Pi's Purpose

Author's Note: This is a theme piece I wrote that analyzes the themes in the book Life of Pi by Yann Martel and compares them with other books such as Artemis Fowl, the Arctic Incident by Eion Colfer.

Pi’s Purpose

                Being able to immerse myself in the events and experiences of the characters I read about is what makes reading exciting for me. Add to that the element of surprise, and I can easily get lost in a book. Life of Pi by Yann Martel, did just that for me. The story begins with Pi Patel and his family traveling overseas to begin a new life in Canada. The decision to relocate to Canada was a result of the government of India closing down the family's zoo. The family begins their journey aboard a heavily loaded cargo ship which also carries several of their precious zoo animals. However, the ship tragically sinks, and Pi is the only human survivor of the cargo ship. Pi ends up being stranded on a lifeboat with nothing but a few supplies and a bloodthirsty tiger. His survival adventure continues so long that Pi ends up with the record for the longest time stranded alone in the sea. Life of Pi includes many themes such as survival, life struggles, hope, determination, and others. Throughout the story, Pi's hope and determination intrigued me in many ways.

                The author intrigued me with his use of hope throughout the book. During the long journey to survive, Pi read the survival manual that was included in the supplies on the life boat. Without the manual Pi would not have survived. The main thing the manual stated was to never lose hope, and for the 227 days Pi was on the life boat he never lost hope. Even in the first week on the lifeboat when Pi was without food and water, he still had the littlest bit of hope left in his soul. Luckily for Pi, he did eventually discover a storage locker which contained food and water, but even without that he always believed God was with him throughout his journey. The hope Pi held onto during this difficult experience was what he needed to know God would not let him down.

                Another theme the author communicated well was determination. During this book, Pi is determined to tame Richard Parker (a tiger that was on the boat with him). He tries many times to tame Richard Parker and finally succeeds by blowing a whistle until the tiger gets seasick from the obnoxious shrill. The reason this worked for Pi was Richard Parker began to associate the blow of the whistle to sea sickness. While Richard Parker was dealing with sea sickness,  Pi was able to access the food and water whenever he wanted without being threatened by the tiger in the lifeboat. If Pi wasn't determined to find a way to reach the supplies, he certainly would have died at sea. Another example of determination was Pi figuring out how to get off the carnivorous island before being consumed by would die there. He could have easily stayed there and eaten the algae but he would have died there alone in the end. Throughout the novel Pi demonstrates great determination.

                The themes of hope and determination play a large role in Life of Pi and they also play a major role in many other books such as Artemis Fowl The Arctic Incident by: Eion Colfer. Although Artemis Fowl is a 13 year old criminal mastermind he is determined to rescue his father from the Russian mafia. Young Fowl is very hopeful and optimistic about his father’s rescue. But when a wildcard is thrown at Fowl, his bodyguard, and two of his fairy friends, everything goes wild. The underground fairy world is under siege and the fairies must do what they can to save it, but Fowl continues on searching for his father. Artemis is hopeful that he will get to see his father in exchange for the ransom money that he is prepared to give the mafia. During this book Artemis proves that he has hope and determination just like the main character from the Life of Pi.

                Life of Pi has many themes that were established from the beginning of the book. The themes that reached out to me the most were determination and hope. During the book Pi always was determined to defeat the sea and survive, and with the help of god he was able to defy all odds. He always hoped he would survive. Without hope he would have died because he would not have had the power to go on living. Life of Pi can teach many lessons and has many themes.

Rebuilding Alone

Rebuilding Alone

 Imagine having to rebuild and restore civilization to an area that has been destroyed by a bomb during a reckless war. Guy Montag, from Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, experiences this incredible undertaking firsthand, after a bomb is dropped on his hometown. Montag and others start the rebuilding process in hopes of creating a less controlling government. Although he has practically no resources to work with, Montag does have special friends with exceptional knowledge they previously memorized from books. This knowledge enables Montag and his friends to access a great number of lessons and teachings in order to help them create a more democratic government.

