The deterioration of man

With my book about done, I figured I'd post a couple more blogs with some interesting details. Originally I figured the book would only have been banned because of it's religious views as I had explained previously, but I've actually found another reason why people may want to rid this book from school libraries and all.

With Pi stuck on a lifeboat after the ship taking him to Canada sank, many interesting events begin to occur. For starters, the Zebra gets eaten alive by the Hyena and the level of detail the author goes into could definitely off put some people. Such things happen like the organs getting ripped out and devoured, but the Zebra stays alive for 2 days and Pi must watch it be dismembered piece by piece.

Violence is another no no for some think it'll actually breed the want for violent actions in a person. It really doesn't seem like something as nit picky like the whole religious debate that goes on in the book, but the detail is pretty brutal and could contribute to the banning of it.

As for some other things that I've found really fascinating is the power struggle that goes on between Pi and Richard Parker (the tiger). Previously the book talked a lot about alpha creatures in herds and Pi uses some clever tactics to make himself the Alpha creature of the life boat. Now, this isn't to say that Richard Parker is afraid of him, but it's enough so that the two can coexist. Pi provides food and water for Richard Parker and in return, he's able to live. It may seem like Pi isn't the dominant one, but being able to live with a 450 lb tiger is pretty damn good.

Watching the character deteriorate over the period of being on the lifeboat is really interesting. Why? Well for one thing, it's a lot similar to The Lord of the Flies. At first, there's hope of rescue, then there's just the thought of survival, soon Pi begins to enjoy things that are incredibly savage. For about 4 pages, Pi explains how turtles give him a huge smile on his face, enough that his lips crack and bleed. He talks about drinking the fresh blood of the turtle and scrapping fat from the shell, even going so far as to eat the food inside the turtles stomach. What's really bad though is when he's so hungry, that he actually tries to eat the feces of Richard Parker, the things on will do to survive...