Life of Pi (blog 4)

For this last blog I'm only going to discuss the last section of the book. This is where he is washed onto the shores of Mexico and is interviewed by the Japanese and such. I think that this is an especially important part of the book and it does a good job of reflecting over the book and its ideas as a whole.

First of all this section goes on talking about how difficult the trip the two men from the Japanese company had to make was. This is pretty ironic considering the trip that Pi had to take to get there. "They had been traveling non-stop for forty-one hours. 'We work hard,' Mr. Okamoto wrote." (page 322). This just shows how little the Japanese workers cared at this point. This was so far only a job and had no significance other than someone might know how their ship sank. It was only a very inconvenient thing to them at the time. You can tell that Pi has picked up on this and kind of jokes or tries to remind them what really bad is. "'Did you have a good trip?' 'We had a wonderful trip. It was a beautiful drive.' 'I had a terrible trip.' 'Yes, we spoke to the police before coming here and we saw the lifeboat.'" (page 323). I thought that Mr. Okamoto's response really showed how he viewed the situation. He didn't really think about the experience or care for Pi's opinion; he had his physical evidence and a reliable explanation.

After telling "the story," Pi gets very shocked responses from the both of them. Mostly disbelief. One of the main ideas in the story is reality; what is and isn't real, especially focusing on points of view. Here you can see that Mr. Okamoto plays the role of the strict realist. He only cares for facts and provable things. Here he's referring to the story that Pi just gave him, "'It doesn't hold up.' 'What do you mean?' 'Bananas don't float.' 'I'm sorry?' 'You said the orang-utan came floating on an island of bananas.' 'That's right.' 'Bananas don't float.'" (page 326). This part makes it very clear that the author thinks that this stand point is ridiculous. He shows that he thinks it is ridiculous to have this opinion by the point he has this character bring up. The point that he chooses to bring up is so obsolete that Pi doesn't even know what he's talking about for a second. Martel is kind of laughing at the idea that the disproval of this one insignificant point will in turn disprove the entirety of the story. He goes on to make Mr. Okamoto try to back down when they have the chance to actually test this. I think that this shows how Mr. Okamoto doesn't really search of a truth of any sort he just tries to show people up and disprove things like Pi's story. Ultimately I think that Pi's first story could have as easily been as possible as the second but as for which one is actually true I don't know. I suppose you would have to take a leap of faith.