Throughout Fahrenheit 451, the government controls the city and its people by not allowing citizens to obtain, read, or own books. The government believes they are protecting people from the contents of stories that may offend them. However, Montag believes the government has gone overboard in controlling the people by removing books from their lives. Therefore, while Guy is working as a fireman, his curiosity of books inspires him to salvage what books he comes across. For this reason, I believe Montag and his friends will rebuild their city with hopes that people will live by their own free will.

Bradbury suddenly ends Fahrenheit 451 as Guy Montag witnesses a bomb being dropped on the city. When his life unexpectedly flashes before his eyes, Montag realizes everything in its entirety is gone. What I presume would happen afterward is Montag would attempt to recover anything he can find from his life before the bombing. Also, I believe Montag and his rural friends will go back into the city to rebuild what they can. It will be up to them to reconstruct the city they once called home in a more democratic way by allowing books to be part of the people’s lives. Although Montag might not have the resources he has the heart to at least try to reconstruct what was once a great city.

Guy Montag’s situation in Fahrenheit 451 is similar to a scene in The Roar, by Emma Clayton. In The Roar everyone in the world is forced to move into the northern third of the world behind a giant wall while the wealthiest people are allowed to stay in the remaining two thirds of the beautiful world. When a young boy realizes this, he tries to rally together as many children as he can to reclaim the world for everyone to enjoy. This is similar to Fahrenheit 451 because both characters try to regain, or rebuild the world the way they learned it had once been.

                Guy Montag is faced with the seemingly insurmountable problem of reconstructing the city.  He and his friends each use the lessons they have learned from the books they memorized to recreate a peaceful and democratic life for everyone in the city.

The Beast Ending

Authors Note: This piece is a prediction of the end The Beast, a short story we read in the Reading Lab.

     When Steven turns around he sees a gigantic beast even bigger and scarier than he expected. Wait he thought this isn't a beast it's just Chance. "There you are Chance!" Steven would shout. "I was looking all over for you. You scared me." Most story's that have cases like these end up not causing any trouble just a large misunderstanding, which would be the same case as with The Beast .

     I was very wrong with my prediction. I thought that he wasn't going to get hurt at all and Chance was the beast. But in the end Steven did get mauled by the beast.

Burning Up

Authours Note: This is a Character/Analysis piece on Guy Montag from Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

Burning Up

                        Guy Montag had always burned books. It was the only thing he knew how to do in his average life. Everyone around him expected firemen to burn books, until one day Montag met a young woman named Clarisse. While Montag talked with Clarisse he transformed as a man and decided to make a difference.

                In Fahrenheit 451 Guy first met Clarisse on the side of the street while heading home from work. He didn’t have a very good outlook on life because he felt controlled by the government. Clarisse questioned Guy about the role of firefighters in previous generations. Guy thought everything had always been the same as what he had experienced in his life. Firemen burning books and people with boring, lackadaisical lives with no motivation to make a difference were two things Montag witnessed as a firefighter. Clarisse motivated Guy to discover what books had to offer. However, when Clarisse suddenly dies and her family disappears, Guy is torn knowing he will no longer be able to share his perspective with Clarisse.

                On a normal night before Montag and his fellow firefighters begin to burn a house down, they ask a woman to leave her house. As a sign of her love and respect for books, the woman stays in her home while the fire rages. Montag wonders what could be so good about books that the woman would burn and die for them. While processing this thought, Guy removes a book from the woman’s house to take back home so he can discover the wonders of its contents. After arriving home, Guy’s wife, Mildred, discovered the book and attempted to throw it into the incinerator. Montag worked up the courage to reveal to his wife that he had many stolen books stored in the attic. Upon discovering this Mildred tries to throw the entire collection of books into the incinerator. Guy is then able to talk his wife out of burning the books and calms her down so they can read the books together. At this moment, Guy realized his life had changed dramatically because of his encounters with Clarisse.

