Life of Pi by Yann Martel (Book Summary and Review) - Minute Book Report

Maybe zoos are a good thing for animals. This is a story about a young man named Piscine
Patel, or Pi, whose family owns a zoo in India. Growing up, Pi is interested in religion and
so he converts to each of the major religions: Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism. The family decides to move to Canada, but
on the way there, their ship sinks and Pi finds himself on a lifeboat with a tiger,
Richard Parker, a hyena, a zebra, and an orangutan.

Pi manages to keep himself separated from
the other animals and can only watch as the hyena kills the zebra and orangutan. Pi fears
that he will be killed next, but the tiger kills the hyena. Pi decides to build an adjoining raft that
is connected to the lifeboat by rope and luckily finds survival supplies, such as food and
water. Instead of waiting for the tiger to die, Pi
decides he must train the tiger to ensure his own personal survival.

Pi learns to fish
and begins feeding the tiger, slowly training and taming him. As food and water supplies dwindle, Pi struggles
with health issues, like sores and dehydration. He also becomes temporarily blind. Pi encounters another blind man who is also
floating on a boat.

However, the man comes aboard and the tiger eats him. When Pis eyesight returns, he sees an island
in the distance. He arrives on the island and finds algae that he can eat. The island
has fresh water and is home to a large meerkat colony who eat fish.

Life on the island is great, but then Pi realizes
that the algae is carnivorous and so he gets back on the boat with the tiger and heads
off. The boat eventually reaches Mexico and Pi
is rescued. In the end, Pi is questioned by investigators about his journey and despite
being skeptical, they believe his story. As always, a lot can be said about this story,
but what draws my interest and attention is the idea of how a zoo can actually be more
beneficial for a wild animal than the wild.

Pi goes to great lengths to explain how harsh
conditions are for wild animals and how nice life in a zoo really is. We tend to have a
romantic sense of what the wild is like for animals, but the reality is that animals in
the wild are either looking for food or trying not to be food for something else. It seems like a stressful existence in the
wild, where each day could be your last and you are literally playing a game of life or
death. And most humans wouldnt be able to survive in the wild, especially since weve
modernized ourselves to the luxuries of technology and civilization.

This also brings a greater appreciation to
what we, as humans, have done with our food and safety needs: bringing them closer to
us in a more controlled environment. Its comforting to know that our food is
about twenty feet away from us whenever I. Want and if we run out of food, we can go
to a building that has more food for us to buy. We and our possessions are safe from the weather
and we dont need to worry about being attacked by predators.

So while it may seem lonely that the animals
in zoos are confined to a limited space, we are looking at them through eyes of a species
that has, for the most part, everything it needs within reach. We are smart enough to
understand that protecting ourselves and surviving that way is far greater than being free in
the wild and nature. So, let me know what you think about the story
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Book Reports and thanks for watching..