Response Journal - Life of Pi (Part 2)
The first half of part 2 in Life of Pi takes a completely different route than the first. The section begins with 16 year-old Pi Patel, who is upon his incredibly long voyage to Canada, awakening in the middle of the night due to an unknown noise within the hull of the ship. Out of curiosity, he ventures top deck to investigate- only to make an unbearable revelation; the floor beneath his feet is slowly shifting and his only source of safety is sinking .In a panicked state, Piscine runs towards the sleeping quarters in which his family resides. To his horror, he is only met with water. Although he feels an incredible amount of loss, his fight or flight instinct kicks in: with insane amounts of courage he ventures towards the life rafts and is thrown aboard by Chinese crew members. However, he is followed closely behind by an adult zebra; its weight causing the boat to plummet towards the water below. This section really stands out to me as I know how Pi is feeling in terms of indescribable fear. Last summer while side by siding, I managed to hit a ridge the wrong way and overturned my ATV into a very large puddle. Although it may not seem like much, I had not ridden the trail before and had no idea how deep the water really was. I was terrified, but luckily the puddle wasn’t too deep and we were able to flip my side by side back over and carry on. Even though my encounter was not nearly as severe as Patel`s , I can sympathize with how he felt in terms of distress and not knowing what was going to happen next.

The narrative continues as Piscine braves the storm in the small, crowded lifeboat. After the initial shock of falling a miraculous 40 feet, yet another passenger boards the vessel; a 400 pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. In fear, Pi ends up creating a make- shift raft and floating behind the boat- facing both the risk of capsizing and of an attack from the sharks circling around. Finally, he obtains enough courage to return. Upon climbing onto the tarpaulin, Pi makes yet another incredible discovery: there is also a fully grown male hyena aboard. Assuming that 2 predators would not be within such close vicinity, he comes to the conclusion that Richard Parker is no longer aboard and settles in. Shortly afterwards, the group is joined by a female orangutan; the small zoo of survivors completed. Although he must be terrified due to the fact that he is within close quarters of numerous wild animals, using my previous knowledge from part 1 I can assume that Piscine must get some sense of relief from their company; since Pi always humanized and related to the creatures, he must look at them as his own kind.

However, things quickly take a turn for the worse. As days grow on, the animals become more and more frantic and begin acting strangely. After one of the many long nights at sea, Pi awakens to an appalling sight: the hyena has bitten off the zebra`s broken leg and is feeding on it, yet the zebra is still alive. Suddenly, the hyena attacks the mare, pulling off a large amount of its hide and burying itself within its innards. As the wounded creature slowly drifts into an eternal slumber, the orangutan, Orange Juice, roars in protest -directing the Hyenas viscosity towards her. The orangutan puts up a fight, but she is no match for the hyena, who decapitates her. Pi runs to the edge of the tarpaulin, ready to launch himself at the creature. However, he quickly comes to a halt when he discovers Richard Parker’s head under the bench and retreats back to the edge of the boat. Reflecting back on part 1, I wonder if Piscine was a bit naive up until that point. Although Mr. Patel had taught Ravi and Pi about animal nature and how violent it could become at times in early childhood, it almost felt as if Pi had felt shocked towards the actions of the hyena and was unaware of how to act. For example, he directly states that seeing Orange Juice`s corpse was “killing to the