                Montag’s development in Fahrenheit 451 reminded me of Luke Garner from Among the Hidden. In Among the Hidden, Luke lives in a world where parents are only allowed two children, but Luke is the third child of his family. He is forced to live inside his home so he is not detected by the government. After thinking he has seen another hidden child in an adjacent home, Luke decides to sneak out of his house. Luke meets the girl he saw hidden, and learns they must help rescue all third children hiding from the government. In the beginning of Among the Hidden, Luke was a scared, modest boy who did not believe his life could impact others. By the end of the book, Luke realizes he must help others and becomes a hero just like Guy.

                Guy Montag was a very dynamic character in Fahrenheit 451.  He started off as a man who had little motivation and direction, and later realized he had vital things to do with his life. Guy went on and accomplished many tasks he would not have been able to if he hadn’t met Clarisse, and developed throughout the book.

Casey's embarrassment

Authors Note: This is a analyzing of Casey from Casey at the Bat.    

  Casey will change because he tried to show off but he ended up getting shown up by the other team. He won't just let the ball go by in the future because it's not his style, he will do his best to hit the ball each and every time. He wants to earn the fans trust back by winning some games and proving that he is still Mudville's best player. This situation is like the book Life of Pi when Pi is lets his family down because he didn't save them from the boat. At the end of the story he wants to live for his parents and brother so he can prove that he's worth it.

Patriot's Pen Essay

Author's Note: This is a essay our writing class had to write about what we would say to the founding fathers.

Would you ever be willing to give up your life for other  people's freedom? Well the founding fathers of the United States of America did just that. They stood up to the British government and never stopped fighting for our country’s freedom. I respect them very much for that, but there are a few specific things that I would like to acknowledge.

If I had a chance to stop slavery what would I have done? This is one of the few things the founding fathers could have done much better. Once they won the Revolutionary War they should have invested their time and money into stopping slavery. Slavery is, in my opinion one of the worst things that occurred in the history of the world. Furthermore, because the founding fathers were unable to banish slavery in the United States it continued throughout the Civil War; but that is unacceptable. Slaves had been trying to stand up for themselves for hundreds of years. Although a small number of slaves were able to gain freedom, others were still enslaved because the owners did not care enough about them to accept them as human beings. Slavery was an issue that should have been resolved right from the start of the country’s establishment. Had this been addressed, perhaps the Civil War could have been prevented.

Although slavery was a terrible thing, the founding fathers did do some things very well such as fighting England in the Revolutionary War. The Red Coats were driven out of their own land by the colonists who fought tirelessly for to create a country of their own. The Constitution of the United States was officially signed on July 4^th, 1776. But given the opportunity, I would ask the founding fathers how they had the courage to unselfishly put their lives, and the lives of many others on the line for people they had never met. It would take so much courage to stand up for others’ freedom like that. Some people think about standing up to others, but only the true heroes follow through like our founding fathers did. In addition, the founding fathers fought along with many soldiers for our freedom. All soldiers knew they probably would not come out alive, but they desired for America to be free. For that, I would tell the founding fathers I am amazed of their leadership and knowledge of the situation. They controlled the war very well and were able to defeat the British in order form a new country.

The founding fathers were able to establish a prominent country after the victory of the Revolutionary War. They launched a strong government from the start. Additionally, the country elected George Washington as the very first president of the United States after the signing of the Constitution. The country thrived under Washington; it was able to get off to an astounding start. There were many great cities and villages established during the first half century of the U.S. They flourished because of their independence from England. I feel Washington was the best president a country could ask for.

Washington and the other founding fathers were able to govern a new country that was ecstatic to have their freedom. I applaud them for being able to take on such immense work.

Pi Patel's Journey

Author's Note: This is a cause and effect piece on the book Life of Pi by Yann Martel. There will also be an analyzing of the climax. Spoiler alert!!!

     The climax of the story was when Pi Patel's cargo ship began to sink. The Tsimtsu sank because of a giant storm in the Pacific ocean. The storm rattled the boat and made a gaping hole in the side of it. As the ship began to sink Pi should have made a greater effort to reach his family. If he would've been able to retrieve them he might have been able to live a much better life afterward. Additionally even if he was on the ship without his family he should have made a greater effort to find the captain to ask him what was going on.
     If the Tsimtsu had not sank then the story would've been extremely different. Pi Patel and his family would've landed in Canada and had a pleasant life with the animals. In addition Pi wouldn't have had that terrible journey through the Pacific Ocean while having some very disturbing experiences.

