. I understand how they all connect, but this story line is so far from reality that I think the author was intending for readers to see it just as a hypothetical situation and not a real story at all. I know fiction can be and is as far from reality as possible sometimes, this story just seems to have so many weird aspects.
After his ship sinks, Pi allows a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker onto his lifeboat. I don't understand the logic behind Pi's allowing a deadly creature to possibly compromise his chance of survival, but for whatever reason, the tiger is not an issue. Maybe this has something to do with the "zoo morphism" mentioned in our previous section: the tiger and Pi are both in the same situation so the tiger is most likely sympathizing with Pi and sees Pi as one of his own. After the orangutang and the zebra are killed by the hyena, it is clear that Richard Parker will be an instrumental part in this book.
I think it's strange that you don't like this book as I think it is far more realistic in some places than the Great Gatsby is! Ha!
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