Alex Rider's Revenge

Authors Note: This is a piece on Conflict and Resolution in Alex Rider Stormbreaker. Also spoiler alert.

     In the book Stormbreaker a young boy named Alex has lost his parents, he lives with his uncle and his housekeeper Jack. But then his uncle is mysteriously killed. He is facing a person vs person situation in this book. The conflict Alex faces is finding out how to find his parents. Alex eventually realizes that he must work for MI6 to solve the problem. He then has to work for them on a mission and he learns that a evil man killed his uncle and he also killed his parents.
     If Alex would not have accepted the invitation he might not have learned about his parents and uncle. He also would not have been a hero to all of England. Alex Rider should be happy that he was able to work with MI6.

Her 16th

Authors Note: This is a personal narrative of the time my sister received a car for her sixteenth birthday.

Her 16^th

When I arose on April 16^th I suddenly realized that it was my sister Jennifer’s 16^th birthday. We were giving her a car for her birthday. My parents were afraid that she knew she was getting a car. She had been looking and showing us cars that she wanted but then after a while she stopped looking.

After I got dressed my assignment was to wake Jennifer up, and bring her downstairs. It may sound easy but  trust me it isn’t easy waking up a drowsy 16 year old even if it’s her birthday. I snuck into her room and nudged her gently… nothing. Then I tried shaking her a little… still nothing. Finally I shook her violently and the response I got was a quiet and muffled “What?”

“You know what!” I exclaimed. “It’s your 16^th birthday; you should be excited.”

“I’d be excited if you would let me sleep,” she retorted sarcastically.

“Come on, please just come down stairs and open your presents?” I requested.

“Fine.” She countered, as she rolled her eyes at me.

So I got her to get out of bed and get dressed. She then followed me downstairs and discovered the presents on the table. I told her that we had to go into the garage for her present and then her face lit up. I slowly pulled open the door and my mom and dad yelled “SURPRISE!”

“Oh my gosh! I can’t believe it!” she cried. “You got me a car! Thank you so much.”

“You are very welcome, did you suspect that you were receiving a car?” My dad questioned.

“No, I had lost all hope.” She answered ironically.

“Good, I was afraid that you knew you were getting one because you stopped looking online for cars.” He said.

My mom all the while was just standing there smiling. “You’re lucky you have such a loving father.” She explained.

“I know.” She understood. “He is a very nice father.”

She took my dad and I for a ride around our neighborhood. Although it wasn’t a great new car she liked her used car from 1999. She was very enthused about her it. Also, I was glad that I got to play a role in presenting it to her. I hope that she will remember that moment forever.

Retelling

Author's note: This is a retelling summary about the book "The Roar". It's purpose is to retell the main points.

     On a futuristic Earth children are raised in crammed and boarded up apartments, and they don't get much of anything to live on, so they must scrap together as much happiness as they can. A young boy has lost his sister and is determined to find her. He discovers that she is in space he knows that he will have to go through the cruel government to get to his sister back.

Quote

Author's Note: This is a quote that I had to right a little response to.

"It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end." -Leonardo Da Vinci

     This quote means that if you have bad habits you must change them earlier rather than later. If you have a bad habit when you are 10 it's much easier to change when its just getting started rather than when you have been doing it for 20 or so years. Also this quote means that if you don’t like how the course of your life looks you better change it as early as possible because if you want to change your life at the age of 30 it'll be much harder than changing at 15.

     I strongly agree with this quote because it states that it's easier to resist at the beginning that at the end. That’s true because, if you ask two people with the same amount of will power to quit smoking. If one of them has been smoking for 1 month and the other has been smoking for years. It'll be much easier to stop after a month than a few years.

     Additionally this quote reminds me of the DARE class that everyone took in 5th grade because the officer that taught the class always told us to never start bad habits. He explained that bad habits are difficult to stop. Although it is easier to stop earlier rather than later.

Jack Gohlke